As most of our readers are aware, the leading journals especially intended for the perusal of ladies have been for many years the media for the exchange of a vast number of letters and papers touching the use of the Corset. The questions relating to the history of this apparently indispensable article of ladies' attire, its construction, application, and influence on the figure have become so numerous of late that we have thought, by embodying all that we can glean and garner relating to Corsets, their wearers, and the various costumes worn by ladies at different periods, arranging the subject-matter in its due order as to dates, and at the same time availing ourselves of careful illustration when needed, that an interesting volume would result.

No one, we apprehend, would be likely to deny that, to enable the fairer portion of the civilised human race to follow the time-honoured custom of presenting to the eye the waist in its most slender proportions, the Corset in some form must be had recourse to. Our information will show how ancient and almost universal its use has been, and there is no reason to anticipate that its aid will ever be dispensed with so long as an elegant and attractive figure is an object worth achieving.

Such being the case, it becomes a matter of considerable importance to discover by what means the desirable end can be acquired without injury to the health of those whose forms are being restrained and moulded into proportions generally accepted as graceful, by the use and influence of the Corset. It will be our duty to lay before the reader the strictures of authors, ancient and modern, on this article of dress, and it will be seen that the animadversions of former writers greatly exceed modern censures, both in number and fierceness of condemnation. This difference probably arises from the fact of Corsets of the most unyielding and stubborn character being universally made use of at the time the severest attacks were made upon them; and there can be no reasonable doubt that much which was written in their condemnation had some truth in it, although accompanied by a vast deal of fanciful exaggeration. It would also be not stating the whole of the case if we omitted here to note that modern authors, who launch sweeping anathemas on the very stays by the aid of which their wives and daughters are made presentable in society, almost invariably quote largely from scribes of ancient date, and say little or nothing, of their own knowledge. On the other hand, it will be seen that those writing in praise of the moderate use of Corsets take their facts, experiences, and grounds of argument from the every-day life and general custom of the present period.

The Crinoline is too closely associated with the Corset and with the mutable modes affected by ladies, from season to season, to be omitted from any volume which treats of Fashion. The same facts, indeed, may be stated of both the Crinoline and the Corset. Both appear to be equally indispensable to the woman of the present period. To make them serve the purposes of increased cleanliness, comfort, and grace, not only without injury to the health, but with positive and admitted advantage to the physique—these are the problems to be solved by those whose business it is to minister to the ever-changing taste and fashion of the day.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
The Corset:—Origin. Use amongst Savage Tribes and Ancient People. Slenderness of Waist esteemed in the East, Ceylon, Circassia, Crim Tartary, Hindustan, Persia, China, Egypt, Palestine[Pages 9 to 29]
CHAPTER II.
The Corset according to Homer, Terentius. The Strophium of Rome, and the Mitra of Greece. The Peplus. A Roman Toilet, Bath, and Promenade. General Luxury. Cleopatra's Jewels. Tight-lacing on the Tiber[Pages 30 to 38]
CHAPTER III.
Frankish Fashions. The Monks and the Corset. Corsets worn by Gentlemen as well as Ladies in the Thirteenth Century. The Kirtle. Small Waists in Scotland. Chaucer on Small Bodies. The Surcoat. Long Trains. Skirts. Snake-toed Shoes. High-heeled Slippers[Pages 41 to 59]
CHAPTER IV.
Bonnets. Headdresses. Costumes in the time of Francis I. Pins in France and England. Masks in France. Puffed Sleeves. Bernaise Dress. Marie Stuart. Long Slender Waists. Henry III. of France "tight-laces." Austrian Joseph prohibits Stays. Catherine de Medici and Elizabeth of England. Severe form of Corset. Lawn Ruffs. Starching. Stuffed Hose. Venice Fashions. Elizabeth's False Hair. Stubs on the Ladies. James I. affects Fashion. Garters and Shoe-roses. Dagger and Rapier[Pages 60 to 91]
CHAPTER V.
Louise de Lorraine. Marie de Medici. Distended Skirts. Hair Powder. Hair à l'enfant. Low Dresses. Louis XIV. High Heels. Slender Waists. Siamese Dress. Charles I. Patches. Elaborate Costumes. Puritan Modes. Tight-lacing and Strait-lacing under Cromwell. Augsburg Ladies[Pages 92 to 104]
CHAPTER VI.
Louis XV. À la Watteau. Barbers. Fashions under Queen Anne. Diminutive Waists and Enormous Hoop. The Farthingale. The Guardian. Fashions in 1713. Low Dresses. Tight Stays. Short Skirts. A Lady's Maid's Accomplishments. Gay and Ben Jonson on the Bodice and Stays[Pages 109 to 123]
CHAPTER VII.
Stays or Corset. Louis XVI. Dress in 1776. Severe Lacing. Hogarth. French Revolution. Short Waists. Long Trains. Buchan. Jumpers and Garibaldis. Figure-training. Back-boards and Stocks. Doctors on Stays. George III. Gentlemen's Stays. The Changes of Fashion. The term Crinoline not new. South Sea Islanders. Madame la Sante on Crinoline. Starving and Lacing. Anecdote. Wearing the Corset during sleep. American Belles. Illusion Waists. Medicus favours moderate tight-lacing. Ladies' Letters on tight-lacing[Pages 124 to 164]
CHAPTER VIII.
The Austrian Empress. Viennese Waists. London small-sized Corsets. Correspondence of The Queen and the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine. Lady Morton. Figure-training. Corsets for Young Girls. Early use of well-constructed Corsets. The Boarding-School and the Corset. Letters in praise of tight-lacing. Defence of the Crinoline and the Corset. The Venus de Medici. Fashionably-dressed Statue. Clumsy Figures. Letter from a Tight-lacer. A Young Baronet. A Family Man[Pages 165 to 186]
CHAPTER IX.
No elegance without the Corset. Fashion of 1865. Short Waist and Train of 1867. Tight Corset and Short Waist. A form of French Corset. Proportions of Figure and Waist. The Point of the Waist. Older Writers on Stays. Denunciations against Small Waists and High Heels. Alarming Diseases through High Heels. Female Mortality. Corset Statistics. Modern and Ancient Corset[Pages 189 to 201]
CHAPTER X.
Front-fastening Stays. Thomson's Corset. Stability of front-fastening Corset. De La Garde's Corset. Self-measurement. Viennese Redresseur Corset. Flimsy Corsets. Proper Materials. "Minet Back" Corset. Elastic Corsets. Narrow Bands Injurious. The Corset properly applied produces a graceful figure. The Farthingale Reviewed. Thomson's Zephyrina Crinoline. Costume of the Present Season. The claims of Nature. Similitude between the Tahitian Girl and Venetian Lady[Pages 202 to 224]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
1.The Dawn of the Corset[11]
2.Circassian Lady[15]
3.Egyptian Lady in Full Skirt[18]
4.Persian Dancing Girl[21]
5.Egyptian Lady in Narrow Skirt[24]
6.Lady of Ancient Greece[32]
7.Roman Lady of Rank (Reign of Heliogabalus)[39]
8.The Fiend of Fashion, from an Ancient Manuscript[43]
9.The Princess Blanche, Daughter of Edward III.[48]
10.Lady of Rank of the Thirteenth Century[51]
11.Lady of the Court of Queen Catherine de Medici[55]
12.Full Court Dress as worn in France, 1515[58]
13.Ladies of Fashion in the Costume of 1380[61]
14.Norman Headdress of the Present Day[64]
15.Lady of the Court of Charles VIII., 1500[67]
16.Lady of the Court of Maximilian of Germany and Francis of France[70]
17.Corset-Cover of Steel worn in the Time of Catherine de Medici[71]
18.Corset-Cover of Steel worn in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Open)[72]
19.The Bernaise Headdress, and Costume of Marie Stuart[74]
20.Corset-Cover of Steel worn in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Closed)[76]
21.Henry III. of France and the Princess Margaret of Lorraine[77]
22.Lady of the Court of Queen Elizabeth[80]
23.A Venetian Lady of Fashion, 1560[83]
24.Queen Elizabeth[86]
25.Court Dress during the Boyhood of Louis XIII.[93]
26.Marie de Medici[96]
27.Fancy Costumes of the Time of Louis XIV.[99]
28.Siamese Dress worn at the Court of Louis XIV.[102]
29.Young English Lady of Fashion, 1653[105]
30.Fancy Dress worn in the Reign of Louis XV.[108]
31.Costumes after Watteau[111]
32.Crinoline in 1713[114]
33.Low Bodies and Curtailed Crinoline[117]
34.Court Dress of the Reign of Louis XVI.[125]
35.Classic Costume of the French Revolutionary Period[128]
36.Lady of Fashion, 1806[131]
37.Fashionable Dress in 1824[139]
38.Lady of Fashion, 1827[142]
39.Lady of Fashion, 1830[145]
40.Lady of Fashion, 1837[148]
41.The Crinoline of a South Sea Islander[151]
42.The Fashion of 1865[188]
43.The Fashion of 1867[191]
44.Corset, forming both Corset and Stomacher (Front)[197]
45.Corset, forming both Corset and Stomacher (Back)[200]
46.Common Cheap Stay, Fastened[202]
47.Common Cheap Stay, Open[203]
48.The Glove-Fitting Corset (Thomson and Co.)[204]
49.Corset of Messrs. De La Garde, Paris (Front)[205]
50.Corset of Messrs. De La Garde, Paris (Back)[208]
51.The Redresseur Corset of Vienna (Weiss)[211]
52.The Fashion of 1868[222]
53.The Zephyrina Jupon (Thomson and Co.)[223]
54.Tahitian Dancing Girl and Venetian Lady[224]