A *brief* history of corsets

Corset: Garment worn to hold and train torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes.

Who: Both men and women can wear corsets, though it's more common with women.

When: The exact origins of the corset are a mystery. There are preserved corset shaped cages from the 16th century, but these are unrelated to normal clothing. The theory is that these cages were fetish accessories or some attempt at orthopaedics. We can deduce that some form of corset must have been worn around 1530 as portraits of women at the time showed them with flattened chests and high necklines, along with very straight torso lines. This kind of shape could not be achieved without a corset.

Until the mid 17th century, the bodice of the dress was often stiffened, meaning there was no need for a corset, so very few corsets from the 16th and 17th centuries have been preserved as there weren't that many in the first place! It was towards the end of the 17th century that corsets became an individual piece of clothing, totally separate from the bodice. From then on, the corset became an undergarment, and women would wear skirts and jackets or robes over a stiff bodice.

In the 18th century, stays were classed as underwear, keeping a similar shape to that of 17th century bodices. Despite being covered by outer garments, stays were often fairly decorative, with finely stitched tunnels for boning, precious patterned silk fabric, and sometimes even gold trim! However, the inside of the stay would often be very messy and sloppy.
Stays that lace at the back are called corps ferme, or closed stays. Stays that lace at the front are called corps ouvert, or open stays. It is quite rare to find a stay that laces at both the front and back, and even rarer to find a stay that laces at the front only.

1750 - 1760 Child Corset

Towards the end of the 18th century, dress waistlines wandered upwards slightly, so the corset became shorter. Paniers ("basket" hoop skirt) weren't being worn anymore, so the skirts would attach to small pads sewn to the tabs of the bodice. Physicians began to warn about tight lacing and the harm it could do to the wearers body. Lacing wasn't hugely common at this point, but the people who did do it would often tightly wrap their babies and corset their children in order to take advantage of their soft, moldable skeleton, and make it into a fashionable shape. It's actually pretty shocking that someone would corset their own baby / young child because it is "fashionable"!

1794-6, the waistline moved again, this time to just under the bust. This rendered bodices slightly pointless, as half of the torso didn't need shaping any longer. However, the breasts still needed lifting, but they were to stay apart this time. This was the first time cups were used, and similar corsetry techniques were used to keep the breasts apart. Slender figures didn't really need this bra-like design, it was more for larger women.

During the 1820s, corsets became more popular as the waistline moved back down to its natural place. Lacing eyelets with hammered-in metal grommets are invented in 1828, whereas previously eyelets had been hand sewn. A year later, the planchet or busk was invented. This was two metal strips, one with little mushroom shaped heads and one with eyelets, used to fasten the corset down the front, to save time lacing.

Nowadays, corsets are worn more as costumes and for burlesque, or the design mimicked on tops without actual body restriction. People do still "waist train", but because we now know the medical problems corsets can cause, it's not very common. If you did want to waist train, you'd have to get a corset maker to make you a corset designed to your specific measurements. The common corsets you can buy from shops are usually made with plastic boning and feature lacing as more of a design element rather than to squeeze the figure in, often with a strong hook and eye type fastening down the front or side for actual support. This type of corset won't alter your shape much, if at all, in the long run.

Where: The name corset comes from the French word corps, which originates from the Latin word corpus, meaning body. The term corset only came into use during the 19th century; prior to that it was called a bodice or stays.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corset
http://www.marquise.de/en/themes/korsett/korsett.shtml