THE CORSET AND THE CRINOLINE.
A BOOK OF
MODES AND COSTUMES
FROM REMOTE PERIODS TO THE PRESENT TIME.
By W. B. L.
WITH 54 FULL-PAGE AND OTHER ENGRAVINGS.
Fair Annie of Lochroyan.
LONDON:
WARD, LOCK, AND TYLER.
WARWICK HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
LONDON
PRINTED BY JAS. WADE,
TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
The subject which we have here treated is a sort of figurativebattle-field, where fierce contests have for ages been from timeto time waged; and, notwithstanding the determined assaults of theattacking hosts, the contention and its cause remain pretty much asthey were at the commencement of the war. We in the matter remainstrictly neutral, merely performing the part of the public's "owncorrespondent," making it our duty to gather together such extractsfrom despatches, both ancient and modern, as may prove interesting orimportant, to take note of the vicissitudes of war, mark its variousphases, and, in fine, to do our best to lay clearly before our readersthe historical facts—experiences and arguments—relating to themuch-discussed "Corset question."
As most of our readers are aware, the leading journals especiallyintended for the perusal of ladies have been for many years the mediafor the exchange of a vast number of letters and papers touching theuse of the Corset. The questions relating to the history of thisapparently indispensable article of ladies' attire, its construction,application, and influence on the figure have become so numerous oflate that we have thought, by embodying all that we can glean andgarner relating to Corsets, their wearers, and the various costumesworn by ladies at different periods, arranging the subject-matter inits due order as to dates, and at the same time availing ourselves ofcareful illustration when needed, that an interesting volume wouldresult.
No one, we apprehend, would be likely to deny that, to enable thefairer portion of the civilised human race to follow the time-honouredcustom of presenting to the eye the waist in its most slenderproportions, the Corset in some form must be had recourse to. Ourinformation will show how ancient and almost universal its use hasbeen, and there is no reason to anticipate that its aid will everbe dispensed with so long as an elegant and attractive figure is anobject worth achieving.
Such being the case, it becomes a matter of considerable importanceto discover by what means the desirable end can be acquired withoutinjury to the health of those whose forms are being restrained andmoulded into proportions generally accepted as graceful, by theuse and influence of the Corset. It will be our duty to lay beforethe reader the strictures of authors, ancient and modern, on thisarticle of dress, and it will be seen that the animadversions offormer writers greatly exceed modern censures, both in number andfierceness of condemnation. This difference probably arises fromthe fact