Corset 1869 - 1873

This corset was made by the Royal Worcester Corset Company, a mass manufacturer active from 1861 to 1950. Look closely, and you'll see it is constructed from cotton, coutil, lace and metal boning. These materials aren’t particularly precious, but the combination of them into a supportive garment involves considerable skill. We tend to think of the corset as a garment of constraint, and indeed it was that. But the industrial production of corsets also offered a source of relatively well-paid labour to women. The Royal Worcester Corset Company even became known for its progressive approach to worker’s rights. Of course, that doesn't change the basic fact: that corsets dictated a certain silhouette. Even so, we can see that the making of this object had a wider social significance, not only in dictating fashion, but enabling new forms of employment. It shows how fashion and labour went hand-in-hand.