“I have loved corsets since I was small. When I was a child, my grandmother took me to an exhibition, and they had a corset top on display. I loved the flesh color, the salmon satin, the lace,” the masterful Jean Paul Gaultier once recalled, giving voice to the dramatic allure of a tight-laced bustier.
Of course, for our foremothers, who were required to be trussed up in this undergarment from dawn until dusk, the corset functioned as a sartorial prison cell. And in truth, even some modern women fail to see its charm: “I hate wearing anything tight. A corset is my idea of torture,” model Raquel Zimmermann has stated in no uncertain terms. On the other hand, Michelle Dockery, who wore plenty of these things as Lady Mary on Downton Abbey, apparently loved every minute of it: “I don’t mind wearing a corset,” she has confessed. “It informs your posture, changes the way you move—you can’t slouch.”
Yes, you can, Michelle! Because here’s the thing: Once you have agency and freedom of choice and the ability to pair a 21st-century bustier with jeans or a long, swishy skirt, this former symbol of female oppression is transformed into a luscious alternative to a predictable tee, a boring button-down, or an oh-not-again peasant blouse. And bonus points: This is an article of clothing that actually looks better on a bigger woman—it needs to be filled out! (For further proof, refer to the deliberately saggy-baggy long-line satin bra-corsets at Guillaume Henry’s final Nina Ricci show—the unfulfilled cups, far from voluptuous, are militantly unsexy and faintly disturbing.)
So go ahead—burst out in a checked-and-flowered Vivienne Westwood fantasia or a darling, daring denim Mugler or a symphony of fringe by Dolce & Gabbana. Just be grateful there is no one to tell you that you have to pull those strings so taut that you can hardly breathe, or that you can’t wear it while playing a mean game of beach volleyball or knocking on doors to get out the midterm vote.
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