These garments could be worn as under or outer wear. Before the 16th century įor most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries corsets were known, in English, as bodies or stays. The term 'stays' was frequently used in English circa 1600 until the early twentieth century, and was used interchangeably with corset in the Renaissance. The term 'corset” was in use in the late 14th century, from the French 'corset' which meant 'a kind of laced bodice.' The meaning of it as a 'stiff supporting so constricting undergarment for the waist, worn chiefly by women to shape the figure,' dates from 1795. The English word corset is derived from the Old French word corps and the diminutive of body, which itself derives from corpus- Latin for body. While the corset has typically been worn as an undergarment, it has occasionally been used as an outer-garment stays as outer-garments can be seen in the national dress of many European countries.

Ī 'pair of bodies' or stays, the supportive garments that predated corsets, first became popular in sixteenth-century Europe, with corsets reaching the zenith of its popularity in the Victorian era. The appearance of the garment represented a change from people wearing clothes to fit their bodies to changing the shape of their bodies to support and fit their fashionable clothing. The corset is a supportive undergarment for women, dating, in Europe, back several centuries, evolving as fashion trends have changed and being known, depending on era and geography, as a pair of bodies, stays and corsets. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.63.24.5. Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning, stiffened with whalebone.

Medieval outfits with corsets