The cut of the corset itself is really very impressive from an engineering
standpoint. I taught myself how to create patterns for them by looking at
the originals, and _had_ to figure out the purpose of each piece and
feature.
First, the difference in stance and silhouette is not just an artifact of
the way the women held themselves--though that certainly has something to do
with it. Rather, it is engineered right into the corset itself. Picture
this: stand up, and ignoring your hips and bust, stick your navel as far
forward as you can. This causes several things to happen to the rest of
your body: your back waist curve is emphasized as much as possible, the
bottom of your ribcage goes up and forward, your shoulders automatically go
back, and your hips angle a bit as though you were bending forward slightly.
This is the origin of the straight-front pose, and this is exactly what the
corset is engineered to create... by the simple expedient of forcing your
navel into the leading position.
Now picture a cross-section of your waist. Mentally divide it into a front
quarter, a back quarter, a left side quarter, and a right side quarter.
Whereas the earlier Victorian corsets compressed the waist almost all the
way around, the straight-front corset is designed so that almost all of the
waist compression happens in those two side quarters. This creates an
optical illusion; viewed from the front, the waist seems extremely small,
because there's a much more noticeable corve inwards on the sides. And even
though the waist is thicker when viewed from the side than it would be in a
Victorian corset, the exaggerated back curve fools the eye into seeing a
smaller waist.
The cut of the corset is what causes all this to happen. Whereas a Victorian
corset has basically vertical panels, the Edwardian is designed more like
this:
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/corsfronta.gif
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/corsbacka.gif
with an upside-down triangle wrapping across the front with the top two
points meeting and overlapping in the back, and a right-side-up triangle
across the back with the bottom two points wrapping around to meet at the
front. You can follow the path of the pressure and compression brought to
bear by the back lacing by following the diagonal line formed where the two
triangular sections meet. Pressure above the waist at the back helps force
the navel and lower ribcage forward ; along the sides, the pressure
compresses the waist; at the front, it keeps the lower abdomen from
billowing out. The rest of the corset exists to anchor this vital
pressure/compression line.
Let's take these very typical mid-decade corsets as an example:
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/cb1905.gif
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/CBalaS2.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/Royal_Worchester_corsets.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/CBalaS1.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/ebay03373.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/ebay06440.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/CorsetPix.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/Thomsons_deep_hip.gif
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/ad115.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/ebay01433.jpg
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/rwbt01.jpg
The "triangle effect" along with the diagonal pressure line it creates from
top back to bottom front is immediately visible, and is echoed in the
diagonal pattern pieces that follow this line. The number of these pieces
varies, and on some examples they're completely missing, but a seam is still
visible along this line. It is this diagonal seam that provides enough
strength to handle the pressure being brought to bear; the more seams you
see there, the more compression the corset is able to provide.
The rest of the corset is cut to accomodate that imoprtant diagonal line.
Triangular gores, apart from being downright necessary once you have that
diagonal line to maintain, allow the hip area to flare from the waist
dramatically yet curvaceously. The shape of the triangular gores at the
bust need be tweaked only slightly to create any of several bust shapes. In
the earliest versions, additional bust gores were added to allow for a
lifted and separated bust; in middle and later versions, these extra gores
made room for larger busts on dowager (stout older lady) corsets. However,
throughout most of the period, the gores were actually used to remove
support from the bust rather than add to it--after all, a low bust was The
Look. While earlier examples showed it was clearly possible to cut the bust
of the corset for support, the most typical Edwardian corsets merely flared
out a bit to provide space into which the bust could sag down.
Though the cut did much to create the overall effect of the corset, certain
other elements existed to enforce it. The boning, far from following the
lines of the seams, was almost always vertical, for two main reasons: first,
vertical placement keeps the bones from twisting as they follow the corset's
curves, and second, vertical boning causes pressure to be distributed
horizontally. Wherever that all-important diagonal pressure line crosses
vertical boning, the two pressure zones combine, to increase the area that
the diagonal pressure line can affect. In other words, instead of a line of
pressure the width of a single seam, you now have a line of pressure several
inches wide. (Away from that diagonal pressure line, the boning mostly just
exists to keep the garment smooth.) Along the same lines as the horizontal
pressure distribution of the boning, internal waist bands were also added to
many corsets. Stretching from the upper back waist to the lower abdomen,
they were still rather diagonal, but much closer to the horizontal; they
were along the same general line as the waist band of the garments actually
being worn with the straight-front corset.
Whereas the earlier exaggerations in form created by the corset style were
mostly exaggerated in illustration only:
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/rwbt01.jpg corsetmakers soon learned how
much could be done with this diagonal pressure line, and the later
exaggerations were exaggerations in the actual corseted form:
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/8994df8c.jpg . When this exaggeration
reached its peak near the end of the decade, the return to straighter lines
was founded on the straighter lines of the corset itself: the corsets were
once again cut on the old vertical-panel principle.
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/corset1111.jpg
Though diagonal lines still made a part of the pattern, they were no longer
used to create a diagonal pressure line.
You may notice that I've gone this far without really discussing the actual
straight-front part itself much. This is because--though a vital part of
the corset--it's actually a very SMALL part of the corset. Take a look at
this ad:
http://www.formfunction.org/temp/CBalaS3.jpg and you'll see,
semi-intentionally illustrated, the portion of the front of the corset that
is actually straight. That narrow triangle with its top point between the
bust, and the base over the abdomen, split in to by the busk? (Looks like
and occasionally actually is a flattened spoon busk, as a matter of fact.)
Spread the base an inch or so wider, and THAT is the only area of the corset
that is actually a straight front! That's the part that should be flat and
straight and in no way curvaceous in an Edwardian straight-front corset.
Everything else curves.
-E House
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