page_title: Metal corset
section_title: 18th and 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Metal corset / 18th and 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Made for a child, the smaller piece of this iron corset would have been worn against the chest with the larger section supporting the back. The corset was probably worn to support the spine and perhaps gradually improve posture. Throughout the 1800s, skeletal tuberculosis was a fairly common disease of childhood and survivors were often left with severe spinal deformation that might have required the use of such a corset. The iron from which it was made would have made it very uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. The corset was purchased for £4,400 by Henry Wellcome in June 1928 as part of a collection that had previously belonged to Noel Hamonic (active 1850-1928). The collection consisted mainly of surgical instruments. maker: Unknown maker Place made: Europe Wellcome Images Keywords: corset
context_page_description: Metal corsets are a type of historical corset or bodice made entirely out of metal, usually iron or steel. The metal corset was popularly claimed to have been introduced to France by Catherine de' Medici in the 16th century, although this is now considered a myth. The idea that such garments were worn for fashionable purposes is debatable, with fashion historians now regarding such claims sceptically. Many of the original metal bodices that have survived are now believed to have been intended for medical purposes as orthopaedic support garments and back braces. Such garments were described by the French army surgeon Ambroise Paré in the sixteenth century as a remedy for the "crookednesse of the Bodie."
  Some of the more extreme examples of metal corsets that have survived are now generally thought to be later reproductions designed to appeal to fetishists, rather than garments intended for fashionable wear.
  Metal medical corsets were still being made in the twentieth century, whilst, since the late 20th century, fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen and Issey Miyake have made contemporary metal bodices and corsets from wire and aluminium coils.
context_section_description: In Fashion and Fetishism, David Kunzle noted that in Peter Rondeau's 1739 French-German dictionary, the French term corps de fer is explained in German as "Schnürburst, mit kleinen eisernen blechen, für übel gewachsenes Frauenzimmer" (A bodice, with small iron plates, for badly grown (i.e., deformed) girls). He reads this as implying that the iron plates would have been part of a fabric corset, rather than an all-metal garment.
  Kunzle has noted the absence of literary evidence for showing that metal corsets were also worn for fashion purposes. He has suggested that surviving metal garments, if not specifically medical in purpose, might have served the same masochistically gratifying purpose as the deliberately uncomfortable, tortuous hair shirt, combining a fashionable silhouette with penance, and as such, might have been worn in convents. To support his "pure speculation", Kunzle cites an 1871 newspaper report from The Times reporting that during the Paris Commune, the National Guard found two iron corsets, a rack, and other instruments in the Convent of the White Nuns in Picpus. The claim by the Mother Superior that the instruments were for orthopaedic purposes was dismissed at the time as "a superficial falsehood."
  Metal corsets for medical purposes continued to be used in the 18th and early 19th century, although equivalent garments made from canvas were increasingly used in their place. In 1894, A.M. Phelps of the American Orthopaedic Association recommended an aluminium corset coated with waterproof enamel for sufferers of Pott disease or curvature of the spine. Made from a cast of the patient's body, the advantages of such a garment were that aluminium was lightweight, durable, thin enough to be worn beneath clothing, and could be worn while bathing. Such corsets were still being recommended in the early 20th century as cheaper and more durable in the longer run than plaster moulds, although their initial expense was greater.
caption: Orthopaedic corset for a child. Iron. Europe, 1801–1880.
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