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The history of corsets
For thousands of years, people's addiction to thin waist has been tormenting women. The snake priestess in the murals unearthed in Crete has a tight waist size, which makes their breasts as strong as melons and chin. The history of westerners' aesthetic appreciation of women is like a saw blade in different periods: belly and no belly. The ancient Greeks and Romans liked a naturally flat belly (plus small breasts and plump hips). 1348 After the epidemic of the Black Death, people began to worship hourglass figures. "When some women wear wigs and low-cut shirts in public, so that their breasts are high enough to insert candles directly on their chests, who will doubt that human nature has been shattered to the edge of hell?" Historian Matthew Vinilon described how the survivors of the Black Death went crazy for pleasure.

In ancient Greece and Rome, women took nature as beauty, so it was impossible to have a corset, which was achieved by changing women's natural posture. In the Middle Ages, due to the shadow of European religion, people avoided talking about female beauty. Therefore, it was impossible to have a corset at that time. However, the tight-fitting thick vest that appeared in the Middle Ages can be regarded as the embryonic form of corset that has a great influence on the pattern of women's wear in Europe.

During the Renaissance, the emerging trend of humanism opposed the feudal theological authority. They observe problems with people as the center, replace divinity with humanity, oppose the asceticism of the church, advocate individual liberation, and emphasize the concepts of benevolence and equality. The ideology, culture, art and other aspects of this period had a great influence on clothing. From the appearance of clothing, the emphasis and exaggeration of gender differences is the main feature of this period. The center of gravity of men's wear is in the upper body, which is an inverted triangle, which shows the sexy characteristics of men through the strength of the upper body and the closeness of the lower body. The center of gravity of women's clothing is in the lower body, which is a regular triangle with light top and heavy bottom. By exposing the chest, the corset is contrasted with the skirt with enlarged lower body, which reflects the sexy characteristics of women. /kloc-in the baroque period of the 0/7th century, its artistic style was different from that of the Renaissance, full of vigor and movement, magnificent momentum and great emphasis on decoration. /kloc-in the second half of the 0/7th century, corps baleine, a corset with a very decorative surface, appeared in women's clothing, which made slim upper body modeling popular again in the 0/kloc-6th century.

Spanish-style women's clothing originated in the Renaissance (1550- 1620). Spanish-style women's wear exaggerates the lower body by using Fachengale (an original skirt), and at the same time uses "Basquine" (sleeveless corset with whale whiskers) to reshape the upper body. The waist is very thin, and the chest is wrapped into an inverted triangle Basquine slave. As early as13rd century, people made a lot of efforts to emphasize the beauty of women's slim waist, but the invention of corset for narrowing the waist was in the second half of16th century, and it was from this time that women's slim waist became an important factor to express women's sexy characteristics. Corresponding to the increasing expansion of skirts that emphasize buttocks, women's waists have also been slimmed down, and even iron waists have appeared. Catherine de Medici, the princess of King Henry II of France (reigned 1547- 1559), has an iron corset in her dowry (digression, Cromwell, leader of the British Round Cranial Party and executioner of King Charles I, put this iron corset in her clothes to prevent assassins from attacking, and was already equipped with muskets, probably. ), that is, the queen wore this iron corset originally used for medical treatment for the first time. This breastplate is divided into two pieces, one with a hinge and the other with a hook. Katrina thought the ideal waist circumference was 13 inch (about 33 cm). It is said that her waist circumference is 40 cm, while her cousin Mary Stuart's waist circumference is only 37 cm. Generally, the corsets of aristocratic women are made of cloth. 1577 or so, there appeared a corset called Bingtuan Pique, which is characterized by putting more than two pieces of linen together, often with a thin lining in the middle, which is very thick and hard. In order to maintain the shape and achieve the effect of compulsory waist-binding, whalebone is vertically embedded in the main parts of the front, side and street. There are also protruding front and lower ends. The opening of the bra is in the center of the back or front, and it is fastened with a rope or thin belt. The inner side of the lower edge of Kolpek is provided with a hook or a thin belt to connect the Faqin Gail below, and the outer side is provided with hanging decorative cloth.

In the16th century, the corset had a complete shape and became an independent part to shape the three-dimensional shape of women's chest and waist. At that time, Queen Elizabeth I (1558- 1603) strongly advocated girding, which influenced the fashion of women at that time. Renaissance women's clothing is famous for its beautiful clothes with thin waist. Medieval women who just walked out of a "shell-shaped" dress without a waist, in order to highlight the curvaceous beauty of their bodies, completed the shape of a thin waist through the combination and comparison of waist-binding and skirt, thus making the hard waist-binding and huge skirt fashionable. In the subsequent Baroque period, women's clothes were still slim and protruding hips, still in the form of tights, and skirts were once eliminated. The tights of this period were embedded with many baleen at the waist, and the stitches spread radially from the waist to the chest. People began to pursue the Greek spirit of freedom and democracy, and the neoclassical style of women's clothing also learned from the ancient Greek style of women's clothing. Later, in the imperial period, due to Napoleon's worship of ancient Rome, the neoclassical style continued and developed into linear women's clothing, and women briefly got rid of the bondage of corset. But around1810-1811,with the admiration of gorgeous styles and the attention of Napoleon's court to underwear, corsets have quietly emerged. At this time, the corset is different from the previous one in that many whale bones are no longer embedded, but several layers of denim are locked together with dense stitches, or a new corset is made of rubber-coated hard linen to grow the buttocks. For plump breasts and buttocks, the technique of inserting fine Yangtze River Delta cloth is adopted to make them fit together. The chest is lifted, the waist and abdomen are tightened and flattened, and the center of the back is tied with a rope, which plays a shaping role and is more comfortable to wear.

After the beginning of the unique new romantic era, women's clothing once again returned to the direction of pursuing the actual luxury court interest 16. Corset, corset, has become an essential tool for plastic surgery. The whole upper body is sewn well, usually knotted at the back opening. If the front is open, fasten it with a hook. The decorative line that once emphasized that the front center of thin waist clothes is at an acute angle reappears. Corresponding to the second idea, the expansion of skirts is also increasing, and the number of petticoats is also increasing, often reaching as many as five or six floors (up to 30 floors). At this time, men's wear also began to emphasize thin waist, and fashionable men also used corsets to shape (pervert! ), the whole shape is pretentious.

In the second imperial era of Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, Engenie (1826- 1920), the first beauty in Europe and queen of Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, led the new trend of women's wear with her elegant temperament and keen sense, and the new Locke era began. People invented a new petticoat Klinolin (from Reno, Crino, Italy), which was made of wheel bones by adding a thin wire ring to a hard petticoat. Skirts no longer rely on the number of petticoats to unfold, thus greatly reducing the number of petticoats. A corset, a matching corset, is naturally essential. The hem of some corsets is exaggerated to 15-20cm from the waist, and the corsets are also decorated with gorgeous decorations corresponding to the skirts. Since the Renaissance, corsets have been popular for more than 300 years. In order to get a charming figure, many young girls from aristocratic families plan to gird their waists for a long time under the supervision of their mothers since childhood. Just as the ancients in China loved the "three-inch golden lotus", Westerners believed that a beautiful girl must have a slender waist. It is said that there were 13 inch and 14 inch deformed waist in history. An English woman once wrote a letter to a magazine describing her waist circumference as 65,438+06.5 inches. The editor replied, "Without exception, I found that the girls with the smallest waist circumference are the queen of the dance floor. In order to slim down, before 14 and 15 years old at the latest, girls begin to wear corsets all day long before their bodies mature, and only take them off when they sleep at night. As they get used to corsets, they will get tighter and tighter. After years of hard work, although other parts of the body develop normally, the waist circumference is as thin as a bee. This is the so-called "Coleset education".

Revolutionaries are against corsets.

Because corset represents the aesthetic taste and value orientation of the upper class at that time, it is often regarded by revolutionaries as a symbol of decadent life and values (just like China revolutionaries treat foot binding), so when the revolution breaks out, corset will inevitably become one of the objects of revolution. During the French Revolution, corsets, together with all the aristocratic life and its appliances, became the object of revolutionaries' opposition. Just as American radicals burned bras in the 1960s, French revolutionaries also burned corsets in the 1960s.

Jean jacques Rousseaux, a French enlightenment thinker, said: "It is unpleasant to see a woman tied in half like a wasp". He set two goals for the French Revolution, namely freedom and nature. "The slender waist, like other things, has its natural proportion and size. If it goes beyond that range, it will definitely become a defect. This kind of naked body will be very shocking, so why do you have to wear clothes to look good? "

After the Bastille was captured, a slogan was posted all over Paris: "You have the freedom of culture and clothing." In other words, "you can worship freely and dress freely." However, with the arrival of the imperial government and the restoration of the royal government, corsets once again "oppressed" women. Fainting and loss of appetite became the same problems for well-educated Victorian women. Revolution and counter-revolution have been endowed with cultural and political significance and become symbols representing decadent life. 1856, a satire called "Noisy Clothes" was staged in France. The actress appeared in an exaggerated steel umbrella skirt and laughed at its clumsiness, bulkiness and confinement to women's bodies. The cartoonist also painted Clinolin as a steel cage, which made a great irony.