THE CORSET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1940, Page 8

THE CORSET

FASHION OF 19th CENTURY. In 1850, corsets caused bulges high in front and lower in the back. Fashion designers were so keen on the "hills and hollows" effect that they emphasised it with the wire and padding of a bustle. Women must have liked it, however, for comparatively few adopted the revolutionary bloomer costume introduced in America and England by Mrs Amelia Bloomer. In the early 90's you could do without a bustle; tight lacing produced the bustle back effect, anyway. In 1908, the sheath gown made its debut. Police had to protect the wearer of this revealing type of dress on its first appearance in Chicago from more modest women who considered that the wearer had outraged decency. Of course, the cave woman ignored fashion altogether. It was the cave man who improved on nature by dressing up. He daubed his body with coloured earth, and added feathers, shells and skins for adornment. Then one day he handed some of his discarded trimmings to his mate, and that started the feminine fashion contest. Soon man dropped out of the race and left the honours entirely to his mate. Now, when the husband protests that she’s made the fashion pace too hot, there’s always the retort obvious, “Then I’ll go permanently into slacks.” Emphatic male protest provides a propitious moment to ask for the price of a new piece of frippery. Maybe, though, the war will eventually change even that —and slack suits it will be.