So this is one of the things that people lose their shit about whenever corsets come up: the pregnancy corset.

This is largely because people believe (erroneously) that the purpose of a corset is to squeeze the wearer's body into an extreme hourglass shape, organs be damned!

Of course, corsets were actually just an old timey bra for MOST people who wore them. They offered support and some modest shaping.

Most of the dramatic silhouette we associate with Victorians and Edwardians was achieved by padding out the bust and hips.

Anyway, back to the pregnancy corset.

It has a few interesting details that tell us that the purpose of this corset was NOT to force the wearer's body to hide the pregnancy but to give support to the growing bust and baby bump.

See the way the front is rounded over the belly?

Take note of the lacing at the bottom as well --this would be loosened (and even removed) as the pregnancy progressed, allowing plenty of space for growing baby.

At the back, I can't tell if that triangle is a corded gusset OR an elastic panel but sometimes there was elastic!

The corset was made to expand and make room for the baby as the wearer moved through the stages of pregnancy.

I want y'all to stop and LOOK at an image when someone makes a claim about it. And ffs, stop looking at FASHION PLATES and illustrated advertisements!

Here's a small selection of actual historical corsets!

I want you to look at them for a bit -- especially the first one!

Do you see how the shapes aren't absurdly dramatic? They're a more natural curve and the first one doesn't even have much of a dramatic shape at all

Let's compare those to some ads for corsets!

See how much more dramatic the advertisements are?

Would you look at a modern fashion illustration and tell me that the average person looks like that today?

Just for contrast, let's add some MODERN fashion croquis from some major designers:

The exaggeration is used to depict the details of the outfit, it's not expected that anyone would really look like the illustrations.

"But Roz!" You cry "WHAT ABOUT THE PHOTOS!?"

Ah yes. The photos. Let's dive into THAT.

Here are some lovely photos of Edwardian Ladies.

Please note that they do NOT have terrifyingly thin waists...

As for those SHOCKING images? Well...

They're "photoshopped". They're painted over to make the waists look smaller and if you look closely, it's often very obvious:

And here are some ladies in their underwear without editing! Notice their more natural body shape, even with the corset on???

Basically like
Shut up about corsets and go watch Bernadette Banner, Morgan Donner and Karolina Zebrowski's videos for awhile.

esp Karolina's videos on Victorian photoshop and "everything you know about corsets is wrong"

Thank you. Good night.

(Sorry that this thread is not at all accessible for people with vision problems. I am terrible at image description and simply dont have the spoons for it right now)