32 Corsetry

A corset is a support garment commonly worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes, or support the breasts. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for many years an integral part of women's wardrobes.

A basque is an item of women's clothing. The term, of French origin, originally referred to types of bodice or jacket with long tails, and in later usage a long corset, characterized by a close, contoured fit and extending past the waistline over the hips. It is so called because the original French fashion for long women's jackets was adopted from Basque traditional dress. In contemporary usage it refers only to a long item of lingerie, in effect a brassiere that continues down, stopping around the waist or the top of the hips, the lower part essentially decorative rather than providing support or indeed warmth.

A busk is a rigid element of a corset at the centre front of the garment. Two types exist, one- and two-part busks.

Roxey Ann Caplin was a British writer and inventor.

Circassian beauty or Adyghe beauty is a stereotype and a belief referring to the women of the Circassian people. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were thought to be unusually beautiful and attractive, spirited, smart and elegant, and as such were desirable. A similar yet smaller literature also exists for Circassian men, who were thought to be especially tall and handsome.

In female clothing, a corselet or corselette is a type of foundation garment, sharing elements of both bras and girdles. It extends from straps over the shoulders down the torso, and stops around the top of the legs. It may incorporate lace in front or in back. As an undergarment, a corselet can be open-style or panty-style.

The corset controversy concerns supporters' and detractors' arguments for and against wearing a corset. The controversy was contemporary with the time that corsets were popular in society. Corsets, variously called a pair of bodys or stays, were worn by European women from the late 16th century onward, changing their form as fashions changed. In spite of radical change to fashion geographically and temporally, the corset or some derivative beneath an outer gown shaped the body or provided structure.

A corsetmaker is a specialist tailor who makes corsets. Corsetmakers are frequently known by the French equivalent terms corsetier (male) and corsetière (female). Stay-maker is an obsolete name for a corsetmaker.

Coutil is a ticking-woven clothe used to make corsets, table covers, mattresses, tents, and other types of resistant garments.

A foundation garment is an undergarment designed to impermanently alter the wearer's body shape, to achieve what some view as a more fashionable figure. The function of a foundation garment is not to enhance a bodily feature but to make it look more presentable.

Ignacio Mariano Martinez de Galinsoga was the physician to the Spanish Queen consort Maria Luisa of Parma, director of the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, and a member of the Spanish Real Academia Nacional de Medicina. The botanical genus Galinsoga is named after him, while a street in Vélez Rubio (Almería) commemorates him.

The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States. The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls".

A belt, especially if a cord or rope, is called a girdle if it is worn as part of Christian liturgical vestments, or in certain historical, literary or sports contexts.

The corset has been an indispensable supportive undergarment for women, in Europe for several centuries, evolving as fashion trends have changed and being known, depending on era and geography, as bodies, stays and corsets. The appearance of the garment represented a change from people wearing clothes to fit their bodies to changing the shape of their bodies to fit their fashionable clothing.

An hourglass corset is a garment that produces a silhouette resembling an hourglass shape characterized by wide hips, narrow waist, and wide bust.

An infant's binder is a form of corset for infants. Infant's binders were introduced in the 19th century, after swaddling had become unpopular due to the rise of Napoleon, and were in several forms, shapes, and materials in use until well into the twentieth century. Some say the binder was used to obtain a proper posture, others see it as a preparation for later proper corset wearing, or as a way to diminish the baby's restlessness. By tightening the infant's binder the care giver could lower the yell and squall from the baby by crushing its airways. The Hawaiian Filipino has used this traditional practice, Latin and English cultures since the early 1800s.

The Kraus Corset Factory is a historic industrial property at 33 Roosevelt Drive in Derby, Connecticut. The oldest portion of the large brick, built 1879, faces Third Street, while a c. 1910 addition extends along Roosevelt Drive. It is the only major building to survive from Derby's period of corset manufacturing. It was built by Sidney Downs, one of Derby's leading businessmen of the period. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1987. It has been converted into apartments.

Metal corsets are a type of historical corset or bodice made entirely out of metal, usually iron or steel. The metal corset was popularly claimed to have been introduced to France by Catherine de' Medici in the 16th century, although this is now considered a myth. The idea that such garments were worn for fashionable purposes is debatable, with fashion historians now regarding such claims sceptically. Many of the original metal bodices that have survived are now believed to have been intended for medical purposes as orthopaedic support garments and back braces. Such garments were described by the French army surgeon Ambroise Paré in the 16th century as a remedy for the "crookednesse of the Bodie."

Rigby & Peller is a British luxury lingerie brand and retailer. The company was founded in 1939 by Gita Peller, a Jewish Hungarian refugee who settled in London, and Bertha Rigby, an English corsetière, with a shop in South Molton Street in London's West End. As of 2011, they had seven stores as well as a website.

The Royal Worcester Corset Company, was founded as The Worcester Skirt Company by David Hale Fanning in 1861 in Worcester, MA, and first specialized in making hoop skirts. In 1872 the company changed its name to the Worcester Corset Co., to reflect its change of direction from hoop skirts to torso shaping. The company changed its name again in 1901, to the Royal Worcester Corset Company. In 1949 the company dropped the word 'corset' from its name and became known as the Royal Worcester Company, in response to falling interest in corsets. The company had by then switched production away from corsets to girdles.

Johann Gottfried Spiesshofer was a German industrialist and pioneer of the undergarment industry. The son of a weaver, he was known for his outstanding expertise in weaving techniques. Together with merchant Michael Braun he established the corsetry manufacturer "Spiesshofer & Braun" in Heubach (Württemberg) in 1886. From 1902 onwards the company traded under the name "Triumph" as this was considered a more memorable brand name. Having started off with six sewing machines and six employees in a barn, the company had annual sales of 1.7 billion Euros in 2009, and 37,515 employees. Still family owned, by now the multinational manufacturing and marketing organization operates in 120 countries around the globe. It is one of the leading underwear companies in the world and sells its product primarily under the core brands Triumph® and sloggi®.

The name Spirella refers to the Spirella Stay which was invented by Marcus Merritt Beeman in the US in 1904 and made from tightly twisted and flattened coils of wire. The founders were Beeman, William Wallace Kincaid and Jesse Homan Pardee.

The spoon busk was a specialised kind of busk—the rigid element of a corset placed at the centre front. As its name implies, it was shaped like a spoon, with the bottom part of the busk widening and taking a dished form. It was invented in 1879 by Joseph Beckel of New York City.

The Strouse, Adler Company Corset Factory is a historic factory complex at 78-84 Olive Street in New Haven, Connecticut. Developed between 1876 and 1923, it was the largest and oldest of the city's several corset manufacturers, and remained in continuous operation for that purpose until 1998. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It has since been converted into residential use.

Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. Swaddling fell out of favor in the 17th century.

Tightlacing is the practice of wearing a tightly-laced corset. It is done to achieve cosmetic modifications to the figure and posture or to experience the sensation of bodily restriction.

A waist cincher is a belt worn around the waist to make the wearer's waist physically smaller, or to create the illusion of being smaller.

Wasp Waist is a women's fashion silhouette, produced by a style of corset and girdle, that has experienced various periods of popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its primary feature is the abrupt transition from a natural-width rib cage to an exceedingly small waist, with the hips curving out below. It takes its name from its similarity to a wasp's segmented body. The sharply cinched waistline also exaggerates the hips and bust.

The Worcester Corset Company Factory is an historic factory building at 30 Wyman Street in Worcester, Massachusetts in the Main South neighborhood. The oldest part of the factory was built in 1895, with expansion of the facilities taking place up to 1909. The buildings were designed by Arthur F. Gray for the Worcester Corset Company, whose origins date to an 1861 business by David Hale Fanning making hoops for skirts, but shifted to manufacturing corsets after fashions changed. Fanning's business was immensely successful, and he became one of Worcester's larger employers. At one point it employed over 2000 women. After the Corset Company folded in 1940, the facility was used to manufacture military-style boots. The factory is now an apartment complex.