About this work
Whether they are regarded as uncomfortable, restrictive or unnatural, corsets remained an integral part of the fashionable silhouette for centuries. Producing an engineered shape rather than a natural one, boned corsets and bodices date back to the sixteenth century. This eighteenth-century corset is stiffened with baleen (whalebone). Favoured for its lightness, baleen gives the corset a flexible ‘skeleton’ without making it too heavy. Baleen was extracted from the plates or blades in the roof of a whale’s mouth and required extensive preparation. Here, a network of tiny stitches positions the boning, which runs in five channels.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Scotland
Accession Number
CT161-1983
Department
International Fashion and Textiles
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest
Physical description
Fully boned stays made of linen. The faun linen stays have been mounted with the white linen foundation pieces so that the stitching is visible from the outside. The stays extend longer at the centre front and back with tabs that flare over the hips. The stays lace through 22 eyelets worked onto the centre back openings.