Corset tops are in - and have been since the end of 2019. Sported by Bella and Gigi Hadid, Lizzo, Normani, and Hailey Bieber, the garment that was once an oppressive restriction is now a modern reclamation for all women to accessorize.  

Both seasons of Fall/Winter 2019 and Spring/Summer 2020 featured corsets on the runway, from the likes of Prada, Sacai, Vera Wang, Laquan Smith, Dior Haute Couture, Burberry, Miu Miu, Chloé, Thom Browne and seemingly everyone else. Moda Operandi’s SS20 Runway Report for SS20 predicts: “Romantic femininity is going to take on a more refined modern aesthetic,” placing a particular emphasis on “corsetry, sweetheart shapes, and exposed necklines.”

The trend has since trickled down into the fast fashion dimension in the form of boned tank tops, visible underwire, entirely elastic bodices, and laced-up waistlines. Even thrifters and depop-ers are enjoying the corset’s renaissance from the 80s and 90s as they cycle back to vintage shops. Everyone will be snatched!

Let’s face it, the corset is fun. It’s hot. But it also has a rich history of body shaming, strict gendering, and classism that is worth exploring. 

The first recorded corset was made in Crete, Greece, where both men and women wore fitted belts that shape the torso, as a small waist was desirable to all. They even went as far as wearing tight girdles throughout childhood to constrict their waists as they grew. 

Flashforward to France during the 1400s, where the “cotte” (“on the rib”), a tight-fitting bust that tightened with front or back laces, was born. Charles VII’s mistress Agness Sorel once wore a gown that exposed her breasts in the French court, starting a trend in France of low cut bodices and backless dresses. “Thick waists” were banned in court by French aristocrat Catherine de Medici, creating the notion that the body shape of a woman signified class and beauty. You can thank her for the unrealistic beauty standards that haunt all of us. 

Soon after, Elizabeth I debuted what’s now known as the “Elizabethan Corset,” inspired by the English “Tudor Corset” that was structured with stiff iron covers. Elizabeth’s style used whalebone lining instead, better accentuating the waist, as Europeans in France, Germany, and Italy preferred the look of wider hips. 

Corsets in the 1700s became especially restrictive and tight-lacing, the tightening of the torso so tight the shoulder blades touch, became popular as a means to force erect posture. The particular shape is known as the “S-Curve”' or “pouter pigeon” posture. It kept the head up, the chest out, the stomach in and the back arched, aiming to round and amplify the breasts and butt. Of course, this raised serious health issues among young women, but it still carried on through the beginnings of the 20th century. 

Corsets were essentially a beauty tool that created an artificial shape to adhere to fickle beauty trends and the male gaze. It’s the ultimate symbol of the hyper-sexualization and objectification of women. The roaring 20’s favored a boyish frame and corset designs aimed to slim the hips and thighs as much as possible. Throughout modern history,  the “ideal body” constantly fluctuated between tubular and hourglass shapes and still does to this day (think: “heroine chic” of the 90s vs. double-c “slim thicc” of the 2010s). 

The Age of Enlightenment brought an end to constriction. Intellectuals began questioning the corset, realizing it as a means of artifice, censorship, and deformation. This led designers like Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel to embrace a new liberating silhouette.

Bodyshaping was still popular, however, and softer, stretchier girdles emerged as an ancestor of shapewear. This allowed women to choose from the variety silhouettes introduced in fashion, while still being able to manipulate their form. 

Feminism and the anti-bra movement of the ‘60s 

It wasn’t until names like Vivienne Westwood, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and Thierry Mugler resurrected the corset in the 70s through the 90s that the garment became popular again, but as a counterculture. No longer was the structured bodice an expectation forced onto women, but a choice of aesthetics by women. It was a symbol of sexual empowerment, making visible a garment that was once meant to be hidden. 

Today, the sentiment of the corset manifests into a few different lanes of fashion, including shapewear, waist trainers, fetish-adjacent styling, stage costume, or the casual corset-style top that appears today.  

The style that once bound young women to rigid rules of beauty, class, and worth evolved into an extraordinary symbol of feminism where women and designers reinvented the oppressor. The corset now symbolizes sexual expression, personal autonomy, and an important cultural liberation.