The Topeka state journal., 1922-06-13
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. DC.
THE CASE OF THE CORSET.


feminine corset, which heretofore has
always been subjected to the harshest
criticism and ridicule, is now suddenly
being endorsed by prominent physi-
clans. 1t is. they say, a necessity to
every woman, and should not be dis
carded.
Thruout the centuries women have
worn this curious appliance in one
form or another, in spite of persistent
ubeS and protests from the masculine
sex, because each changing fashion
demanded it. Now for the first time
in many long years the corset is prac-
tically out of style, and the tide of
professional criticism is turning uneX-
pectedly in its favor.
DR.. Royal S. Copeland, health COM
missioner OF New York City, says that
he cannot urge too strongly upon
women. the advisabiIity of wearing
corsets. He declares that they have
worn them for so many hundreds of
years that they have come to need
them, and many serious disorders are
apt to result from their abandon
ment.
Dr. Adolf Lorenz, the famous Vienna
surgeon, who spent last winter in New
York. also adds his recomm endation
of the corset.
corset" he says. 1T not only braces
vital organs that need bracing, but it
is a preventive of spinal troubles"
OF course Doctor Lorenz does not
advocate a return to the old wasp
wasted high corsets which cramp the
the muscles. He believes that the all
important consideration is that the
corset should in every instance be a
perfect fit, perhaps even modelled
after casts made from the person who
is to wear it.
Yet it is doubtful if DR.. Lorenz' ad-
vice will make much of an impress
sion upon the rising generation of
- -.
mains out of style. Just as their great
grandmothers insisted that they were
healthy and comfortable with 13-inch
waists even while they swooned. so
the modern prom girls are prepared
to risk the gravest anatomical injuries
rather than be stigmatized as "Old
Ironsides'' at the college dances.
Fashion VS.. Health.
The corset controversy has ragged
continuously from the very earliest
times; ana always fashion has prer
vailed over health. The date of the
first appearance of the corset is not
known. but among the art works dis
covered in the ruins of one of the mys-
terious forest cities of South Africa,
whose history is lost in remote an
tiquity, there is a bas-relief repre-
senting a female figure which shows
unmistakably that a contrivance SINH
lar to the modern corset was then in
use. This consisted of a complicated
anu GAdOOIdlG MdASl DduOdBes winch
by a system of circular and transverse
folding and looping confined the waist
from just below sthe hips as firmly
and compactly as the most unyielding
corset Of modern times.
Some authorities give the Germans
the credit for inventing the first Eu-
ropean corset and possibly introduce
ing it into Rome. At any rate it is
known that the early German women
and fine Roman ladies wore much the
n rnSfrfpfirlc
That the corset was found ridic-
ulous even in the somewhat ridiculous
Middle Ages is shown by a sketch
dated 1884, found in the British Mu-
scum, which cartoons not only the re-
stricting corset, but also the trailing
draperies of the period worn SO long
that they Eeeded knotting to be kept
from the ground. The heavy steel
corsets of. the time of Catherine de
Medfci, and the hinged steel box with
the depending rod or bar of steel over
which the long peaked bodice of the
dress vas adjusted, affected by Queen
Elizabeth, also produced much sar-
dontc amusement and denunciation.
Never in all these years has public
opinion triumphed over the dictates
of fashion. Corset styles have changed
not because they were injurious or
Srotesque in appearance, but because
some world leader of fashion, in the
old days. usually queen, decided to
change the lines of her figure.
Twice before corsets have been
abolished. or at least reduced to small
proportions, not as concession to
health or comfort but because style
demanded it. The first occasion was
in the seventeenth century in the
Netherlands. Spain and Italy when a
drastic change occurred in the stand
ards of feminine beauty. Slim waists
passe. and the Venus of Milo with
her 2S-inch waist became the popular
model This vogue is evident in a
drawing by Adrian Boise of a rich
Dutch lady about the year 1880, in
which it is apparent that the feminine
figure of those days was little re-
stricted by any artificial device.
The second period followed the
French Revolution when at the begin
ming of the nineteenth century the
costume of the empire was evolved.
This was built on Grecian lines and
required no corset except a band pass
ing below the bust and kept in place
by shoulder straps. 1t was doubtless
too comfortable a style to last, for it
soon vanished and was succeeded by
a period of exaggerated tight lacing
Here in America our grandmothers
and great grandmothers laced them
selves literally to the point of suffo-
cation. Women swoOned constantly,
largely from lack of breath. and more
than once. we are told, death followed
some sudden exertion undertaken by
tightly encased woman At this time
the genteeI waist was thirteen inches.
which narrow circumference the
ladies secured by tying their corset
laces to a bedpost and then walking
away. thus producing heavy pressure
This tight lacing continued even tho
the feminine figure underwent another
severe change about the period of the
Spanish-American war when the
straight front and the bias hip form
corset became popular. The effect of
this innovation was to Iengthen the
apparent waistline. According to an
enthusiastic account of the time all
belts then rounded over the hips and
ended in point in front, giving to
even the stoutest women a degree of
ell IN