Identifier: welldressedwoma00ecob (find matches)
Title: The well-dressed woman: a study in the practical application to dress of the laws of health, art, and morals
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Ecob, Helen Gilbert
Subjects: Women's clothing Women
Publisher: New York, Fowler & Wells Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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the corset. Itis peculiarly significant that Catherine de Mediciintroduced this form of lacing into France. Atthat time a thirteen-inch waist measurement wasthe standard required by fashion. No woman wasconsidered the proper figure whose waist could notbe spanned by the two hands. To produce thisresult a strong, rigid corset was worn day andnight until the waist was laced down to the re-quired size. Over this corset was placed a steelapparatus which reached from hip to throat (Fig.38). Bulwer called the corset of Catherine deMedici the whalebone prison (Fig. 39). The portrait of Henry III., son of Catherine deMedici, shows that tight-lacing was practised bymen (Fig. 40). The history of France in the days which pre-ceded and followed the French Be volution is mir-rored in the dress of these times. Those who up- 102 THE WELL-DRESSED WOMAN. hold the corset argue its morality because the onlyperiod in which its general use appears to havebeen discontinued are the few years which irnmedi-
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Fig. 38.—Steel Apparatus. ately followed the French Revolution, when thegeneral licentiousness of manners and morals wasaccompanied by a corresponding indecency indress. Such a statement is a misrepresentation THE PEDIGREE OF THE CORSET. 103 of history. The French Revolution grew out ofthe selfishness and extravagance of the privilegedclasses. There had been years of wanton splendorin her palaces, and the price was an impoverishedand discontented people. Among the frivolities of

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