Corsets in one form or another have existed since biblical times.
About the Author: Author of Dover\'s 60 Civil War Era Fashion Patterns, Kristina (Harris) Seleshanko has written 16 books and scores of articles for publications such as Woman\'s Day, Victorian Decorating and Lifestyle, and Sew News..
Costumers, designers, and fashion historians will find this volume a valuable source of information and inspiration.
Abundant illustrations include line drawings, photographs, and patterns from a diversity of sources, such as clothing catalogs, newspaper advertisements, and magazine articles.
This revealing History of corsetry ranges from the 19th through the mid-20th centuries, showing how simple laced bodices developed into Corsets of cane, whalebone, and steel -- many of them painfully constricting.
Until they were supplanted by diet and exercise, Corsets offered the customary means of obtaining the currently popular shape: the rigidly flat torso and raised bosom of the seventeenth century; the eighteenth century\'s shoulders-back, flat-stomached, high-busted look; or the hourglass figure of the 19th century.
These foundation garments altered more than the figure -- their restrictions affected the wearer\'s behavior as well as impressions of her character.
By the 19th century, they were so firmly entrenched in feminine life that it seemed impossible to live without them.
Corsets in one form or another have existed since biblical times
