The striking thing about an 18th-century corset complete with an
articulated pannier is that it begs the question, “Would any woman have
been comfortable in such a contraption?” It’s hard to answer in the
affirmative. Whether we like it or not, the notion of bodily comfort is
going to be lurking in our minds when we observe such pieces of apparel
through our modern frames of judgment. But it is obvious that for a long
period of human civilization, the idea of status and the amount of
physical space one occupied were inextricably connected.
Fashioning the Body: An Intimate History of the Silhouette, an
exhibition that is currently on display at Bard Graduate Center in New
York City, goes beyond simply exhibiting accoutrements of intimate
apparel from centuries past—though there are plenty of such pieces too.
The exhibition also features mannequins wearing mechanized
reconstructions of panniers, crinolines, and bustles in order to show
how the undergarments were used to alter natural body forms.
An Intimate History
According to Associate Curator Ann Tartsinis, people are excited to
see the different contraptions that women and men have endured in the
name of fashion. Certain objects are more surprising than others, for
example the so called “nursing stay”—a kind of corset with little flaps
that open to supposedly allow the mother to breastfeed. Sounds plausible
in writing until one sees the actual object because the little openings
are rectangular, hence rather different to a woman’s anatomy. Enough
said. Then there are babies corsets—yes, infants of both genders were
molded into shape from a very early age under the belief that if they
didn’t wear corsets they would grow up to be deformed.
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