DAY 67: Corsets

Jennie is reported to have measured eighteen inches at the waist. After two pregnancies. The exaggerated wasp figure of Victorian women was unhealthy for the lungs, heart and digestive tract, we now know, but it was rigorously achieved with what seems a veritable architecture in women's clothing. A lady began with a pair of pantaloons, added a chemise (a thin formless muslin gown that draped the body to below the knees) laced a corset over that, and added at least one and often several petticoats before attaching a bustle. If you're interested in the process, this is a fabulous step-by-step video, courtesy of The Lingerie Addict.

We tend to think first of corsets when we discuss Victorian underwear, and that's because our eye immediately goes to the narrow waist of women from that era when we look at period fashions. Corsets were constructed from whalebone, covered with silk, and were separated at the front and back--the front being fastened over the breasts while the rear was drawn tight with lacing. It was impossible to lace a corset oneself; these undergarments required a lady's maid. Or a helpful and available housemate. The serving class, needless to say, did not wear corsets; a lady's narrow waist, therefore, was indicative of social class as well as a Victorian ideal of beauty.





Corsets could be demure and feminine, like the ones above, or they could be much racier, depending on the taste and possible adventures of the wearer. Here are two that suggest a woman who seized life. However much her corset left her gasping.

This photograph of Jennie Churchill in a ball gown, from the mid-1880s when she would have been in her early thirties, offers a sense of how corseting molded her figure.

For more images from THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN, visit the  Pinterest board behind the novel.