Liberator and androgynous, how the corset is back

A historical and erotic fashion object

As aesthetic as it is extreme, the corset is undeniably one of the most striking clothes in the history of Western costume.Going up to the 15th century, its origin was that of a voluntarily refined and tightened size to correspond to the ideals of the female body.As Denis Bruna, chief curator at the Mad de Paris explains and curator of the exhibition “The mechanics of the underside» in 2012, “The corset is an icon that is part of our imagination and our history, symbolically polymorphic and polysemic and polysemic: he is both nostalgic and historicist, evokes an erotic and fetishist fantasy, and someone strict.»In short, the corset is the fashion piece par excellence, bringing together all of its criteria: adornment, protection, transformation of the silhouette and the creation of desire.

“The corset is an icon that is part of our imagination and our history.»

A multiple power that is not without attracting clothing enthusiasts, designers and fashion designers.Noticed in recent years for its monochrome silhouettes with subtle sensuality surreptitiously revealing the bodies, the Australian creator Dion Lee admits nourishing this rich history of corset: “Traditionally, it carries the stigma of sexuality, of female identityand restriction, so many powerful ideas to explore and subvert.» Car l’une des forces de cette pièce est probablement d’avoir pu s’affirmer dans l’histoire du vêtement sans trop se montrer pour autant, sa présence étant visible à travers sa transformation globale de la silhouette.An asset defends in turn the young creator Wesley Berryman, whose sculptural pieces are always built around a particularly marked size: “Corsets allow us to give a new form to our body.They represent what fascinates me with fashion, being able to create an illusion to become something almost entirely different.»