HISTORY OF THE CORSET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 81, 1 May 1909, Page 3

HISTORY OF THE CORSET.

ORIGIN IX Till-: CLASSIC PERIOD. The history of the corset is the subject of an article in a late number of "The Lady." The writer traces the corset back into the mists of dim antiquity, and declares that those who say that the women of classic times did not wear corsets do not know what they are talking about. The following arc some extracts from the article:—

"Tile history or the corset falls naturally into five periods. The first is that of'antiquity, when the women of Greece and Home wore under their dresses bandages, or supports, known as 'fasciae.'

"The second period takes in tiro greater part of the Middle Ages.. it | was a period of transition, during which the 'fasciae' of the ancients 'were gradually discarded, and the light-fitting bodice of the third period was tentatively adopted. •'This third period, embracing the close of the .Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, was marked by the general adoption of dresses with bodices stiffened with wood, and even 1 with iron—bodices wlliich .supplied the i place 01 corsets. "The fourth period, extending from the middle of the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth, sees the ri»e of whalebone.

"The fifth period is that of the modern corset. From the days of the French Revolution until now the ingenuity of the corset-milker has been devoted to the discovery of the' ideal corset, one that shall support the figure without constraining it, that shall b e firm and supple at tl'e same time."