What's really sad about that is the fact that people in the past lived progressively harder and more challenging lives...they could survive almost anything that would cause our soft modern society to implode. These people were strong.
It gets even better. Anyone who is significantly different from you gets to be placed in the past, as well! Because people Over There are "primitive" and "medieval" and "stuck in the past" and have "always been like this - it's just their culture." Aren't they ... modern people reacting to the same global socioeconomic pressures that we all face (and that, in many cases, the privileged Western world has placed on them)? No, no. They get to belong to the inferior past, as well. They don't get to belong to the present, because they don't fit our "Progress" narrative.
This is a HUGE problem even outside of the historical fashion community- it's *everywhere*. If the media you like is older than a few years ago- you're old fashioned. 😩(I'm summarizing the most extreme versions I've seen in online comment sections).
I love it when they cite doctors from back then as proof corsets were torture devices, but then they ignore how these same doctors genuinely believed in things like the wandering womb.
@@juliapalos2077 when someone thinks that men somehow invented womens fashion for sole purpose of restricting and oppressing women, or using the argument that since women lived in patriarchy that means that nothing women have ever done actually matters, because patriarchy, even tho men at the time were just like 😒😮🥱🙁😂🙄
When my grandmother developed severe osteoporosis, it was recommended that she wear a back brace. The one she received was uncomfortable and didn't provide adequate support to ease her pain. My mother, who went to fashion design school and a skilled seamstress, made my grandmother a series of custom corsets, built to perfectly fit her body , and support her torso, while making them easy to put on. Those corsets provided a lot of relief to my grandmother and made her quality of life so much better There are many types of corsets, and to malign them as patriarchal oppression is a crazy simplification
This is a great idea! I wonder if there are manufacturers who would customize corsets like that today for back issues. So many people have them and find the stuff offered to be painful and inadequate.
I wore a corset after surgery (edit: I had healed enough to wear I cld wear it, w Dr.s approval Ofc) when I pulled my back from working out and it became inflamed from Lupus and I needed surgery. It helped a lot and I still wear when I'm having inflammation.
I always just find it extremely funny when they tack on the “women just wanted a skinny waist” line WHILE MEN ACTUALLY DID SUCH THINGS WITH STAYS AND CORSETRY AND ITS NEVER BROUGHT UP BY ANY OF THESE LARGER MEDIA SITES
I will actually defend Vogue on that one, they did mention (in passing) men wearing cosetry. Most of the vid is trash and the narrator said it like it was the silliest joke he'll say at Christmas, but still... They did.
I mean they mentioned it, like "in the BEGINNING corsets were worn by women and SOME men", kinda giving the picture that those "some" men immediately dropped it since the video doesn't ever mention male corsets again :'D
Even if they did want a skinny waist...why is that a bad thing? You can buy shapewear and stuff today, and why shouldn't women be able to wear fashion they want 🤷♀️
@@stephspoilsstuff for real, because we didnt talk enough about body standards and why its not ok to impose them. Also reconsider your "wants" and how they are manufactured by your envornment, people like you always give me sociological seizures. Also my congratulations to all women with preexisting medical conditions that were made more painful and uncomfortable by wearting a tight ass corset all the time.
"It is our modern idea of patriarchy that we are imposing on the past". WELL SAID, Bernadette! This happens across so many categories of history, not just fashion.
It can be a real problem in areas like archaeology, where interpretations of entire eras can be screwed up because of modern values being imposed on the past.
It's also funny how selective it is. Not a historian so no idea if this is accurate at all, but I tend to think of the demonization of corsets as blowback from the bra burning phase of 2nd wave feminism. It's interesting to me how, in most cases, we recognize that women destroying bras, makeup, etc. as "instruments of female torture" was symbolic (the point was to destroy the concept of femininity/ gender roles and not our useful support garments) but in the case of corsets specifically, everybody took it so very literally. Imagine an alternative timeline where people subsequently applied that same literalism to the evil of bras, resulting in decades of poorly-researched wailing about how the patriarchy forced us all into agonizing underwires!
"Now women of all sizes can hide their fat!" I died laughing at this. I'm plus sized and I would prefer to make myself a corset anyday over looking like a large sausage in a small casing in spanx. No thanks! Corsets are so much more comfortable thank you.
Spanx has been known to cause gastrointestinal problems in women who wear them. I have a friend with IBS who would have a terrible attack after wearing Spanx. She gave up the Spanx, thankfully.
Fellow plus size here! I completely agree. Even the off-the-rack ones that aren't perfect for my body (working on making my own) are more comfortable than any of the Spanx (or knock-off Spanx) I've used in the past. I also don't get as many gastrointestinal issues from corsets that always happen in Spanx.
Seriously, Vogue? Friendly reminder that wearing Spanx for long periods of time is not only incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient, but has repeatedly been linked to circulation problems, varicose veins, and serious digestive problems. But they are Definitely The Healthy And Safe Modern Replacement For Corsets! Good gracious. Thanks for debunking. Great video.
They can also cause infections in certain places that we shall, due to YTube's overt sensitivity, not mention. It includes yeast infections. If air is not circulating down there, then the yeast and other bacteria can get out of control....
Friendly reminder not all corsets are stiff and cut off circulation. Surprising before brassieres some woman needed to be able to bend over to live life
@@ceceliakra7234 key to life my dear as a mamma bird, just be sure to pick things that are flattering to your shape. Advice for any man or woman slim or thick. As my mother would say and her mother before her There doesn't exist an ugly woman in this world, just those that don't know how groom themselves. Pick what suits you best and brings a smile to your face and your face alone. You'll be stunning no matter where you go.
right? and the fact that it was VOGUE who claimed this, the world’s most acclaimed fashion magazine, is REALLY scary. can you imagine how many people looks up to vogue for fashion advice? :( what a bunch of hogus vogus
I used to work in historical reenactment and living history. The FIRST question I was asked on a daily basis by visitors was some version "What's it like to wear/work in a corset?" I had to remain in character. I would express the general disbelief and shock that women would even consider not wearing a corset and petticoats. "Sir/Madam, that would be most uncomfortable. All of these layers resting on the skin would not put one at ease. Imagine how that must feel? Not to mention the lack of support for one's back when completing the daily chores. I understand that some doctors believe that we women should not wear corsets as it may be injurious to our health when the laces are drawn in severely, but I for one cannot count a single woman whom I know to follow this practice. Perhaps this is something only the very wealthy do, but one also cannot trust the photographs of Ms. Clifford. She is well known for "painting" her appearance. To tighten a corset so severely would indeed be uncomfortable and is a mark of plain vanity. A corset, properly worn, supports the back and abdomen as well as the many layers of dress and thus prevents harm. No sir/madam, I do not think the corset will ever become unnecessary-particularly for women who work or are expected to maintain their own households." The very idea that a corset could be comfortable was so utterly alien to them that many refused to believe that what we said was true and would argue with us, telling us were were "poor and oppressed" victims of a patriarchal society. One of my fellow reenactors got very annoyed one day and responded to one such comment with, "Yes, of course I must not be able to think for myself. I must need a man to tell me how to live and how to train this horse." Before she proceeded to gentle the still-wild stallion we had recently acquired from BLM. She was our horse trainer-her character was based on a real person from our records who ran one of the largest ranches in the region. That shut the visitor up. I will always remember that one.
"It's almost like we are trying to prove our own 'anti-patriarchy' by imposing a patriarchal lens on the past" omg Bernadette you couldn't be more accurate. I think we do that in many ways nowadays when we look back at history.
they are lazy and clearly want to perpetuate a discourse that can't be backed up with actual historical evidence. it is so unfortunate they wasted all the amazing information they literally own! :/
... Maybe they did. Maybe they knew the intentions of marketing the corset because Vogue designers kept their papers and Vogue made many trend. I love everybody here on this panel but maybe Vogue says this because they knew what was the purpose. They advertised it. Trust me Haute Couture have many skeletons in their closet. Maybe the corset was indeed a good bra and not as torturous as people make it to be, but there could also be the intent of perpetuating a curvy silhouette for men at the same time... This isn't exclusive. I use my freedom of speech to say that maybe the conspiracy that corsets are the epitome of girlboss is more nuanced lol
That unearthly dissonance where a one-size-fits-most unit of Spanx is supposed to be more "accessible" to women of all shapes and sizes than a *custom tailored* pair of stays.
I've tried to wear spanx a few times before, but honestly, they didn't even make me look slimmer, all they did was make me warm, uncomfortable and gassy. Seriously, these things squeeze farts out of you, and if you're wearing spanx in the first place, you're probably at a kind of fancy event like a wedding or a school prom, so that's not exactly ideal.
I am plus size and they literally don't make Spanx in my size. So this idea that Spanx are more inclusive and body positive than corsets or stays is BS.
The only time I wore spanx was when I bought some and wore them out and was so uncomfortable and lightheaded I went to the bathroom at a restaurant and trashed them and finished out my day commando lol. They were awful. And these were not like full body spanx, there were the underwear version but they were so tight I couldn’t breathe even though I’d bought my correct size.
I think the thing that gets me about claiming Spanx >corsets is that stretched elastic is always trying to return to its original size. A corset is laced down to the desired circumference and the laces tied, and stays at that circumference until removed. If I buy a pair of Spanx and the waistband measures 24" around, I'm just constantly getting squeezed as that elastic tries to return to its initial size. There's no chance of the body and the garment reaching an equilibrium, because the garment is always pushing.
I think you just explained perfectly why I hate spanx. It just feels like I decided to sink whatever the spanx is touching 100ft down in deep water, like just insane never ending pressure, while whatever the spanx isn't touching feels normal. I absolutely hate it. Its like when you're a kid and the pressure on the airplane is way too much for your ears but you just have to deal with that pressure for hours until you land.
Omg yes! This is why I can't wear those novelty elastic belts, it simply hurts, suffocates me and gives me panic attacks. Tightlaced corset? None of that.
True. The pressure of a corset is something, you can relax into (or against). It's like sitting on the ground with your back against a rock or tree stump. Maybe not the most comfortable thing ever (depending, of course, on how well the corset fits), but the human body is literally evolved to deal with that kind of hard, unchanging pressure on our skin/tissue. Modern shape wear on the other hand....it feels like being suffucated to me. Or squeezed to death. It's not just 'uncomfortable', it's feels threatening to me. I wanne rip it off my body as fast as I possibly can. I mean, maybe it's a matter of getting used to. I've never tried, because I just disliked the feeling so much.
I challenge you all to make an “everything you need to know about corsets in 5 minutes” video. See how much accurate information can actually be included
Something that no one mentions when talking about the whole "corsets moved internal organs" thing is that even if they *did* move internal organs, WOMEN'S ORGANS ARE MEANT TO MOVE! THAT'S HOW PREGNANCY WORKS! Your organs actually rearrange to make room for the baby! And then they move back over time after the baby is born. Our bodies are crazy cool.
LMAO That's exactly what I thought too! Having had 4 pregnancies and children, after pregnancy everything is seriously messed up as it goes back into place! And let's not even mention what having a c-section does to a woman's body...cause after 3 normal births and a 4th one c-section, the surgery messes you up way, way more than just child birth alone. 50lbs of swelling and I was like a water balloon that had been overfilled. Normally my booty goes straight out the back side, it became a wide load post surgery. And what do they give you after surgery? A velcro type of stomach support! Where do these crazy magazines come up with this nonsense?
"Some doctors believed..." didn't the doctors believed that the women anatomy was not designed to ride a train? or was that just a myth like the mandatory metal corset at the begging?
No, yeah. There were whole things about the speed of the train causing a prolapsed uterus. They also thought riding a bike, running a marathon, or just jostling around too much would cause a prolapse. I personally think (with my approximate 20 minutes of Google research and no prior qualifications) that the abysmal gynecology practices of the time (like shoving things "up there" to "help" during birth) were leading to a higher likelihood of that happening and the moral panic over new things was projected onto the incidences.
Before the 70’s girls were prohibited to participate at running competition because their “uterus would fall”. So you would imagine the weird and wonderful things that man were eager to make everyone believe!
@@youknow7856 yeah but they sure as hell did a lot more strenuous work than something as simple as sitting on a train and jostling around for 30 minutes
Top tier, honestly. I would’ve added a rule about “drunk every time metal boning was made out to be this god awful horrible thing” as if we don’t have metal underwire in modern bras 🙄
@@akechijubeimitsuhide yeah, that doesn’t work well. Underwire-free bras need to be completely differently designed, structurally, to provide any sort of support. There’s a brand of wire-free bra called Trusst (I think) that uses the principle of the truss - a structural support member also seen in some bridges - to provide such wire-free support. Just yanking the wires out of an underwire bra tends to just put strain on the straps instead. All that said, I’ve done the same thing on occasion, usually when one of the underwires breaks, and I’d rather look equally poor on both sides but balanced, rather than supported on one side and drooping on the other. LOL
I literally wrote my anthropology paper on why the corset is actually good overall and how men came to demonize it. It was super condensed history but was like 10 pages. Yet I just needed to make a 5 minute video and call it a day
@@MissCaraMint I would publish the Google doc copy I have of it but don't know how and don't have time since finals are coming up(edit: after finals I'll try to upload it since a few people are interested)
Mina Le is now a part of the group too?? Yes!! Edit : the fact that they gave Spanx a small hole so women could pee screams that it was designed by men, cuz any logical woman would know that we can't aim that shit, wtf
I was reading a webcomic called "The Princess's Jewels" and someone commented about how the main character and her mother always got such excellent lift with no bras and wondered how they could pull it off... I pointed out that they were probably wearing a corset or stays of some kind that offered the desired support. I don't know why people think they're only for making the waist smaller.
you know how back then doctors would dismiss women’s symptoms are “hysteria”? I wonder if a similar phenomenon happened with the corset. like “oh your health problems aren’t real, it’s probably because you lace your corset so tight”.
From what I can gather, Spanx are just what we in the '60s called panty girdles. They were made of elastic, probably Spandiex,. Each leg had two clips for holding up you nylons that gave you welts from sitting on them all day. They moved your belly fat up around your waist, the first muffin tops. You had to pull them down to go to the toilet until someone got wise and made them with a slit crotch. Sweaty and uncomfortable. They were second garment you would rip off when you got home; the bra was first. Never again will I wear anything close to that hellish garment. At 73yr, I have finally given up wearing a bra and wear undersized cammies instead. Also, it makes me happy to see all you smart, strong young women! Love your videos. I learn so much.
The real difference between the Spanx I've seen (can't imagine wearing them) and my mother's girdles is that spanx are woven items, like very heavyweight tights, no abutting, different directional elasticated panels of girdles. Another item I'd never dream of wearing. Too fond of breathing properly.
Elizabeth Claiborne are you telling someone who actually wore panty girdles in the sixties (I did too btw) that they weren't around until the late seventies?
I just very calmly and clearly tried to explain to someone in that corsets are not medieval torture devices that women were forced to wear so the patriarchy could break their rib cages, and they proceeded to insult my intelligence and then tell me you can’t breathe in a corset so I directed them towards all of your UA-cam videos. Thank you for doing what you do!
Sheesh, even when I tight-lace a too-small lingerie corset (purchased to be re-worked into something costume-y) I can still breathe just fine. Not full lung capacity, but fine. And that's misuse of a cheap thrift store find. With my custom Elizabethan stays I walked outdoors all day, no problem.
funny thing, I got those comments at work. My opinion was not belived despite me actualy having corset wearing experience and neiter of them did. Despite me having worne corset at that moment, clearly breathing just fine carrying tables and other furniture just fine and working underneith a grand piano, either siting and bend forword very low or lying down, twisting to reach everything I needed to clean the entrinsicly carved legs . . . for hours . . . .they saw me do that and they do not belive that one can move and be physicly active in a corset?!
I loved the part about "If it fits right you're fine" it's like bras. Yeah, if you wear a wrong one it's uncomfortable but like if you find one that fits they can be very helpful. It's not black and white
I just hate that to get a bra that fits, I have to order from the UK or an expensive boutique (that orders from the UK) and spend a minimum of $60. It is worth it, though, for the relief my mid back feels and not getting an under bust skinfold rash.
@@macherie1234 I remember seeing a woman on one of those talk shows, like Jerry Springer, but mich less dramatic, hosted by a woman (Jenny?) and her bosom went down to her waist. She had to get her brassiers and dresses custom made to accommodate her "Himalayas," they called them.
I always thought of corsetry and tailoring techniques as giving power back from the clothes to the wearer. The historical mindset that clothes should fit YOU, not you fitting the clothes seems a lot healthier to me than our modern concept of "nothing off the rack fits like I want it to, so I am the problem".
I’ve been wearing a men’s underbust corset daily for about 3 weeks now, and I have to say my posture is better, I have less headaches, the knots between my shoulders are gone because I don’t slouch anymore. My clothes fit better, have cleaner lines. It’s also doing wonders for my butt cuz I’m forced to bend and lift with the legs, meaning they get more of a work out now…
Hey, also a corset-wearing man and really glad to read other guys wearing them :) I also found I had a lot of benefits by wearing a corset (even if it was punctual), the only downside I've personally felt being a higher susceptibility to tension headaches since I do a lot of table-top RPGs and had to keep my head down for long periods to check my sheets. I've made it both for fashion and as a challenge as a beginner sewer, and I love it it's my child and most precious possession. (Also, I've lightly altered the shape since it was a bit too cinch-y, both visually and comfortably.)
@@anatine_banana_69 Is there a purpose you want it for and she would support? I got my self a "cheap" costuming one for a cosplay I initially made because I couldn't have made a cheaper mockup . Once I knew I liked it marking one was still daunting thought
10:30 ---> Bernadette is SPOT ON. I always feel that all those scenes in historical movies with oppressive corsets and women not being able to learn to read or do anything, and generally taking everything that we know about the past and distorting it to extreme, is supposed to make us modern people feel superior (we're NOT LIKE THEM ANYMORE, we're so FREE) and look down on the past with faux sympathy without trying to see the nuance (like in "Becoming Jane" where Hathaway bumps into McAvoy in the forest and says: "I'm alone so I can't talk to you" --> I beg your pardon, how many scenes do we have in Austen's own books where unengaged mixed couples take walks together? And even though mixed couples technically shouldn't be alone INDOORS, in Pride and Prejudice when Darcy comes to the parsonage before his 1st proposal and finds Lizzy alone, neither of them freaks out and runs away, it's a normal visit).
Ikr? Take, for example, the new Cinderella. The whole "women can't own businesses" thing really annoyed me. Like... that's not generally the problem and also glosses over the many many women in history that DID own businesses, and had their own real struggles.
@@starsun6363 YUP. Don't get me started on Bridgerton where I think there's a man who openly asks "will she breed" or some such about Daphne and his crassness doesn't immediately disqualify him as her suitor. Or when she comes out and hey presto, starting from day 2 strange guys are milling in her living room like it's a fancy car showroom because SHE'S OPEN FOR BUSINESS and of course NO REGULAR MAN BACK THEN WANTED TO MARRY A WOMAN THEY'D ACTUALLY LIKE AS A PERSON. At least Bridgerton doesn't even pretend to be historically accurate so I could watch on after a few deep breaths, but it's still annoying that, having decided they can take liberties with the past, they still decided to keep and even amp up the most idiotic tropes about it, to the point where it's not even satirical, but straight-up cartoonish.
I feel like it really shuts down in depth conversations about history too when people look at it as though it was happening with present day understandings.
@@ESPHMacD Absolutely! I think I want to add in to this their assertion that the editors at Vogue have to have learned what they have learned. People often don't share knowledge because it's so common to them that they don't think of it. I can't tell you the number of times I tell my mother something I just learned, and she goes, "You didn't know that? I know that. Why don't you know that?" I think that a lot of times there are things and thoughts and ideas that got left in the past not because modern ideas are superior, but because those who knew them did not pass them down well enough for them to persist. I think also people forget how much of modern society is directly caused by ancient knowledge and behavior. Like the discussion of 19th century physicians knowing nothing and being a madhouse? But then smallpox vaccination started in the 18th century, and that's a concept we still hold firmly to.
That's true. Just take "Far from the madding crowd" that was written BY A MAN, for example. Bathsheba, the female protagonist, is very often spending her time alone with a man, outside. Wth does that myth come from ? I mean there's just so many things wrong with the past that could be exploited in a feminist perspective, you don't need to invent "facts".
I remember one time the corset topic came on class back when I was in highschool and one dude was like "but organs aren't supposed to move around tho" the teacher, one of my friends and I looked at him like MF do you even know how pregnancy works?, Organs in general are kinda squishy and malleable, thats why we need our thorax to keep shit in place lmao
I love what Mina was able to add to this conversation with her modern fashion history and designer knowledge! The perfect addition to the Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society!
For Halloween, I wore my handmade 18th century outfit, complete with stays. I wore it to work, as a high school teacher, from 7:45 am to about 4:30 pm. The most uncomfortable thing? The amount of times I was asked, “so you loved Outlander A LOT, right?” Tbh, I wear my stays whenever I have to do a lot of work bent over or sat at a desk bc it stops me from having strain in my back.
I also wore my 18th century outfit: chemise, stays, petticoat, underskirt and Robe en L"Anglaise, to school for Halloween. I am a middle school English teacher. I dressed as Bess from The Highwayman poem.
Abby: Gets progressively tipsier, but somehow remains incredibly articulate and pontificates at length about TRUE historical facts. I bow to greatness.
I wanted to touch for a moment on the size for every woman thing that Mina brought up (as a plus size lady) even if we are talking about cheap Amazon fashion corsets or fetish wear (any sort of ready-made) corsets, it’s 1000% easier even now to find one in a plus-size than it is to find modern shape wear in a plus size
Not that those corsets are good or my suggestion but like while you CAN have a corset custom made to any size, it is just also still way easier to find a corset in a bigger size than it is to find shape wear
Yeah, even the more decent off the rack options (better than amazon fake corsets at least) go up quite large. Timeless Trends do up to a 42" waist as the closed corset size and with larger waists they tend to be much squishier so a 42" could easily fit someone with a natural 52" waist. Mystic City Corsets also do up to 42" (perhaps higher in some styles). And whilst I don't recommend them for quality of construction and the shaping isn't ideal (frequent issue is not enough space in the upper hip as the hips are cut more conical less cupped), Orchard Corset do up to a 46" waist. And on the smaller end Timeless Trends and Orchard Corsets both go down to 16" and Mystic City have a few styles which go down to 14"! So like even without going custom there are potential size matches for so many people. Obviously the other proportions matter too, so fit might not be spot on, but most people can find something close.
Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society member, with a wonderful little phone case that goes everywhere with me. This was hilarious! It boggles the mind that videos like this continue to be made (and by companies like Vogue, no less!) when, as you all stated, there is SO MUCH information to the contrary. I know the video was only 5 minutes long, but based on the rules I was a little afraid you’d wind up with alcohol poisoning. Thank you for your myth busting and for the much needed laughter!
I sometimes wonder if Vogue, and other such fashion institutes, are anti-femininity. Like, so many times I have seen articles that kind of sideways insult people who have more traditional/less modern ideas of what it means to be a woman/feminine.
@@michellebyrom6551 *Where is Abby's Shop?* It's never linked in her video descriptions and it's not on her website either?! I'd love to throw some money her way, if I could find the bloody thing.
When I have to argue with someone about stays and corsets, I always finish the argument saying:"what if you had boobs and you lived before bras were a thing? Exactly you wore stays or corsets." Like come on, even folk clothes in whole damn Europe included structured vests for the female peasents/ farmers.
As someone with a very large chest, this is like the most true thing. Anything even slightly corset-like is SO MUCH more comfortable and supportive than a modern bra. We never talk about how awful sports bras are, or how for larger busts, you can’t just take something for an A cup and scale the fabric up to a G. Incredibly infuriating.
Abby's description of spanks was so accurate to my experiences with them! It's like literally planning your outfit around how you are going to go to the bathroom!
Vogue makes a video about corsets. Me: here we go again. And somehow it's worse than I expected because they failed to check the material that THEY published.
I mean... in the last days of 2021, after at least two years of a *big* jump in popularity of the corset as an intellectual study subject and fashion item... that VOGUE manages to scramble out (with the least effort I've ever seen in any "all you should know about [blank] in [X] minutes" ever) a short video about "Hey, btw, patriarchy, uncomfortable, deformity, we modern, we better!" just baffles me. The door. Was open... So. Wide. For Vogue to educate, popularize and build a corset-making service. They could have made so much money and chose to be bullies. (They or he, I actually don't know how Vogue's internal hierarchy works, but I can't believe such an outrageous piece went past the editing committee.)
@@NWolfsson And then women who are looking for functional, daily use corsetry at a reasonable price might have better options than used Renaissance stuff on Mercari.
Vogue has lost its own credibility as an authority on fashion - the uninformed view on Dior and his built in stays shows a lot of regrettable amateurism within the publication's editorial (read content...) staff. Thanks Ladies and Abby - respect for honoring Kentucky at least 4 times there...you all should get into an episode of Drunk History(bounding.)
Honestly, I was like "Huh. Vogue. Certainly such an authority would take a page out of UA-cam's experts in the field and- NOPE! They ran straight into the trap!". Honestly, that's just sad.
I wonder if they just got an unpaid intern to write it in a single workday, googled the pictures and then everyone was just like "looks decent let's run it, not one cares about the facts" :/
I’ve had the pain and depression (and frankly ugly crying) from the “nothing fits” as a large woman, and have friends who are “smaller” than “normal” or are “oddly shaped” that have as well. It’s part of why I started following so many of you on YT. Frankly, I feel you as a group are far more body positive than a lot of the toxic body “positivity” out there. Now I just have to figure out how to deal with my body’s limitations and disabilities to hopefully follow in your footsteps!
I hear You sister that was the reason that i started sewing because nice clothes are design for a certain type of body that isnt mine so I quit torturing myself and learn to make clothes (tough thats another kind of torture sometimes😅) and I have allways loved históric clothing thats why i found Bernadette channel and periodically everyone else and now i'm a fan
Supposedly, the clothing stores make an average out of their desired customer base and then make the clothes in those measurements. So in fact, what you're getting is an average of hundreds or thousands of people's measumerents, including the extreme curves and straight line bodies. Plus they have to make it fit 5+ body types, which is frankly impossible unless it's a literal sack, so they have to make the shape less shapely. And what you don't see in the photos on the sites is the clips holding the extra fabric so the clothing looks like it fits. Ever wonder why the fitted top looks baggy? that's why.
@@SugiyamaHiromin it's true that the sizes in shops are composite of many body shapes but it is a fact that many clothing suppliers only sell items up to certain dimensions. High Street shops generally stop around 18 in the UK . But high end designers often don't make anything larger than a UK 12 which is smaller than the national average!
@@akechijubeimitsuhide Exactly! I’m a large hourglass, but if I buy for my hips and bust, I get no waist, even if I try to get it tailored. Because where it has to be taken in affects the places that are just right, so if I get it tailored I get gaps.
Also, I just want to mention under this video that I did a year of a costuming degree at UAL and during this year we were taught that standard practice when making a corset was to take our measurements, minus two inches from the waist measurement, then start following the Victorian pattern drafting instructions with incorrect measurements. I think this might be a reason that the women who do have real life experiences with corsetry have such negative ones. There aren’t many costumers out there and I know that about 1/5th of the British ones at least are being taught to make badly fitting corsets that are too small every time.
I would love to know why when we 'progressed' to our modern bra we stopped wearing stuff under them. Like with corsets, stays, bodies etc we had shifts and chemises, but now we have synthetic materials and elastic and flimsy stabby underwire and we put that right up against out bare skin.
I feel like that might be to do with technological advances that made washing clothes easier? Both in terms of the actual equipment used to wash clothes, and in terms of synthetic fabrics being developed that stood up to regular cleaning better than potentially more delicate organic materials. And synthetic fabrics would I think also have made clothing easier/cheaper to produce, which combined with more efficient production methods, people could afford to buy and own more clothes in general than in the past, and clothing stopped being looked at as much of a long-term investment because it was financially and logistically much more easily replaceable. What I mean by this is - the shifts and chemises, in particular, were worn under other garments specifically because white linen or cotton was easiest to wash with the harsh chemicals which at the time was your best guarantee of ensuring cleanliness. So the layer closest to your skin was relatively easy to clean, and would pick up most of the sweat/body oils, etc, preserving the garments layered over the top. And these wouldn't need to be cleaned as often, helping them to last longer, and also ensuring that you could get more frequent use out of one outer garment without worrying about needing to wash it. And because historically, fabric took SO much work to produce, clothing was mostly designed to last as long as possible, and you would buy less of it, alter it once you had it, and stretch out its usefulness, because it was a particularly costly expense. As I said above - it would've been treated more like an investment in some ways. So the whole mindset around clothes historically was centred more around making them last, and the idea of how many clothes it was normal to own on average was lower, because of the expense and also because the way clothing was designed, you could get away with spending/owning less than you could nowadays. Once those factors were no longer in play as regards the fashion/textile industries, the reasons for needing to wear so many layers just stopped affecting people, because they could wear outer clothes next to the skin and still easily wash them, and didn't need to worry so much about preserving their clothes because clothing became cheaper.
You’re not putting underwire directly against your skin though, it’s covered by fabric. It’s not supposed to stab either - that’s actually a super common sign that your bra doesn’t fit well.
@@eileen1020 tbf op is also talking about use of synthetic fabric and general flimsiness in modern garments. And I mean, in comparison to a corset, wearing a bra technically is still wearing it against your bare skin? The boning of a corset is also covered by fabric as part of its design but traditionally, you'd have a further layer of fabric between corset and skin in the form of a chemise. So that is actually more protection against digging in/chafing. And those layers would, historically, have been made from breathable natural materials as opposed to the synthetic or natural/synthetic blend a lot of bras are made from.
We do need more Killer Spanx scene's in media, cuz I swear I have trap myself by taking them off and getting stuck between my chest and arms with full on fear of suffocation ☠️ and I have trip pulling up my thighs. Murder by Spanx is a viable Final Destination death 😬
Once I was puting on a shirt tipe spanx and tough I didnt die My Super long hair got tangled in it and i culdnt get it up or down and was trapped till My sister help me out but un the end I had to cut off a good 20cm of hair
@@anarosareyes6269 omg that's horrible, I only got a couple of bruises from stumbling down, but that sounds terrifying, thank God your sister was there
It made me think of that scene in Bridget Jones' Diary, where she tries to get into spanx-type pants. It was quite a struggle. I never managed to keep a pair of spanx on for longer than a few minutes, cause my organs shift and I faint 🤪😄 Also, unrelated, but hello fellow Exo-L.
Listening to the Vogue video reminded me of my own observation of Victorian views of the Middle Ages (e.g. using spiced to cover up spoiled meat, not bathing, etc) as a stereotype of 'how horrible it was back then' to prove 'how much we've advanced since then.' Basically, claiming you've covered more distance simply by moving the starting point further back. Perhaps the point, overt or covert, is to pat women on the head and explain for them how they should be grateful to be living now and not back when 'things were so much worse.'
Both great points, particularly the second one really makes me think about how womens history is often told with that veiwpoint of "arent you glad you were born in this time".
@@andieallison6792 I think comparing how women are treated in the past with how they are treated now creates a false sense there is no problem, and distracts from comparing how women are treated now with how men are treated now.
Yep, as someone who wears a corset daily for work, I’d much rather wear a corset than Spanx. Spanx suck! I had a conversation with a family about corsets, and this pre adolescent girl said “I don’t like corsets, they are uncomfortable.” I asked her, “have you ever worn one?” She said, “No, but TV shows and movies always say they do.” Thanks to you lovely ladies, I was able to have a conversation with her and her family on how that is a myth that Hollywood tells us, and go into the details of corset construction, etc. that made them so comfortable, and how most woman wore them, etc. etc.
I’m sure someone further down has said it already, but halfway through, as Abby talks about the pragmatic views that ladies’ magazines had of corsets and how fit affects comfort? That’s how we talk about bras. Or maybe how we should talk about bras. Current marketing/media is beginning to treat wired bras not dissimilarly to corsets, but the reality remains: a good fit gives good function. Just because a garment is worn by a woman doesn’t make it bad.
There's this recurring strategy of bashing something that already works to sell the new, supposedly improved alternative. They've been doing that for ages with public education to try and replace it with charters and private schooling. It's all about making money, not improving products or results.
21:23 I like how people (in the west) back then didn't necessarily have to gain or cut their weight to fit the 'trending' fashion. Most of the time, they achieve that with padding. It's all about the silhouette. Women of any size can achieve the desired look. The only thing that prevents you is your wealth and class. But now with fast fashion, your body had to fit the clothing. As if that is any better than class and wealth dictating your fashion.
What peeves me is that it's STILL kinda about wealth bc who the hell has time and energy to cook specially formulated meals (or pay to have them delivered), and exercise enough to look like a model/Marvel superhero. I think it's actually cheaper to go the old way because you'd buy that corset and pads once as opposed to paying a monthly gym membership and ordering out all the time because you're too tired to cook. Plus when you work out that hard you eventually get injured and now you have medical bills (say you're from the US without saying you're from the US). Corset + pads ftw!
in the past if they wanted a skinny waist they would pad out the hips and bust to make the waist seem smaller, know you have to either be born with a small waist or get surgery to make it smaller
Oh my gosh I’ve never thought about that, what a great point. Also the fashion these days having sooooo much skin showing vs very little (depending of course on country/era regarding the neck and chest).
I was in the National Women's rights museum in New York a few years ago before the pandemic, and I remember seeing on the first floor a life size cardboard cutout of a woman wearing a corset, and then a woman next to her with the "horrors" of a corset, the shifted organs and stuff. This was before I was interested in or paid attention to fashion history though, but I was just thinking about that while watching this video, and I think it's sad that women are learning this thinking its real. Like Mina said do we really believe everything else doctors said back then? I feel that we can't really progress if we don't know about the past, and our modern perceptions of corsets give a bad inpression of women back then. Edit: and my women's studies professor just talked about how corsets made women faint, shifted organs, etc. in class a few days ago. Then she said in the 1920s they got rid of corsets and we're liberated. It made me so upset.
If you mean Bernadette, Mina and Karolina - completely agree. While Aby and Nicole are just obnoxious, vulgar and self centered ( can you both control yourselves? )... hopefully this will be taken as a constructive criticism and not a roast.
@@kristinemicule9748 that’s not constructive criticism. You just called them names without any specific examples of what they’re doing and how they can improve.
@@kristinemicule9748 That is neither constructive criticism *nor* a roast - both of which generally require the speaker or at least the *framing* of the speech to be *demonstratively* well-intentioned. This does not suggest anything so good-natured. The comment is, however, both obnoxious and vulgar! 👍 This video was posted on *Abby's* channel. If you can't stand watching someone, perhaps you *ought not watch them.*
I will note, the whole "holding onto the bedpost while someone tightens your corset" is actually helpful. It's not that my helpers have been yanking on my laces particularly hard or particularly tight, it's just that it doesn't take much of a tug to make you teeter when it's right near your center of gravity. If someone yanks on the back of my regular pants I'll just bend at the waist, but I can't do that in my corset so it's harder to compensate and balance. The bedpost, the door frame, and my husband have all been repurposed as balance aids during one lacing or another.
I was in a period play this past semester in school and talked about corsets to anybody who would listen. I spent a lot of time in the costume shop, too, so a lot of people had to listen to me. It turns out that a lot of people were interested in knowing more because I recommended so many UA-cam channels to so many people.
As someone that sold corsets at conventions and had to make a spectacle of it at times to draw in a crowd, I have found that its easier to put your foot on their back, if the person getting laced into a corset is kneeling, then its plenty easy to get your foot up between their shoulder blades. But then your angle for pulling the laces is weird, so it is ABSOLUTELY for show and has very VERY few practical purposes.
Ladies - you said it. Imagine spending years of your life studying and practicing something - in my case, psychiatry - and then a youtube video pops up and everyone can suddenly know more than I do immediately. This has been the story of my life. Why should fashion historians be any more respected than any other educated women? (/s)
I can see the headlines now!: "This just in! Vogue's reputation in the historical costuming community plummets after embarrassing trainwreck of an "Everything You Need to Know About Corsets" video! Dislikes disabled and schooled in the comments; for a company established in 1892, no doubt able to have period-accurate sources from *themselves* on this topic, it's ironic and hilarious how badly they did."
The spanx description is the most accurate thing I've ever f*&king heard. Omg. Spanks are like the worst part of pantyhose plus the worst parts of underwear were forged together in hell by satan himself. I have given up and decided I'd rather look lumpy or build a corset than deal with them. I agree with Karolina, where are all the deadly spanx scenes in movies? Like, that is built in comedy gold.
Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society member here! Have the zippered bag-it’s holding all of my embroidery floss. 😄 I love this now-series! You’re all so good at breaking down the issues with these videos! OMG the spanx rolling!! I thought it was just me! I wore an off-brand version under my bridesmaids dress and I put hooks and eyes in both it and the bra I wore so I could hook them together to keep from rolling.
Spanx leave big welts on me for over twelve hours after I take them off. I don't have any problems from my custom corset or stays, even though I made them when I was much thinner than I am now.
At the end : Victorian lady clearly suffering from the utmost pain caused by her killer corset. Source : some UA-camr who knows what they’re doing (contrary to everything you need to know 5 min video editor) On a more serious note: That was such a great video. And I have to ask: would you (I mean the Catherine de Médicis time travel society) be up for a short movie/ period drama/ thriller about a killer Spanx that suffocates its victims one by one, and where the corset-wearing minority will unveil the truth and save the day ? I’d certainly watch that movie
The one issue I had with wearing corsets was my abs and back muscles getting weaker. After 3 years of wearing one everyday that was the only thing I can mention as a downside. And even then taking pilates and yoga fixed me right up.
I feel you ladies, I’m in the manhua/manhwa sphere which is RIF with corset hate and misinformation, especially within the community just as much as the artists/authors. Then they link random influencers, who have no dress history education or even being a enthusiast, as “proof” :) so happy Mina has joined I love her 😍
Does our culture not ALWAYS place the opinions of doctors over patients, especially women? Because I’m a medical anthropologist and if you have evidence of that, I would like to see it. 🙃
We *do* make fun of past doctors for other assumptions about women, though, in other contexts. Like how certain sports would make women's uteruses pop out of their bodies. I agree that contemporary doctors are generally given considerable deference over their contemporary patients, but that isn't quite the dynamic at play, here. There's less preventing the disruption of that dynamic, because the great dynamic of the "Progress" narrative is at play: People that are temporally, geographically, or culturally non-proximate to me (let's code them all as backward and "primitive") made all the mistakes and are not very clever and now we can laugh at their stupidity. That can trump the normal deference for doctors easily - and does in many circumstances, especially when 19th century men are telling women about their bodies. To be clear, I am not accusing the people making this video of falling into this alternative narrative - only noting, as they also did, that it is actually rather striking that the popular corset rhetoric somehow resisted this other narrative. I think in this case, it is just that the corsets themselves are alien enough that they become the laughingstock, instead of the outlandish-sounding medical opinions. Either way, though, I don't think the propensity to laugh at the errors of the past in any way erases the authoritative voice of doctors over their contemporaries. Laughing at doctors of the past may even in some ways solidify the dependence of patients on *modern* medicine and the progress that has been made, since. It suggests that "we" know better, now, but that knowledge is rooted in perceived medical and scientific authorities.
I've had people comment on my responses to videos like this, that they have written a thesis, proving that those doctors from the 18th and 19th century were entirely correct. I just want to run, screaming, away from idiots like that!
@@habituscraeftig that's not the point. the point is doctors ignore womens' lived experience and stick to their own ideas about whats happening instead of listening to women. it is still a very prevelant problem particularly with pain. I know many women, myself included, who have gone to a doctor to discuss painful symptoms they are experiencing and they are dismissed for various reasons. I had a repetitive strain injury that went untreated despite descriping a common sympton to my doctor, my friend had endometriosis and another found lumps on her cervix that the doctor wouldnt even attempt to find HERSELF (woman doctor, not just male doctors) this person wasn't having any of it tho and told her to stick her fingers up as far as they would go or she'd go somewhere else. Luckily the doctor discovered them too once she was pressed to.
I honestly would LOVE A VIDEO with a Medical Doctor about the Corsets and the Pregnancy Corsets. It would be interesting to see the Doctor's thoughts and honest opinion about the Corset after telling them and having them wear it.
"Take a drink every time they say 'patriarchy' or 'patriarchal'." Cut to me worried that Abby will pass out. Thank you all for another fantastic video! I just love this group and gah! Still need my membership into the Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society.
So my wedding laced up the back (modern corseted I guess?) and one of my bridesmaids said "I know exactly what to do!", grabbed the laces, put her foot on my back (right over the laces), and yanked. It. Was. TIGHT! But I sure looked fabulous. During the ceremony where I was just standing I was fine, but at the reception when I wanted to party I had to take my mother-in-law into a back room and have her loosen the laces because I legit was having trouble breathing. Horray. These myths are not fun and not cool.
Even using their logic, it doesn't make any sense: Back then, evil patriarchy made you change your figure by padding, and using boned undergarments, now it just makes women hate their bodies. Bravo (unenthusiastic clapping)
I'm a tiny girl, so I've never had a reason to wear spanx (not that I would - they seem like they'd be very uncomfortable). But I have worn a corset that I made. I wore it all day at a renaissance festival in 90* weather and was comfortable. I could breathe, I could move, I wasn't passing out. I was even carrying a toddler towards the end and survived. I would wear a corset any day of the week over spanx or any other kind of modern-ish shape wear.
I actually squawked out loud when this popped up in my feed. Thank you so much team. Stuck wasting Sunday with a migraine and listening to UA-cam with the screen mostly off to keep me entertained. My ears are ringing from my squawk but it was worth it. .
@@dcchiasson5991 hope you all feel better soon. Ouchy head is a rubbish start to the work week. Very glad I'm working from home and don't have to attempt to drive safely this morning.
@@dcchiasson5991 mine last for a few weeks sometimes. They don't knock me out but they stop me sleeping, or having rational thoughts..... Hope you have a migraine free week.
Love Nicole's vampy Roaring '20s style! It suits her coloring. With regards to the 'foot in the back' cartoon to tight-lace....they may as well have used that scene from 'Mirror, Mirror' where Nathan Lane uses a winch to tight lace Julia Robert's corset for her wedding dress: at least that was physically possible. Improbable, bot possible.
It is interesting to note that the scene from "Mirror, Mirror", looks like it is based on a Satirical Print titled " A correct view of the new machine for winding up the ladies" by Thomas McLean dated to around the 1830s. So that scene is already based on Satire and from my knowledge, no such machine has yet been found or appeared in any later Victorian Era or 19th-century images ( real or satarized).
My wedding dress essentially has a built in corset. There are stiff bones that connect to a stiffened panel around the waist. I love it. I look fabulous. Can't wait to wear it! Oh. And the design is very obviously 1950s Dior inspired. I love it.
I really appreciated Mina taking about punk corsets! I think 'corsets' over the last 40 years have been very outerwear-y, and I really should look around for some analysis on that.
“Our modern idea of patriarchy that we are opposing on the past.” -Bernadette Omg yes. So many times yes. And also applying to other cultures… The patriarchy ofc exists and has existed in other times and place but it never just one way to be. If only ppl would understand that. Perfectly said.
My grandma used to wear a boned girdle for years since the 1950s. We finally convinced her she didn't need one, but she sometimes says she misses the structure under dresses. She didn't wear one every day though. Only for church or for other dressed up occasions. Never with a house dress.
You know, my daughter's teacher asked us to toss together vaguely dickensian costumes for her Christmas pageant this year. This video was basically the scene inside my head as I was sifting through closets going, "I guess... sure... maybe? I need to call my mom and see if she has a shawl." You were all there with me, mocking me.
That whole bit about the spanks and the corset had me dying. I will forever pick a corset over Spanx. Because I can change my tampon in a corset! Have you ever tried to do that in spanks threw that tinny little hole? It’s not fun girl
- I definitely added this mug to my Christmas list and I'm really hoping someone gets it for me. Or I'll just buy it for myself. - Nicole is in EXCELLENT form right from the get-go and I am so excited for the snark to come. - Pretty sure he just said 'Kathleen' de Medici. What? - Did I miss the part about the 19th century? - So much of 'history', especially women's history, is mansplaining that we just to throw out the window. Women's experience/testimonials vs. some doctor? Obviously the man prescribing heroin to children - Worn both Spanx and a corset, and I'll take the corset any day. I was fairly tight-laced too (we were young and neither my friend lacing me nor I knew any better) and it was still really comfortable. Spanx are just hot and confining and they rolled up from the bottom and down from the top and I kept having to mess with them the whole time.
Also the hilarity of the 'look at us, we're so advanced that we got rid of the corset and replaced it with surgery and crash diets'. Yep, super healthy mindset we've got these days.
@@dismurrart6648 I got a banner under the description that said "buy Abby Cox merchandise" that had the products under it. I assume clicking on those would open the link. I don't think I can post links here though.
Absolutely yes to the point ab. doctors, they didnt know sh** back then, why would someone take their testimonial as a trusty source, it's so bizarre 🤯
As a self conscious and bumpy lady, I have tried several types of shapewear. Thights with "belly control", becomes a big roll around my hips. Not flattering. A top with "belly control" became a big roll at my waist. I learned that tucking it into the aforementioned thights actually prevented both from rolling, as long as I left some room for moving. Sadly the top has a very high back, unlike my pretty dresses. A spandex shape dress. It actually works quite well, as long as my dress is loose from the hips. The muffin leg look is not good. Alas, it is held in place by a strap between my legs. Closed with 4 hooks and eyes. Try opening those while slightly tipsy and in a rush. At least I was staying at the place, and could easily change underwear. A cheap boned waist thing, which is actually my favourite, but sadly too small and out of production. It had hardly any elastic, but gave shape with light boning. Several rows of hooks made it possible to adjust the size. It was a little uncomfortable, and did give bumps above and below, but wearing something thight underneath helped. It was also good when wearing heavy skirts, since it spread the weight over my entire waist. It did give me back pain after some time, probably since it didn't fit right. In conclusion, it seems I want a proper corset.
Before you mentioned Spanx, I was thinking: "people who think that corsets are not comfortable, they never used a Spanx body". If you eat in your corset, no problem, you just let the cording loose and its ok but with spanx you can't eat because you spand your stomach and the pressure don't let you breath. I used Spanx for social pressure (my fellow fat siblings used them) but I couldn't. I'm sorry but I like to breathe??? Also, I prefer corset and padding to irreversible body surgery and the damage you can do to yourself dieting. It's too late for me in the last one but just shut up if you think we're better now!
Oh lord, here we go! Glad to see Mina. Yep, Catherine de Medici's time travel club is vast. Nicole is not taking no guff. Those drinking game rules....🤣
I love these conversations. I learn so much and it's fun. It's like tea with friends . I'll have to get my Time Travel Society mug and bag (for craft stuff) for your next collaboration.
Yessss, Mina!! I love that you guys did this. It’s so irresponsible for Vogue to make a video to basically just up their engagement because there’s no justifying the - again- irresponsibility of the statements made as fact. Like tf?? And THANK YOU Abby, for so voicing the frustration of all of us who have worn Spanx and their equivalent. Where your (mine) biggest fear was waking if if the bathroom with part of your dress caught in the damn thing! 🤬
I'm going to give props to Vogue for ACTUALLY acknowledging men wearing corsets. Taking the props back for the tone ("sOmE MeEn!" as if it was the most ridiculous thing the narrator had to say) and the general lack of professionalism. (My drinking game was every time they mention uncomfortableness, generalize tight lacing and overall body horror. Thank God I've taken the "sip of tea" drinking game!)
Do you think that as well as clickbait, there's a vested interest in saying that old fashioned corsets are dangerous so we can sell bras and spanx as the better for you alternative and stop people looking into options that are customised rather than the longer lasting handmade corset?
Spanx and Corsets might both be used for shaping but the corset does so much more. I keep my corset by my desk to keep me from slouching and provide support, and I pull it out whenever I'm doing heavy lifting to remind me to keep good posture too. I might look a little silly but it legit rocks.
I love you all. In the 1960s, 1970's we wore bras, my mom wore bras and girdles. (my sister always wore matching bra and panty sets) By the time of the 1980s I had gone to the Renaissance Fair where I bought corset patterns. I made a corset just to see if I could. Wow was it comfortable! I wore corsets for many years until I got sick (long story) Then many years later I happily found you all. I enjoy all your channels.
The 80s went through a phase where we were ‘strongly encouraged’ to wear expensive, uncomfortable, matching underwire bras, garter belts, panties and stockings all the time. There’s a now hilarious scene in Crossing Delancey where two women meet at a gym and one of them undresses to reveal a complete ‘boudoir’ lingerie set. I’m guessing she had to change into a sports bra and spandex leotard to work out, then shower, then put her boudoir set back on (ew) then dress to go back to work-who’s got time for all that? Who was it for?
I've heard this called chronological snobbery-- the belief that everything in the past must be inferior to the present by virtue of it being...old.
What's really sad about that is the fact that people in the past lived progressively harder and more challenging lives...they could survive almost anything that would cause our soft modern society to implode. These people were strong.
It gets even better. Anyone who is significantly different from you gets to be placed in the past, as well! Because people Over There are "primitive" and "medieval" and "stuck in the past" and have "always been like this - it's just their culture." Aren't they ... modern people reacting to the same global socioeconomic pressures that we all face (and that, in many cases, the privileged Western world has placed on them)? No, no. They get to belong to the inferior past, as well. They don't get to belong to the present, because they don't fit our "Progress" narrative.
This is a HUGE problem even outside of the historical fashion community- it's *everywhere*. If the media you like is older than a few years ago- you're old fashioned. 😩(I'm summarizing the most extreme versions I've seen in online comment sections).
OH YES! Thank you for this comment! 👏🏻
Woooow. THIS.
I love how Karolina just casually looks like she is breaking code at Bletchley during WW2.
This took me out! 🤣
GREAT reference. I got the Bletchley Park book for Christmas last year. Highly recommend for people who love puzzles.
@@medicwebber3037 sameeee it's so good and has a good variety of ones I've never done before
DEAD!!!😂😂
She is definitely smart enough to do that job.
I love it when they cite doctors from back then as proof corsets were torture devices, but then they ignore how these same doctors genuinely believed in things like the wandering womb.
Women before bras: "I found a way to support my boobs, yay!"
Victorian doctors:" These crazy ladies doing extreme stuff because of their vanity 🙄".
@@juliapalos2077 when someone thinks that men somehow invented womens fashion for sole purpose of restricting and oppressing women, or using the argument that since women lived in patriarchy that means that nothing women have ever done actually matters, because patriarchy, even tho men at the time were just like 😒😮🥱🙁😂🙄
Thank you and some even said that having a period was a disease. Literally.
@@elliewuzzup7689 where did they even get that from 😭
@@ashyokami9065 because they take men's bodies as the norm.
When my grandmother developed severe osteoporosis, it was recommended that she wear a back brace. The one she received was uncomfortable and didn't provide adequate support to ease her pain.
My mother, who went to fashion design school and a skilled seamstress, made my grandmother a series of custom corsets, built to perfectly fit her body , and support her torso, while making them easy to put on. Those corsets provided a lot of relief to my grandmother and made her quality of life so much better
There are many types of corsets, and to malign them as patriarchal oppression is a crazy simplification
This is a great idea! I wonder if there are manufacturers who would customize corsets like that today for back issues. So many people have them and find the stuff offered to be painful and inadequate.
I have several because of osteoarthritis from an old injury. Wearing one is a godsend.
@@deborahhill8570 Bernadette Banner has significant scoliosis and talks about how custom corsetry provides her comfort in a number of videos.
I wonder why the doctor couldnt get an adequate back brace?
I wore a corset after surgery (edit: I had healed enough to wear I cld wear it, w Dr.s approval Ofc) when I pulled my back from working out and it became inflamed from Lupus and I needed surgery. It helped a lot and I still wear when I'm having inflammation.
I always just find it extremely funny when they tack on the “women just wanted a skinny waist” line WHILE MEN ACTUALLY DID SUCH THINGS WITH STAYS AND CORSETRY AND ITS NEVER BROUGHT UP BY ANY OF THESE LARGER MEDIA SITES
I will actually defend Vogue on that one, they did mention (in passing) men wearing cosetry. Most of the vid is trash and the narrator said it like it was the silliest joke he'll say at Christmas, but still... They did.
I mean they mentioned it, like "in the BEGINNING corsets were worn by women and SOME men", kinda giving the picture that those "some" men immediately dropped it since the video doesn't ever mention male corsets again :'D
Even if they did want a skinny waist...why is that a bad thing? You can buy shapewear and stuff today, and why shouldn't women be able to wear fashion they want 🤷♀️
YES!!!
@@stephspoilsstuff for real, because we didnt talk enough about body standards and why its not ok to impose them. Also reconsider your "wants" and how they are manufactured by your envornment, people like you always give me sociological seizures. Also my congratulations to all women with preexisting medical conditions that were made more painful and uncomfortable by wearting a tight ass corset all the time.
"It is our modern idea of patriarchy that we are imposing on the past". WELL SAID, Bernadette! This happens across so many categories of history, not just fashion.
It can be a real problem in areas like archaeology, where interpretations of entire eras can be screwed up because of modern values being imposed on the past.
Yes!
@@lyreparadox could you please elaborate on that? I'm just curious how that could apply to archaeology, never thought of that before 🧡
@@britischenadligen3760 I would love to hear that too!
It's also funny how selective it is. Not a historian so no idea if this is accurate at all, but I tend to think of the demonization of corsets as blowback from the bra burning phase of 2nd wave feminism. It's interesting to me how, in most cases, we recognize that women destroying bras, makeup, etc. as "instruments of female torture" was symbolic (the point was to destroy the concept of femininity/ gender roles and not our useful support garments) but in the case of corsets specifically, everybody took it so very literally.
Imagine an alternative timeline where people subsequently applied that same literalism to the evil of bras, resulting in decades of poorly-researched wailing about how the patriarchy forced us all into agonizing underwires!
"Now women of all sizes can hide their fat!" I died laughing at this. I'm plus sized and I would prefer to make myself a corset anyday over looking like a large sausage in a small casing in spanx. No thanks! Corsets are so much more comfortable thank you.
Spanx has been known to cause gastrointestinal problems in women who wear them. I have a friend with IBS who would have a terrible attack after wearing Spanx. She gave up the Spanx, thankfully.
Amen!
😂🤣👏👏👏💯👍💞💖💞
And pretier and if You sew it in average materials are way cheaper than a plus size spanx
Fellow plus size here! I completely agree. Even the off-the-rack ones that aren't perfect for my body (working on making my own) are more comfortable than any of the Spanx (or knock-off Spanx) I've used in the past. I also don't get as many gastrointestinal issues from corsets that always happen in Spanx.
Seriously, Vogue? Friendly reminder that wearing Spanx for long periods of time is not only incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient, but has repeatedly been linked to circulation problems, varicose veins, and serious digestive problems.
But they are Definitely The Healthy And Safe Modern Replacement For Corsets!
Good gracious. Thanks for debunking. Great video.
They can also cause infections in certain places that we shall, due to YTube's overt sensitivity, not mention. It includes yeast infections. If air is not circulating down there, then the yeast and other bacteria can get out of control....
I so need to see that tight lacing video again for laughs and because Vogue needs it tweeted at them ad nauseum. It is what they deserve.
Friendly reminder not all corsets are stiff and cut off circulation. Surprising before brassieres some woman needed to be able to bend over to live life
@@ceceliakra7234 key to life my dear as a mamma bird, just be sure to pick things that are flattering to your shape. Advice for any man or woman slim or thick.
As my mother would say and her mother before her
There doesn't exist an ugly woman in this world, just those that don't know how groom themselves.
Pick what suits you best and brings a smile to your face and your face alone. You'll be stunning no matter where you go.
right? and the fact that it was VOGUE who claimed this, the world’s most acclaimed fashion magazine, is REALLY scary. can you imagine how many people looks up to vogue for fashion advice? :( what a bunch of hogus vogus
I used to work in historical reenactment and living history. The FIRST question I was asked on a daily basis by visitors was some version "What's it like to wear/work in a corset?" I had to remain in character. I would express the general disbelief and shock that women would even consider not wearing a corset and petticoats. "Sir/Madam, that would be most uncomfortable. All of these layers resting on the skin would not put one at ease. Imagine how that must feel? Not to mention the lack of support for one's back when completing the daily chores. I understand that some doctors believe that we women should not wear corsets as it may be injurious to our health when the laces are drawn in severely, but I for one cannot count a single woman whom I know to follow this practice. Perhaps this is something only the very wealthy do, but one also cannot trust the photographs of Ms. Clifford. She is well known for "painting" her appearance. To tighten a corset so severely would indeed be uncomfortable and is a mark of plain vanity. A corset, properly worn, supports the back and abdomen as well as the many layers of dress and thus prevents harm. No sir/madam, I do not think the corset will ever become unnecessary-particularly for women who work or are expected to maintain their own households."
The very idea that a corset could be comfortable was so utterly alien to them that many refused to believe that what we said was true and would argue with us, telling us were were "poor and oppressed" victims of a patriarchal society. One of my fellow reenactors got very annoyed one day and responded to one such comment with, "Yes, of course I must not be able to think for myself. I must need a man to tell me how to live and how to train this horse." Before she proceeded to gentle the still-wild stallion we had recently acquired from BLM. She was our horse trainer-her character was based on a real person from our records who ran one of the largest ranches in the region. That shut the visitor up. I will always remember that one.
That’s epic
No one spoke like that then lmao
Bless you
That is one of the most beautiful comments I have ever read on UA-cam! You are a legend. I was dying with laughter.
A stallion acquired from BLACK LIVES MATTER?
"It's almost like we are trying to prove our own 'anti-patriarchy' by imposing a patriarchal lens on the past" omg Bernadette you couldn't be more accurate. I think we do that in many ways nowadays when we look back at history.
Why did Vogue not reach into their OWN archives to research the women's articles?
Excellent question! That is a mystery for sure.
Apparently not
That would be effort.
they are lazy and clearly want to perpetuate a discourse that can't be backed up with actual historical evidence. it is so unfortunate they wasted all the amazing information they literally own! :/
... Maybe they did. Maybe they knew the intentions of marketing the corset because Vogue designers kept their papers and Vogue made many trend. I love everybody here on this panel but maybe Vogue says this because they knew what was the purpose. They advertised it. Trust me Haute Couture have many skeletons in their closet.
Maybe the corset was indeed a good bra and not as torturous as people make it to be, but there could also be the intent of perpetuating a curvy silhouette for men at the same time... This isn't exclusive.
I use my freedom of speech to say that maybe the conspiracy that corsets are the epitome of girlboss is more nuanced lol
Mina! Fabulous Mina has joined the fabulously dressed group of fabulousness!
Yes! So happy to see her! These are like all my favorite UA-camrs all in one place I can't even!
The only one missing from here is Rachel Maksy and we're cookin' with gas!
So happy to see her here ❤️
I would watch a weekly show with all these ladies. I really would.
they need micarah tewers for some chaotic spice
Bernadette telling you to take a shot every time they talk about patriarchy and then saying patriarchy 3 times in one sentence killed me 😂
That's when I think Abby went and threw up...
I thought Abby shoulda been a drinkin'
That unearthly dissonance where a one-size-fits-most unit of Spanx is supposed to be more "accessible" to women of all shapes and sizes than a *custom tailored* pair of stays.
Exactly. It's just sickening ignorance. 🙄
I've tried to wear spanx a few times before, but honestly, they didn't even make me look slimmer, all they did was make me warm, uncomfortable and gassy. Seriously, these things squeeze farts out of you, and if you're wearing spanx in the first place, you're probably at a kind of fancy event like a wedding or a school prom, so that's not exactly ideal.
I am plus size and they literally don't make Spanx in my size. So this idea that Spanx are more inclusive and body positive than corsets or stays is BS.
I mean, these are ugly. Although i wear neither, but corsets at least are beautiful.
The only time I wore spanx was when I bought some and wore them out and was so uncomfortable and lightheaded I went to the bathroom at a restaurant and trashed them and finished out my day commando lol. They were awful. And these were not like full body spanx, there were the underwear version but they were so tight I couldn’t breathe even though I’d bought my correct size.
Vogue missed a huge opportunity to go into their OWN archives and make an informative video.
Instead we got clickbait.
I think the thing that gets me about claiming Spanx >corsets is that stretched elastic is always trying to return to its original size. A corset is laced down to the desired circumference and the laces tied, and stays at that circumference until removed. If I buy a pair of Spanx and the waistband measures 24" around, I'm just constantly getting squeezed as that elastic tries to return to its initial size. There's no chance of the body and the garment reaching an equilibrium, because the garment is always pushing.
I think you just explained perfectly why I hate spanx. It just feels like I decided to sink whatever the spanx is touching 100ft down in deep water, like just insane never ending pressure, while whatever the spanx isn't touching feels normal. I absolutely hate it.
Its like when you're a kid and the pressure on the airplane is way too much for your ears but you just have to deal with that pressure for hours until you land.
Yes!!!
Omg yes! This is why I can't wear those novelty elastic belts, it simply hurts, suffocates me and gives me panic attacks. Tightlaced corset? None of that.
I hate spanks. I think they are far worse then any corset I've ever worn.
True. The pressure of a corset is something, you can relax into (or against).
It's like sitting on the ground with your back against a rock or tree stump. Maybe not the most comfortable thing ever (depending, of course, on how well the corset fits), but the human body is literally evolved to deal with that kind of hard, unchanging pressure on our skin/tissue.
Modern shape wear on the other hand....it feels like being suffucated to me. Or squeezed to death. It's not just 'uncomfortable', it's feels threatening to me. I wanne rip it off my body as fast as I possibly can.
I mean, maybe it's a matter of getting used to. I've never tried, because I just disliked the feeling so much.
I challenge you all to make an “everything you need to know about corsets in 5 minutes” video. See how much accurate information can actually be included
Even split it up into eras, 5 minutes each. I would watch the hell out of that collab
I want this so much!
Thats a Titanic task
Upvote!
Yes yes yes!
Something that no one mentions when talking about the whole "corsets moved internal organs" thing is that even if they *did* move internal organs, WOMEN'S ORGANS ARE MEANT TO MOVE! THAT'S HOW PREGNANCY WORKS! Your organs actually rearrange to make room for the baby! And then they move back over time after the baby is born. Our bodies are crazy cool.
I can only give your comment one thumbs up, but I would give you 50 more. Love your comment. 💯👍❤
Truth. I had a baby in early November and am very happy to have my stomach back up out of my esophagus now. Abs... still awol.
I can't believe I've never thought about that before!!🤯
Yes, I thought the same!
LMAO That's exactly what I thought too! Having had 4 pregnancies and children, after pregnancy everything is seriously messed up as it goes back into place! And let's not even mention what having a c-section does to a woman's body...cause after 3 normal births and a 4th one c-section, the surgery messes you up way, way more than just child birth alone. 50lbs of swelling and I was like a water balloon that had been overfilled. Normally my booty goes straight out the back side, it became a wide load post surgery. And what do they give you after surgery? A velcro type of stomach support! Where do these crazy magazines come up with this nonsense?
"Take a drink every time they bring up the patriarchy" Bernadette was out for her liver
"Some doctors believed..." didn't the doctors believed that the women anatomy was not designed to ride a train? or was that just a myth like the mandatory metal corset at the begging?
No, yeah. There were whole things about the speed of the train causing a prolapsed uterus. They also thought riding a bike, running a marathon, or just jostling around too much would cause a prolapse. I personally think (with my approximate 20 minutes of Google research and no prior qualifications) that the abysmal gynecology practices of the time (like shoving things "up there" to "help" during birth) were leading to a higher likelihood of that happening and the moral panic over new things was projected onto the incidences.
Before the 70’s girls were prohibited to participate at running competition because their “uterus would fall”. So you would imagine the weird and wonderful things that man were eager to make everyone believe!
And I’m sure the working class women were like “bruh how tf do y’all think we’re still alive?”
@@бронза.вафля.конус working class women back then couldnt afford to ride trains
@@youknow7856 yeah but they sure as hell did a lot more strenuous work than something as simple as sitting on a train and jostling around for 30 minutes
Top tier, honestly. I would’ve added a rule about “drunk every time metal boning was made out to be this god awful horrible thing” as if we don’t have metal underwire in modern bras 🙄
If I had to take a shot for every time I've been stabbed by my underwire I'd be dead many times over.
@@lajoyous1568 alcohol poisoning to the extreme. At that point your BAC is .08% blood.
I mean, to be fair, I refuse to wear bras because of it and only wear bralettes lol
I recently ripped underwire out of my worst bras... then they were still shit so I yeeted them.
@@akechijubeimitsuhide yeah, that doesn’t work well. Underwire-free bras need to be completely differently designed, structurally, to provide any sort of support. There’s a brand of wire-free bra called Trusst (I think) that uses the principle of the truss - a structural support member also seen in some bridges - to provide such wire-free support. Just yanking the wires out of an underwire bra tends to just put strain on the straps instead.
All that said, I’ve done the same thing on occasion, usually when one of the underwires breaks, and I’d rather look equally poor on both sides but balanced, rather than supported on one side and drooping on the other. LOL
I literally wrote my anthropology paper on why the corset is actually good overall and how men came to demonize it. It was super condensed history but was like 10 pages. Yet I just needed to make a 5 minute video and call it a day
Uh. So do you have a copy of that paper?
@@MissCaraMint no published
@@basementdwellercosplay dang. Sounded interesting.
@@MissCaraMint I would publish the Google doc copy I have of it but don't know how and don't have time since finals are coming up(edit: after finals I'll try to upload it since a few people are interested)
Same here, would love to read it or, you could send it to one of the women in the video for distribution.
The idea of wearing a well fitting corset sounds like getting a hug all day to me.
i wear corsets almost every day and this is how i describe it to people. it really does feel like a hug that also kinda holds you up.
@@existential-axolotl Exactly. You know when you get it just right because it feels good, and supportive.
I read a comment once that said wearing a corset helped with their anxiety.
@@6thgraderfriends can confirm, actually
@@6thgraderfriends a lot of people find compression comforting so that makes sense
Mina Le is now a part of the group too?? Yes!!
Edit : the fact that they gave Spanx a small hole so women could pee screams that it was designed by men, cuz any logical woman would know that we can't aim that shit, wtf
Omg when you do the hover and you get leg drip, it's the worst feeling 😫
Either that or they think we breathe through our v*****.
Spanx. Created by Sara Blakely.
I was reading a webcomic called "The Princess's Jewels" and someone commented about how the main character and her mother always got such excellent lift with no bras and wondered how they could pull it off... I pointed out that they were probably wearing a corset or stays of some kind that offered the desired support. I don't know why people think they're only for making the waist smaller.
Women before bras: "I found a way to support my boobs, yay!"
Victorian Men:" These crazy ladies doing extreme stuff because of their vanity 🙄".
Oooo, I love that webtoon!
Awww love that webtoon! Such pretty fashions x3
I love that webtoon, I was actually just reading it now, the art is so pretty
Ok
you know how back then doctors would dismiss women’s symptoms are “hysteria”? I wonder if a similar phenomenon happened with the corset. like “oh your health problems aren’t real, it’s probably because you lace your corset so tight”.
That's a great point!
That adds the extra opportunity to make it a moral judgement. "If you weren't so vain this wouldn't be happening"
From what I can gather, Spanx are just what we in the '60s called panty girdles. They were made of elastic, probably Spandiex,. Each leg had two clips for holding up you nylons that gave you welts from sitting on them all day. They moved your belly fat up around your waist, the first muffin tops. You had to pull them down to go to the toilet until someone got wise and made them with a slit crotch. Sweaty and uncomfortable. They were second garment you would rip off when you got home; the bra was first. Never again will I wear anything close to that hellish garment. At 73yr, I have finally given up wearing a bra and wear undersized cammies instead. Also, it makes me happy to see all you smart, strong young women! Love your videos. I learn so much.
The real difference between the Spanx I've seen (can't imagine wearing them) and my mother's girdles is that spanx are woven items, like very heavyweight tights, no abutting, different directional elasticated panels of girdles. Another item I'd never dream of wearing. Too fond of breathing properly.
@@michellebyrom6551 *knit items. tights are knitted, and I think spanx are too
Spandex didn’t exist in the Sixties. Panty girdles are a late Seventies innovation. A pre Spanx.
Thanks for the history lesson, Janet. I’m 22 and have just stopped wearing bras too
Elizabeth Claiborne are you telling someone who actually wore panty girdles in the sixties (I did too btw) that they weren't around until the late seventies?
I just very calmly and clearly tried to explain to someone in that corsets are not medieval torture devices that women were forced to wear so the patriarchy could break their rib cages, and they proceeded to insult my intelligence and then tell me you can’t breathe in a corset so I directed them towards all of your UA-cam videos. Thank you for doing what you do!
It's exhausting trying to explain that to someone. I feel you 😞
Sheesh, even when I tight-lace a too-small lingerie corset (purchased to be re-worked into something costume-y) I can still breathe just fine. Not full lung capacity, but fine. And that's misuse of a cheap thrift store find. With my custom Elizabethan stays I walked outdoors all day, no problem.
funny thing, I got those comments at work. My opinion was not belived despite me actualy having corset wearing experience and neiter of them did.
Despite me having worne corset at that moment, clearly breathing just fine carrying tables and other furniture just fine and working underneith a grand piano, either siting and bend forword very low or lying down, twisting to reach everything I needed to clean the entrinsicly carved legs . . . for hours . . . .they saw me do that and they do not belive that one can move and be physicly active in a corset?!
Makes no sense. Working women wore corsets and stays all the time. How would they do their jobs if they couldn't breathe?
@@kenna163 . . . sometimes people do not thing, only belive
I loved the part about "If it fits right you're fine" it's like bras. Yeah, if you wear a wrong one it's uncomfortable but like if you find one that fits they can be very helpful. It's not black and white
I just hate that to get a bra that fits, I have to order from the UK or an expensive boutique (that orders from the UK) and spend a minimum of $60. It is worth it, though, for the relief my mid back feels and not getting an under bust skinfold rash.
@@macherie1234 I remember seeing a woman on one of those talk shows, like Jerry Springer, but mich less dramatic, hosted by a woman (Jenny?) and her bosom went down to her waist. She had to get her brassiers and dresses custom made to accommodate her "Himalayas," they called them.
I always thought of corsetry and tailoring techniques as giving power back from the clothes to the wearer. The historical mindset that clothes should fit YOU, not you fitting the clothes seems a lot healthier to me than our modern concept of "nothing off the rack fits like I want it to, so I am the problem".
I’ve been wearing a men’s underbust corset daily for about 3 weeks now, and I have to say my posture is better, I have less headaches, the knots between my shoulders are gone because I don’t slouch anymore. My clothes fit better, have cleaner lines.
It’s also doing wonders for my butt cuz I’m forced to bend and lift with the legs, meaning they get more of a work out now…
Now that some of your muscles are trained into good habits, you might be able to menatin this with less support 😉
Hey, also a corset-wearing man and really glad to read other guys wearing them :) I also found I had a lot of benefits by wearing a corset (even if it was punctual), the only downside I've personally felt being a higher susceptibility to tension headaches since I do a lot of table-top RPGs and had to keep my head down for long periods to check my sheets.
I've made it both for fashion and as a challenge as a beginner sewer, and I love it it's my child and most precious possession. (Also, I've lightly altered the shape since it was a bit too cinch-y, both visually and comfortably.)
I want a corset but don't know how to ask my mother for one 😓
@@anatine_banana_69
Is there a purpose you want it for and she would support?
I got my self a "cheap" costuming one for a cosplay I initially made because I couldn't have made a cheaper mockup .
Once I knew I liked it marking one was still daunting thought
@@anatine_banana_69 Did you know that a corset can help with anxiety? It’s like experiencing an all day hug. Plus, it will help your posture.
10:30 ---> Bernadette is SPOT ON. I always feel that all those scenes in historical movies with oppressive corsets and women not being able to learn to read or do anything, and generally taking everything that we know about the past and distorting it to extreme, is supposed to make us modern people feel superior (we're NOT LIKE THEM ANYMORE, we're so FREE) and look down on the past with faux sympathy without trying to see the nuance (like in "Becoming Jane" where Hathaway bumps into McAvoy in the forest and says: "I'm alone so I can't talk to you" --> I beg your pardon, how many scenes do we have in Austen's own books where unengaged mixed couples take walks together? And even though mixed couples technically shouldn't be alone INDOORS, in Pride and Prejudice when Darcy comes to the parsonage before his 1st proposal and finds Lizzy alone, neither of them freaks out and runs away, it's a normal visit).
Ikr? Take, for example, the new Cinderella. The whole "women can't own businesses" thing really annoyed me. Like... that's not generally the problem and also glosses over the many many women in history that DID own businesses, and had their own real struggles.
@@starsun6363 YUP. Don't get me started on Bridgerton where I think there's a man who openly asks "will she breed" or some such about Daphne and his crassness doesn't immediately disqualify him as her suitor. Or when she comes out and hey presto, starting from day 2 strange guys are milling in her living room like it's a fancy car showroom because SHE'S OPEN FOR BUSINESS and of course NO REGULAR MAN BACK THEN WANTED TO MARRY A WOMAN THEY'D ACTUALLY LIKE AS A PERSON. At least Bridgerton doesn't even pretend to be historically accurate so I could watch on after a few deep breaths, but it's still annoying that, having decided they can take liberties with the past, they still decided to keep and even amp up the most idiotic tropes about it, to the point where it's not even satirical, but straight-up cartoonish.
I feel like it really shuts down in depth conversations about history too when people look at it as though it was happening with present day understandings.
@@ESPHMacD Absolutely! I think I want to add in to this their assertion that the editors at Vogue have to have learned what they have learned. People often don't share knowledge because it's so common to them that they don't think of it. I can't tell you the number of times I tell my mother something I just learned, and she goes, "You didn't know that? I know that. Why don't you know that?"
I think that a lot of times there are things and thoughts and ideas that got left in the past not because modern ideas are superior, but because those who knew them did not pass them down well enough for them to persist.
I think also people forget how much of modern society is directly caused by ancient knowledge and behavior. Like the discussion of 19th century physicians knowing nothing and being a madhouse? But then smallpox vaccination started in the 18th century, and that's a concept we still hold firmly to.
That's true. Just take "Far from the madding crowd" that was written BY A MAN, for example. Bathsheba, the female protagonist, is very often spending her time alone with a man, outside. Wth does that myth come from ? I mean there's just so many things wrong with the past that could be exploited in a feminist perspective, you don't need to invent "facts".
I remember one time the corset topic came on class back when I was in highschool and one dude was like "but organs aren't supposed to move around tho" the teacher, one of my friends and I looked at him like MF do you even know how pregnancy works?, Organs in general are kinda squishy and malleable, thats why we need our thorax to keep shit in place lmao
I love what Mina was able to add to this conversation with her modern fashion history and designer knowledge! The perfect addition to the Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society!
For Halloween, I wore my handmade 18th century outfit, complete with stays. I wore it to work, as a high school teacher, from 7:45 am to about 4:30 pm. The most uncomfortable thing? The amount of times I was asked, “so you loved Outlander A LOT, right?”
Tbh, I wear my stays whenever I have to do a lot of work bent over or sat at a desk bc it stops me from having strain in my back.
I also wore my 18th century outfit: chemise, stays, petticoat, underskirt and Robe en L"Anglaise, to school for Halloween. I am a middle school English teacher. I dressed as Bess from The Highwayman poem.
@@jennipherlewis3221 OK but was the musket included?? Gotta be accurate after all
@@CoRLex-jh5vx No musket, just a large gaping hole and lots of blood. Very accurate.
@@jennipherlewis3221I actually can't tell you just how much I love this....
Abby: Gets progressively tipsier, but somehow remains incredibly articulate and pontificates at length about TRUE historical facts.
I bow to greatness.
Info dumper abound. I would ask so many questions if I met someone like them in a bar!
You could say the same phrase without the *:*
I wanted to touch for a moment on the size for every woman thing that Mina brought up (as a plus size lady) even if we are talking about cheap Amazon fashion corsets or fetish wear (any sort of ready-made) corsets, it’s 1000% easier even now to find one in a plus-size than it is to find modern shape wear in a plus size
Not that those corsets are good or my suggestion but like while you CAN have a corset custom made to any size, it is just also still way easier to find a corset in a bigger size than it is to find shape wear
Yeah, even the more decent off the rack options (better than amazon fake corsets at least) go up quite large. Timeless Trends do up to a 42" waist as the closed corset size and with larger waists they tend to be much squishier so a 42" could easily fit someone with a natural 52" waist. Mystic City Corsets also do up to 42" (perhaps higher in some styles). And whilst I don't recommend them for quality of construction and the shaping isn't ideal (frequent issue is not enough space in the upper hip as the hips are cut more conical less cupped), Orchard Corset do up to a 46" waist. And on the smaller end Timeless Trends and Orchard Corsets both go down to 16" and Mystic City have a few styles which go down to 14"! So like even without going custom there are potential size matches for so many people. Obviously the other proportions matter too, so fit might not be spot on, but most people can find something close.
Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society member, with a wonderful little phone case that goes everywhere with me. This was hilarious! It boggles the mind that videos like this continue to be made (and by companies like Vogue, no less!) when, as you all stated, there is SO MUCH information to the contrary. I know the video was only 5 minutes long, but based on the rules I was a little afraid you’d wind up with alcohol poisoning.
Thank you for your myth busting and for the much needed laughter!
How do I join and get the merch?
@@tiredoftrolls2629 it's in Abbys shop.
I sometimes wonder if Vogue, and other such fashion institutes, are anti-femininity. Like, so many times I have seen articles that kind of sideways insult people who have more traditional/less modern ideas of what it means to be a woman/feminine.
@@michellebyrom6551 *Where is Abby's Shop?* It's never linked in her video descriptions and it's not on her website either?! I'd love to throw some money her way, if I could find the bloody thing.
@@lyreparadox go to abbys channel, then the shop tab at the top.
When I have to argue with someone about stays and corsets, I always finish the argument saying:"what if you had boobs and you lived before bras were a thing? Exactly you wore stays or corsets."
Like come on, even folk clothes in whole damn Europe included structured vests for the female peasents/ farmers.
As someone with a very large chest, this is like the most true thing. Anything even slightly corset-like is SO MUCH more comfortable and supportive than a modern bra. We never talk about how awful sports bras are, or how for larger busts, you can’t just take something for an A cup and scale the fabric up to a G. Incredibly infuriating.
Abby's description of spanks was so accurate to my experiences with them! It's like literally planning your outfit around how you are going to go to the bathroom!
Vogue makes a video about corsets.
Me: here we go again.
And somehow it's worse than I expected because they failed to check the material that THEY published.
I mean... in the last days of 2021, after at least two years of a *big* jump in popularity of the corset as an intellectual study subject and fashion item... that VOGUE manages to scramble out (with the least effort I've ever seen in any "all you should know about [blank] in [X] minutes" ever) a short video about "Hey, btw, patriarchy, uncomfortable, deformity, we modern, we better!" just baffles me.
The door. Was open... So. Wide. For Vogue to educate, popularize and build a corset-making service. They could have made so much money and chose to be bullies.
(They or he, I actually don't know how Vogue's internal hierarchy works, but I can't believe such an outrageous piece went past the editing committee.)
@@NWolfsson And then women who are looking for functional, daily use corsetry at a reasonable price might have better options than used Renaissance stuff on Mercari.
Vogue has lost its own credibility as an authority on fashion - the uninformed view on Dior and his built in stays shows a lot of regrettable amateurism within the publication's editorial (read content...) staff. Thanks Ladies and Abby - respect for honoring Kentucky at least 4 times there...you all should get into an episode of Drunk History(bounding.)
THIS!! Abby doing a drunk history! But maybe with some Blanton's instead. 😉
oh yes! get in touch with Drunk History! that would be an incredible series of shows. Abbey and ladies y'all NEED to do that!!!!
Bernadette may sip Sherry or champagne. :-)
Honestly, I was like "Huh. Vogue. Certainly such an authority would take a page out of UA-cam's experts in the field and- NOPE! They ran straight into the trap!". Honestly, that's just sad.
I wonder if they just got an unpaid intern to write it in a single workday, googled the pictures and then everyone was just like "looks decent let's run it, not one cares about the facts" :/
I’ve had the pain and depression (and frankly ugly crying) from the “nothing fits” as a large woman, and have friends who are “smaller” than “normal” or are “oddly shaped” that have as well. It’s part of why I started following so many of you on YT.
Frankly, I feel you as a group are far more body positive than a lot of the toxic body “positivity” out there.
Now I just have to figure out how to deal with my body’s limitations and disabilities to hopefully follow in your footsteps!
I hear You sister that was the reason that i started sewing because nice clothes are design for a certain type of body that isnt mine so I quit torturing myself and learn to make clothes (tough thats another kind of torture sometimes😅) and I have allways loved históric clothing thats why i found Bernadette channel and periodically everyone else and now i'm a fan
Supposedly, the clothing stores make an average out of their desired customer base and then make the clothes in those measurements. So in fact, what you're getting is an average of hundreds or thousands of people's measumerents, including the extreme curves and straight line bodies. Plus they have to make it fit 5+ body types, which is frankly impossible unless it's a literal sack, so they have to make the shape less shapely.
And what you don't see in the photos on the sites is the clips holding the extra fabric so the clothing looks like it fits. Ever wonder why the fitted top looks baggy? that's why.
@@SugiyamaHiromin it's true that the sizes in shops are composite of many body shapes but it is a fact that many clothing suppliers only sell items up to certain dimensions. High Street shops generally stop around 18 in the UK . But high end designers often don't make anything larger than a UK 12 which is smaller than the national average!
Honestly... even as an hourglass, most things don't fit. I feel like modern sizes are made to fit rigid mannequins and nothing else.
@@akechijubeimitsuhide Exactly! I’m a large hourglass, but if I buy for my hips and bust, I get no waist, even if I try to get it tailored. Because where it has to be taken in affects the places that are just right, so if I get it tailored I get gaps.
Also, I just want to mention under this video that I did a year of a costuming degree at UAL and during this year we were taught that standard practice when making a corset was to take our measurements, minus two inches from the waist measurement, then start following the Victorian pattern drafting instructions with incorrect measurements. I think this might be a reason that the women who do have real life experiences with corsetry have such negative ones. There aren’t many costumers out there and I know that about 1/5th of the British ones at least are being taught to make badly fitting corsets that are too small every time.
I would love to know why when we 'progressed' to our modern bra we stopped wearing stuff under them. Like with corsets, stays, bodies etc we had shifts and chemises, but now we have synthetic materials and elastic and flimsy stabby underwire and we put that right up against out bare skin.
I feel like that might be to do with technological advances that made washing clothes easier? Both in terms of the actual equipment used to wash clothes, and in terms of synthetic fabrics being developed that stood up to regular cleaning better than potentially more delicate organic materials. And synthetic fabrics would I think also have made clothing easier/cheaper to produce, which combined with more efficient production methods, people could afford to buy and own more clothes in general than in the past, and clothing stopped being looked at as much of a long-term investment because it was financially and logistically much more easily replaceable.
What I mean by this is - the shifts and chemises, in particular, were worn under other garments specifically because white linen or cotton was easiest to wash with the harsh chemicals which at the time was your best guarantee of ensuring cleanliness. So the layer closest to your skin was relatively easy to clean, and would pick up most of the sweat/body oils, etc, preserving the garments layered over the top. And these wouldn't need to be cleaned as often, helping them to last longer, and also ensuring that you could get more frequent use out of one outer garment without worrying about needing to wash it. And because historically, fabric took SO much work to produce, clothing was mostly designed to last as long as possible, and you would buy less of it, alter it once you had it, and stretch out its usefulness, because it was a particularly costly expense. As I said above - it would've been treated more like an investment in some ways.
So the whole mindset around clothes historically was centred more around making them last, and the idea of how many clothes it was normal to own on average was lower, because of the expense and also because the way clothing was designed, you could get away with spending/owning less than you could nowadays. Once those factors were no longer in play as regards the fashion/textile industries, the reasons for needing to wear so many layers just stopped affecting people, because they could wear outer clothes next to the skin and still easily wash them, and didn't need to worry so much about preserving their clothes because clothing became cheaper.
You’re not putting underwire directly against your skin though, it’s covered by fabric. It’s not supposed to stab either - that’s actually a super common sign that your bra doesn’t fit well.
@@eileen1020 tbf op is also talking about use of synthetic fabric and general flimsiness in modern garments. And I mean, in comparison to a corset, wearing a bra technically is still wearing it against your bare skin? The boning of a corset is also covered by fabric as part of its design but traditionally, you'd have a further layer of fabric between corset and skin in the form of a chemise. So that is actually more protection against digging in/chafing. And those layers would, historically, have been made from breathable natural materials as opposed to the synthetic or natural/synthetic blend a lot of bras are made from.
@@eileen1020 Historical corsetry doesn't have exposed boning either. It's covered by at least one layer of fabric, usually 2 or more.
@@acelibrarian I know. No one said it did.
We do need more Killer Spanx scene's in media, cuz I swear I have trap myself by taking them off and getting stuck between my chest and arms with full on fear of suffocation ☠️ and I have trip pulling up my thighs. Murder by Spanx is a viable Final Destination death 😬
Once I was puting on a shirt tipe spanx and tough I didnt die My Super long hair got tangled in it and i culdnt get it up or down and was trapped till My sister help me out but un the end I had to cut off a good 20cm of hair
@@anarosareyes6269 omg that's horrible, I only got a couple of bruises from stumbling down, but that sounds terrifying, thank God your sister was there
Not related to the topic but glad to see fellow exol in this video 😂
OMG I just died laughing! I would totally watch that movie-of-the-week!
It made me think of that scene in Bridget Jones' Diary, where she tries to get into spanx-type pants. It was quite a struggle. I never managed to keep a pair of spanx on for longer than a few minutes, cause my organs shift and I faint 🤪😄
Also, unrelated, but hello fellow Exo-L.
I would love to see a Corsets vs. Spanx video. 😂 Trying to just accomplish daily activities in both, because Spanx are WAY more uncomfortable.
I would watch that!
Yes! We need that video!!
Omg yes 🤣🤣🤣
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Listening to the Vogue video reminded me of my own observation of Victorian views of the Middle Ages (e.g. using spiced to cover up spoiled meat, not bathing, etc) as a stereotype of 'how horrible it was back then' to prove 'how much we've advanced since then.' Basically, claiming you've covered more distance simply by moving the starting point further back.
Perhaps the point, overt or covert, is to pat women on the head and explain for them how they should be grateful to be living now and not back when 'things were so much worse.'
Both of these points are so spot on!
Both great points, particularly the second one really makes me think about how womens history is often told with that veiwpoint of "arent you glad you were born in this time".
Is that a bad thing?
@@andieallison6792 I think comparing how women are treated in the past with how they are treated now creates a false sense there is no problem, and distracts from comparing how women are treated now with how men are treated now.
Yep, as someone who wears a corset daily for work, I’d much rather wear a corset than Spanx. Spanx suck! I had a conversation with a family about corsets, and this pre adolescent girl said “I don’t like corsets, they are uncomfortable.” I asked her, “have you ever worn one?” She said, “No, but TV shows and movies always say they do.” Thanks to you lovely ladies, I was able to have a conversation with her and her family on how that is a myth that Hollywood tells us, and go into the details of corset construction, etc. that made them so comfortable, and how most woman wore them, etc. etc.
I’m sure someone further down has said it already, but halfway through, as Abby talks about the pragmatic views that ladies’ magazines had of corsets and how fit affects comfort? That’s how we talk about bras. Or maybe how we should talk about bras. Current marketing/media is beginning to treat wired bras not dissimilarly to corsets, but the reality remains: a good fit gives good function. Just because a garment is worn by a woman doesn’t make it bad.
There's this recurring strategy of bashing something that already works to sell the new, supposedly improved alternative. They've been doing that for ages with public education to try and replace it with charters and private schooling. It's all about making money, not improving products or results.
21:23
I like how people (in the west) back then didn't necessarily have to gain or cut their weight to fit the 'trending' fashion. Most of the time, they achieve that with padding. It's all about the silhouette. Women of any size can achieve the desired look. The only thing that prevents you is your wealth and class. But now with fast fashion, your body had to fit the clothing. As if that is any better than class and wealth dictating your fashion.
What peeves me is that it's STILL kinda about wealth bc who the hell has time and energy to cook specially formulated meals (or pay to have them delivered), and exercise enough to look like a model/Marvel superhero. I think it's actually cheaper to go the old way because you'd buy that corset and pads once as opposed to paying a monthly gym membership and ordering out all the time because you're too tired to cook. Plus when you work out that hard you eventually get injured and now you have medical bills (say you're from the US without saying you're from the US). Corset + pads ftw!
@@stickywiggit exactly !!
in the past if they wanted a skinny waist they would pad out the hips and bust to make the waist seem smaller, know you have to either be born with a small waist or get surgery to make it smaller
Oh my gosh I’ve never thought about that, what a great point. Also the fashion these days having sooooo much skin showing vs very little (depending of course on country/era regarding the neck and chest).
I was in the National Women's rights museum in New York a few years ago before the pandemic, and I remember seeing on the first floor a life size cardboard cutout of a woman wearing a corset, and then a woman next to her with the "horrors" of a corset, the shifted organs and stuff. This was before I was interested in or paid attention to fashion history though, but I was just thinking about that while watching this video, and I think it's sad that women are learning this thinking its real. Like Mina said do we really believe everything else doctors said back then? I feel that we can't really progress if we don't know about the past, and our modern perceptions of corsets give a bad inpression of women back then.
Edit: and my women's studies professor just talked about how corsets made women faint, shifted organs, etc. in class a few days ago. Then she said in the 1920s they got rid of corsets and we're liberated. It made me so upset.
It is so refreshing to listen to intellectuals who have a sense of humor! I very much enjoy your videos! Thank you!
If you mean Bernadette, Mina and Karolina - completely agree. While Aby and Nicole are just obnoxious, vulgar and self centered ( can you both control yourselves? )... hopefully this will be taken as a constructive criticism and not a roast.
@@kristinemicule9748 that’s not constructive criticism. You just called them names without any specific examples of what they’re doing and how they can improve.
@@kristinemicule9748 i'm sorry, who do you think you are?
@@kristinemicule9748 That is neither constructive criticism *nor* a roast - both of which generally require the speaker or at least the *framing* of the speech to be *demonstratively* well-intentioned. This does not suggest anything so good-natured.
The comment is, however, both obnoxious and vulgar! 👍
This video was posted on *Abby's* channel. If you can't stand watching someone, perhaps you *ought not watch them.*
What I have learned in just the very beginning of this video: never let Bernadette set the rules for a drinking game.
I will note, the whole "holding onto the bedpost while someone tightens your corset" is actually helpful. It's not that my helpers have been yanking on my laces particularly hard or particularly tight, it's just that it doesn't take much of a tug to make you teeter when it's right near your center of gravity. If someone yanks on the back of my regular pants I'll just bend at the waist, but I can't do that in my corset so it's harder to compensate and balance. The bedpost, the door frame, and my husband have all been repurposed as balance aids during one lacing or another.
I was in a period play this past semester in school and talked about corsets to anybody who would listen. I spent a lot of time in the costume shop, too, so a lot of people had to listen to me. It turns out that a lot of people were interested in knowing more because I recommended so many UA-cam channels to so many people.
As someone that sold corsets at conventions and had to make a spectacle of it at times to draw in a crowd, I have found that its easier to put your foot on their back, if the person getting laced into a corset is kneeling, then its plenty easy to get your foot up between their shoulder blades. But then your angle for pulling the laces is weird, so it is ABSOLUTELY for show and has very VERY few practical purposes.
That absolutely sounds like theatre or kink lol
Ladies - you said it. Imagine spending years of your life studying and practicing something - in my case, psychiatry - and then a youtube video pops up and everyone can suddenly know more than I do immediately. This has been the story of my life. Why should fashion historians be any more respected than any other educated women? (/s)
I can see the headlines now!:
"This just in! Vogue's reputation in the historical costuming community plummets after embarrassing trainwreck of an "Everything You Need to Know About Corsets" video! Dislikes disabled and schooled in the comments; for a company established in 1892, no doubt able to have period-accurate sources from *themselves* on this topic, it's ironic and hilarious how badly they did."
The spanx description is the most accurate thing I've ever f*&king heard. Omg. Spanks are like the worst part of pantyhose plus the worst parts of underwear were forged together in hell by satan himself. I have given up and decided I'd rather look lumpy or build a corset than deal with them. I agree with Karolina, where are all the deadly spanx scenes in movies? Like, that is built in comedy gold.
Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society member here! Have the zippered bag-it’s holding all of my embroidery floss. 😄
I love this now-series! You’re all so good at breaking down the issues with these videos!
OMG the spanx rolling!! I thought it was just me! I wore an off-brand version under my bridesmaids dress and I put hooks and eyes in both it and the bra I wore so I could hook them together to keep from rolling.
Spanx leave big welts on me for over twelve hours after I take them off. I don't have any problems from my custom corset or stays, even though I made them when I was much thinner than I am now.
At the end : Victorian lady clearly suffering from the utmost pain caused by her killer corset. Source : some UA-camr who knows what they’re doing (contrary to everything you need to know 5 min video editor)
On a more serious note: That was such a great video. And I have to ask: would you (I mean the Catherine de Médicis time travel society) be up for a short movie/ period drama/ thriller about a killer Spanx that suffocates its victims one by one, and where the corset-wearing minority will unveil the truth and save the day ? I’d certainly watch that movie
Sounds like an interesting movie.
Sounds like a job for Karolina
Bruh I thought you said Spandex and I had a character based off Spandex and she was supposed to kill people with elastic fibres ☹️
The one issue I had with wearing corsets was my abs and back muscles getting weaker. After 3 years of wearing one everyday that was the only thing I can mention as a downside. And even then taking pilates and yoga fixed me right up.
I feel you ladies, I’m in the manhua/manhwa sphere which is RIF with corset hate and misinformation, especially within the community just as much as the artists/authors. Then they link random influencers, who have no dress history education or even being a enthusiast, as “proof” :) so happy Mina has joined I love her 😍
Does our culture not ALWAYS place the opinions of doctors over patients, especially women? Because I’m a medical anthropologist and if you have evidence of that, I would like to see it. 🙃
We *do* make fun of past doctors for other assumptions about women, though, in other contexts. Like how certain sports would make women's uteruses pop out of their bodies. I agree that contemporary doctors are generally given considerable deference over their contemporary patients, but that isn't quite the dynamic at play, here. There's less preventing the disruption of that dynamic, because the great dynamic of the "Progress" narrative is at play: People that are temporally, geographically, or culturally non-proximate to me (let's code them all as backward and "primitive") made all the mistakes and are not very clever and now we can laugh at their stupidity. That can trump the normal deference for doctors easily - and does in many circumstances, especially when 19th century men are telling women about their bodies.
To be clear, I am not accusing the people making this video of falling into this alternative narrative - only noting, as they also did, that it is actually rather striking that the popular corset rhetoric somehow resisted this other narrative. I think in this case, it is just that the corsets themselves are alien enough that they become the laughingstock, instead of the outlandish-sounding medical opinions.
Either way, though, I don't think the propensity to laugh at the errors of the past in any way erases the authoritative voice of doctors over their contemporaries. Laughing at doctors of the past may even in some ways solidify the dependence of patients on *modern* medicine and the progress that has been made, since. It suggests that "we" know better, now, but that knowledge is rooted in perceived medical and scientific authorities.
@@habituscraeftig Definitely not disagreeing!
I've had people comment on my responses to videos like this, that they have written a thesis, proving that those doctors from the 18th and 19th century were entirely correct. I just want to run, screaming, away from idiots like that!
@@habituscraeftig that's not the point. the point is doctors ignore womens' lived experience and stick to their own ideas about whats happening instead of listening to women. it is still a very prevelant problem particularly with pain. I know many women, myself included, who have gone to a doctor to discuss painful symptoms they are experiencing and they are dismissed for various reasons. I had a repetitive strain injury that went untreated despite descriping a common sympton to my doctor, my friend had endometriosis and another found lumps on her cervix that the doctor wouldnt even attempt to find HERSELF (woman doctor, not just male doctors) this person wasn't having any of it tho and told her to stick her fingers up as far as they would go or she'd go somewhere else. Luckily the doctor discovered them too once she was pressed to.
Its also VERY COMMON with black paitents. its really discussing.
I honestly would LOVE A VIDEO with a Medical Doctor about the Corsets and the Pregnancy Corsets. It would be interesting to see the Doctor's thoughts and honest opinion about the Corset after telling them and having them wear it.
Yes please!
"Take a drink every time they say 'patriarchy' or 'patriarchal'." Cut to me worried that Abby will pass out. Thank you all for another fantastic video! I just love this group and gah! Still need my membership into the Catherine de Medici Time Travel Society.
So my wedding laced up the back (modern corseted I guess?) and one of my bridesmaids said "I know exactly what to do!", grabbed the laces, put her foot on my back (right over the laces), and yanked. It. Was. TIGHT! But I sure looked fabulous. During the ceremony where I was just standing I was fine, but at the reception when I wanted to party I had to take my mother-in-law into a back room and have her loosen the laces because I legit was having trouble breathing. Horray. These myths are not fun and not cool.
Even using their logic, it doesn't make any sense: Back then, evil patriarchy made you change your figure by padding, and using boned undergarments, now it just makes women hate their bodies. Bravo (unenthusiastic clapping)
Now women just go to a plastic surgeon. No harm to the body, no pain or discomfort. Not like those horrible corsets 😂
instead of super evil padding and corsets, now women are free to get pressured into potentially dangerous fad diets and plastic surgery
I'm a tiny girl, so I've never had a reason to wear spanx (not that I would - they seem like they'd be very uncomfortable). But I have worn a corset that I made. I wore it all day at a renaissance festival in 90* weather and was comfortable. I could breathe, I could move, I wasn't passing out. I was even carrying a toddler towards the end and survived. I would wear a corset any day of the week over spanx or any other kind of modern-ish shape wear.
I actually squawked out loud when this popped up in my feed. Thank you so much team. Stuck wasting Sunday with a migraine and listening to UA-cam with the screen mostly off to keep me entertained. My ears are ringing from my squawk but it was worth it. .
I too am here with a migraine. But must watch. Laughing hurts, but must watch. Diversion. Thank you, guys.
I thought I was the only one who ”watched” with a migraine. Nice to meet you, sisters!
@@dcchiasson5991 hope you all feel better soon. Ouchy head is a rubbish start to the work week. Very glad I'm working from home and don't have to attempt to drive safely this morning.
@@dees3179 much better, thanks. You’re lucky you can drive. My migraines hit me so forcefully and suddenly sometimes, I don’t dare drive - ever!
@@dcchiasson5991 mine last for a few weeks sometimes. They don't knock me out but they stop me sleeping, or having rational thoughts..... Hope you have a migraine free week.
Love Nicole's vampy Roaring '20s style! It suits her coloring. With regards to the 'foot in the back' cartoon to tight-lace....they may as well have used that scene from 'Mirror, Mirror' where Nathan Lane uses a winch to tight lace Julia Robert's corset for her wedding dress: at least that was physically possible. Improbable, bot possible.
It is interesting to note that the scene from "Mirror, Mirror", looks like it is based on a Satirical Print titled " A correct view of the new machine for winding up the ladies" by Thomas McLean dated to around the 1830s.
So that scene is already based on Satire and from my knowledge, no such machine has yet been found or appeared in any later Victorian Era or 19th-century images ( real or satarized).
My wedding dress essentially has a built in corset. There are stiff bones that connect to a stiffened panel around the waist. I love it. I look fabulous. Can't wait to wear it!
Oh. And the design is very obviously 1950s Dior inspired. I love it.
I really appreciated Mina taking about punk corsets! I think 'corsets' over the last 40 years have been very outerwear-y, and I really should look around for some analysis on that.
I love that you managed to squeeze 22 minutes of content from a 5 minute video. Yes girl! Get that clout!
We're a chatty group - I left a lot out 😂
“Our modern idea of patriarchy that we are opposing on the past.” -Bernadette
Omg yes. So many times yes. And also applying to other cultures… The patriarchy ofc exists and has existed in other times and place but it never just one way to be. If only ppl would understand that. Perfectly said.
Blessed be all the misconception, for they give us the ultimate crossovers.
My grandma used to wear a boned girdle for years since the 1950s. We finally convinced her she didn't need one, but she sometimes says she misses the structure under dresses. She didn't wear one every day though. Only for church or for other dressed up occasions. Never with a house dress.
One thing in favor of Spanx is that there will always be an existent one, because poly never degrades! It is a time capsule with a bit of wee on it!
Can I just say all you ladies have taught me so much and I've changed my misconceptions about corsets.
A alternative fashion store up here that I visit regularily have put the spanx in the BDSM accerories section, can't say I disagree
Hahahaha
Bruh 💀🤣
Nice move
You know, my daughter's teacher asked us to toss together vaguely dickensian costumes for her Christmas pageant this year. This video was basically the scene inside my head as I was sifting through closets going, "I guess... sure... maybe? I need to call my mom and see if she has a shawl." You were all there with me, mocking me.
Bernadette's look of utter confusion and furrowed brow at Nicole's search of 'where to put the foot' is a whole mood.
This is honestly the best collaboration more than the Avengers
That whole bit about the spanks and the corset had me dying. I will forever pick a corset over Spanx. Because I can change my tampon in a corset! Have you ever tried to do that in spanks threw that tinny little hole? It’s not fun girl
- I definitely added this mug to my Christmas list and I'm really hoping someone gets it for me. Or I'll just buy it for myself.
- Nicole is in EXCELLENT form right from the get-go and I am so excited for the snark to come.
- Pretty sure he just said 'Kathleen' de Medici. What?
- Did I miss the part about the 19th century?
- So much of 'history', especially women's history, is mansplaining that we just to throw out the window. Women's experience/testimonials vs. some doctor? Obviously the man prescribing heroin to children
- Worn both Spanx and a corset, and I'll take the corset any day. I was fairly tight-laced too (we were young and neither my friend lacing me nor I knew any better) and it was still really comfortable. Spanx are just hot and confining and they rolled up from the bottom and down from the top and I kept having to mess with them the whole time.
I'm sorry I can't find the link where is the place where I can buy that mug do you know
Also the hilarity of the 'look at us, we're so advanced that we got rid of the corset and replaced it with surgery and crash diets'. Yep, super healthy mindset we've got these days.
@@dismurrart6648 I got a banner under the description that said "buy Abby Cox merchandise" that had the products under it. I assume clicking on those would open the link. I don't think I can post links here though.
Absolutely yes to the point ab. doctors, they didnt know sh** back then, why would someone take their testimonial as a trusty source, it's so bizarre 🤯
@@threadsandpurrs oh thanks! It wasn't showing up for me lol
As a self conscious and bumpy lady, I have tried several types of shapewear.
Thights with "belly control", becomes a big roll around my hips. Not flattering.
A top with "belly control" became a big roll at my waist. I learned that tucking it into the aforementioned thights actually prevented both from rolling, as long as I left some room for moving. Sadly the top has a very high back, unlike my pretty dresses.
A spandex shape dress. It actually works quite well, as long as my dress is loose from the hips. The muffin leg look is not good. Alas, it is held in place by a strap between my legs. Closed with 4 hooks and eyes. Try opening those while slightly tipsy and in a rush. At least I was staying at the place, and could easily change underwear.
A cheap boned waist thing, which is actually my favourite, but sadly too small and out of production. It had hardly any elastic, but gave shape with light boning. Several rows of hooks made it possible to adjust the size. It was a little uncomfortable, and did give bumps above and below, but wearing something thight underneath helped. It was also good when wearing heavy skirts, since it spread the weight over my entire waist. It did give me back pain after some time, probably since it didn't fit right.
In conclusion, it seems I want a proper corset.
Nothing that fastens between the legs should EVER use hooks and eyes, unless you're in a horror movie. 😱
Before you mentioned Spanx, I was thinking: "people who think that corsets are not comfortable, they never used a Spanx body". If you eat in your corset, no problem, you just let the cording loose and its ok but with spanx you can't eat because you spand your stomach and the pressure don't let you breath. I used Spanx for social pressure (my fellow fat siblings used them) but I couldn't. I'm sorry but I like to breathe???
Also, I prefer corset and padding to irreversible body surgery and the damage you can do to yourself dieting. It's too late for me in the last one but just shut up if you think we're better now!
Karolina is aesthetic goals with the 30s or 40s outfit with period like switchboard headset
Oh lord, here we go! Glad to see Mina. Yep, Catherine de Medici's time travel club is vast. Nicole is not taking no guff. Those drinking game rules....🤣
I love these conversations. I learn so much and it's fun. It's like tea with friends .
I'll have to get my Time Travel Society mug and bag (for craft stuff) for your next collaboration.
Yessss, Mina!! I love that you guys did this. It’s so irresponsible for Vogue to make a video to basically just up their engagement because there’s no justifying the - again- irresponsibility of the statements made as fact. Like tf?? And THANK YOU Abby, for so voicing the frustration of all of us who have worn Spanx and their equivalent. Where your (mine) biggest fear was waking if if the bathroom with part of your dress caught in the damn thing! 🤬
I was today years old when I discovered that all of you do Videos together and I'm so here for it!!!
I'm going to give props to Vogue for ACTUALLY acknowledging men wearing corsets.
Taking the props back for the tone ("sOmE MeEn!" as if it was the most ridiculous thing the narrator had to say) and the general lack of professionalism.
(My drinking game was every time they mention uncomfortableness, generalize tight lacing and overall body horror. Thank God I've taken the "sip of tea" drinking game!)
Do you think that as well as clickbait, there's a vested interest in saying that old fashioned corsets are dangerous so we can sell bras and spanx as the better for you alternative and stop people looking into options that are customised rather than the longer lasting handmade corset?
Spanx and Corsets might both be used for shaping but the corset does so much more. I keep my corset by my desk to keep me from slouching and provide support, and I pull it out whenever I'm doing heavy lifting to remind me to keep good posture too. I might look a little silly but it legit rocks.
Can we get like a "Modern corset" Video that specifically looks at 1920 to 1980 and what "Corset" means? Cause they change so much
this feels like a little tea-party. bring the biscuits and parasols. and the wine.
I love you all. In the 1960s, 1970's we wore bras, my mom wore bras and girdles. (my sister always wore matching bra and panty sets) By the time of the 1980s I had gone to the Renaissance Fair where I bought corset patterns. I made a corset just to see if I could. Wow was it comfortable! I wore corsets for many years until I got sick (long story) Then many years later I happily found you all. I enjoy all your channels.
The 80s went through a phase where we were ‘strongly encouraged’ to wear expensive, uncomfortable, matching underwire bras, garter belts, panties and stockings all the time. There’s a now hilarious scene in Crossing Delancey where two women meet at a gym and one of them undresses to reveal a complete ‘boudoir’ lingerie set. I’m guessing she had to change into a sports bra and spandex leotard to work out, then shower, then put her boudoir set back on (ew) then dress to go back to work-who’s got time for all that? Who was it for?