Cool corset pic

crinolinegirl

crinolinegirl

Alumni
I've pulled a few antique corsets from my collection to sell and was editing photos tonight and thought this was a really neat photo of my French Edwardian redresseur corset..

redresseurcorset6.jpg


Just thought I'd share it! :)

Lei
 
Beautiful photo, Lei! And an awe-inspiring corset. The fact that those corsetieres were able to devise such creations without an advanced degree in engineering is amazing.

In admiring the workmanship my eye keeps falling on that long panel of diagonally set, lozenge-shaped, um, thingies. Are they simply decorative? Or are they encasing bits of whalebone to make a panel that helps define the woman's shape but is somewhat flexible?

Mary Catherine (MC)
 
Those little diagonal thingies at the back of the corset are little whalebones :) Redresseur corsets were kind of a French phenomenon, you don't tend to see them in North America or in the UK.
They were for young girls and teenagers to train their posture when a normal corset just wasn't enough to stop them from slouching or hunching shoulders. Mine has a low front and a high back with shoulder straps to full the shoulders right back against the high back of the corset (which is why all those diagonal bones are there to keep the back straight and the shoulders back).

Lei
 
Oh! So redresseur corsets are specifically for young girls. I see. Hoo-boy, I'm glad to have been born in this life and escaped that. Those panels of vertabrae-like panels are a lot stricter than the frequent command of "Mary Catherine, sit up straight!" that came so often from my mom!

I just translated "redresseur" with the Google translater, and it means "rectify"!
 
This may make good sense; I have a friend who solved his back problems with MIRRORS, strategically mounted in spots where he could see and correct his own posture. Says it beat the hell out of the back fusion his doctor was wanting to do.
 
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