Farthingales and Corsets History

During the mid- and late-1500s skirts began to be made enormous by a “farthingale.” There were two types of farthingales, the Spanish and the French. The Spanish version probably started as a petticoat that was “boosted” by a series of graduated, corded hoops made out of cane, wire, or whalebone that accentuated a woman’s child-bearing attributes. During the late 1570s, the French version was introduced and it is the farthingale seen in many portraits of Queen Elizabeth. It consisted of a vast horizontal hoop worn at the waist but tilted down at the front to accommodate the elongated front of the stiffened bodice (Ewing 1972). Some Elizabethans wore a roll or sausage of stiffened material known as a “bum roll” around their waist and under their skirts to hold them out (Steele 2001). Fifteenth-century women also wore a “basquine” or “vasqine,” a laced bodice that a hooped skirt or farthingale was attached to.

 

 

 

The corset is aarguably the most controversial garment in the entire history of fashion

 

The corset, arguably the most controversial garment in the entire history of fashion, was officially introduced when women began inserting rigid materials such as whalebone into the “busk” or “basque” of cloth bodices in the late sixteenth century (Steele 2001). The basque was a slot down the center front of the corset that was thicker at the top than at the bottom and could extend from above the bust to the waist. It was sometimes decorated with amorous images and phrases and was often used as a lover’s token.

The corset was often referred to as a “stay,” meaning “support,” perhaps implying the female body was naturally weak (Steele 2001). Scholars often discuss both the status symbol of the corset as well as its erotic appeal in the way it exaggerates the curves of a woman by making the breasts and hips protrude in an hourglass shape. The lacing of the corset is also often symbolic of sexual intercourse, and some theorists argue that the corset was a surrogate for the body itself (Steele 2001). The corset has had many dissenters ranging from doctors who argued the corset was responsible for causing miscarriages and deformities to feminists who argue the corset effectively repressed and victimized women (Kunzle 2004).

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