and body of the late 1870’s and early 1880’s came great variety and demands for more inventions and contrivances in corsetry. (1884 corset patent, just one of many developed at this time)
Category: Fashion History Blog
At the same time demand grew in the early 1880’s,
ladies’ magazines started to give more details and illustrations of the specific details of dress and undergarments. Advertisements for mass produced corsets, previously very rare, became abundant. (1880 page from a catalog selling mass produced corsets)
In the 1880’s, the corset industry was
at its peak production and profitability in history, and corset companies in America and Europe flourished. (The corset industry flourished worldwide, thanks to intensive marketing, mass production, and catalog sales)
Every woman had to wear a corset in the 1870s and 1880s,
and it was nearly impossible to get the shape out of a homemade corset. This meant they had to buy them ready or hand made from someone who specialized in these new, specific, and conforming corsets. (Many variations were mass produced and commercially available by the 1880’s, making home sewn …
By the end of the 1870’s, the corset was at its
greatest function it had ever been and would ever be, as it now took on the role of shaping the body from top to bottom. Previous versions focused only on the waist, or bust, or in shaping and slimming. This new one was intent on forming the body. (Photos: 1879 …
Some women still wore the shorter 1860’s style of corset
until well into the early 1880’s for sport, work, or rural situations where function exceeded the desire to be fashionable. One could bend and sit in the 1860’s corset, but not so with the new end of 1870’s long conforming style. (Corset patent sketches 1866 and 1878 – by outward …
The 1860’s shorter cinching corset remained in style until
about 1875 when it elongated and focused on pulling in the tummy since the front of the skirts were become flatter and more conforming to the stomach and hips. (Extant: 1869 and 1875 corsets)
Through all the changes in back padding, bustles,
and draping over the rear end in the 1870’s however, the focus of fashion, and the visual silhouette remained pinpointed on the waist. (1878 extant corset and the shape it made shown in a real photo from 1878)
Suddenly, in about 1878,
the bustles were discarded for a time. (The fashion of 1878 had the fullness in back made from draping and fabric rather than a structure for a short, approximate 3 year period)
As 1876 progressed,
metal and wire contraptions replaced the pads. (Extant: 1876 approx wired bustle)