Most corsets of the 1860’s were made of 100% cotton coutil and ALWAYS

lined in white cotton.  Coutil was a special, very densely woven fabric that had little to no stretch in any direction.  It is still the preferred fabric for today’s corset construction and is very expensive in the US has there are few sources for it.  Companies in Canada and the UK still produce cotton coutil, while many of the synthetic blends come from China or other Asian countries.

(Left: quality imported to the US cotton coutil; Right: cheap synthetic polyester brocade couteil or coutil used in modern non-historical corsets.  The difference is that the cotton is very strong, and the fabric “breathes” for maximum comfort.

Be sure to ask your corsetier the fiber content of the fabric if you are going to wear your corset regularly.  Silhouettes uses only the very finest, high quality 100% natural fibers in building our corsets with NO plastic boning like this cheap and poorly boned interpretation of an 1860’s corset by our competitor.  A custom made corset with 100% cotton coutil fabric, fully lined will cost more, but you will get what you pay for).