The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-01-03
EVOLUTION OF THE CORSET


! Nomilu's Waist Was Really Discovery
| of the Dark Ages
| Noman's waist, which may be CLASH
| fed as variable quantity, marvellous
| in its power of manipulat on, is real
| ly discovery of medieval times, and
| not, as popularity believed, a gift of the
! gods Sappho lived and died in happy
Ignorance of the possession that is at
= the delight and the despair of the
IN world feminine. Penelope the
q, Aspasia the wise, Iseult tile
>psidered not the Importance
ncurve and circumference.
esured not the meters In
cestus to determine.
exceeded those which
r dark-eyed Valkuries,
led her Britons with
The circumference Oh
ms. The idea of the
h the luxury and re-
Romans, and when
Lric women grasped the
realized the Importance OF
session straightway they be-
liz lust what women have been
ever since--trying to improve on
Gdel designed by the Cpeator-and
q of the corset was evolved
rst trace we find of the buslsed
busquine, y is in the ample and
dress of the period of Fran
khe day of splendid stuffs and
lowing sleeves lined with sable.
lkherine de Medicis, as might have
. 5eeas expected, was instrumental in in,
! woducing corset Of steel and velvet,
by means of which her ladies achieved
an undesirable girth of thirteen inches,
| and this corset, IN some of its forms,
was worn by the men as well as the
women of the court which followed
hers Still little later the fashion
| able lady was strapped up in rigid
corset strongly armed with whalebone,
which came down in deep point upon
her skirt all of piece and without any
indication of slope.
| 1t has remained for the modern wom-
! an to make of the steel girdle an orna~
mental device, masking its misery in a
| covering of most exquisite brocade or
lustrous satin, frilling its edges with
/ fine and beautiful laces, hand wrought
and exquisite, and clasping its cruel
steels with gold and jeweled links of
diamonds and rubies AS high as five
and six dollars is paid for certain
cut of seam, shape of gusset made up
| in plain gray coutille, and not only
this, but a woman with any pretensions
to fastidiousness must have her corset
| made to order, and will not wear
shop-made article any more than a man
| of fashion will tolerate store clothes.
! and ready-made linen. The corset now
must match the silk petticoat, as wom-
en- wear no longer the little under bodice
| of linen or cambria, lest it interfere with
| the fit of the gown or add hairs
I breadth to the size of the waist The
| laces are of sillxen webbing, bright and
! beautiful in color, and the materials in
| clude all the brocades, the tartans. the
| changeable taffetas the shot silks and
satins in plain tints The prices cover
| the ground between S. and $50 1t re-
| mains, too, for the modern man to dis
| cover the raison d'etre for the corset,
/ which has been ever mathematical as
| the sign manual of feminine vanity and
| frivolity. And the man has said, with
| the brutal sarcasm of his kind: 1.-THE
corset is charged with hurting woman
and at times with killing her. But is
| this to its discredit2 Already there is
an excess OF uncorseted shes. War and
travel keep the number of men within
wholesome limits, and perhaps the
| great use of the corset is that 1t does
less effectually, the same by women"
Chicago Tribune.