If you’re reading this, you probably love corsets or at least find them interesting. The appeal of the corset is that of one of the most classic items of clothing- and yet in popular culture there are also associations with the garment in conjunction with high fashion, rebellion, punk, antiquated subjugation of women, freedom of expression, and so much more. It could seem strange at first that an item worn for centuries as an ordinary garment could be considered rebellious. One might also be curious how a single item could be strongly associated both with chains of oppression and with freedom of expression. How can we make any sense of this? Where do these associations come from?

To properly explore the answer to these questions, it is necessary to go back to the very beginning of when corsets seem to have appeared. For over a thousand years, corsets and similar types of garments in some form or another have existed. For as long as they have been discussed, they have been the subject of controversy.

Before corsets were ever conceived, women and some men wore structured garments of one kind or another, possibly as far back as 2000 B. C. in the Minoan civilization. The Minoans are a civilization that existed in Greece, and what we know of them is limited. From the Minoans, we have a pair of snake goddess statues wearing thick belts that somewhat resemble waist cincher corsets.₆ For certain, however, the corset has been present in Western Europe for around 600 – 800 years.₁

In the mid 1400’s, the age of chivalrous knights and the Hundred Years War between France and Britain, an ideological tug at the laces began. Before this period, it seems that various kinds of structured garments were likely so ubiquitous that they simply did not merit discussion. One of the first known depictions of a garment recognizable as a corset appeared in 1450’s France, in a painting called “The Madonna Surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim,” painted by Jean Fouquet. The model representing the Madonna was the French King’s mistress, Agnés Sorel. The painting portrays Sorel as the Madonna feeding the baby Jesus, with her breast exposed through an unlaced corset, a courtly nip-slip that Sorel was said to have repeated with some regularity. She was rumored to walk around court with the top of her corset unlaced and breasts exposed, thus causing an association between the garment and immorality. However, some of these accounts appear to have been politically motivated. Sorel held incredible power in the King’s court. Sorel was very close to the King and was able to gain several relatives positions at court as well as land. Some of the more scandalous accounts of Sorel were written of her by a Burgundian author₂, whose rulers sought power and wider territorial control in their region.₄ Indeed, there are conflicting accounts of her actions and her life, including her poisoning and death at the age of 28.₂ Thus was the first controversy of corsetry- like a roller coaster’s first drop at the beginning of a wild ride.  

Those bold enough to reclaim a garment so iconic, so daring, so full of meaning- those willing to wear corsets today- are taking a symbol with nearly a thousand years of tradition and purpose and making it their own.