From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, women in the Western world wore corsets to create the "perfect" hourglass shape, the fashionable body silhouette of the time. Never to be confused with an undergarment created for comfort, the corset has been the cause of health issues and even death. Its origin is from the French word corse, which means bodice. Strips of whalebone, wood, and horn were used until the 1850s when steel replaced these materials to provide the rigid structure of the corset. By the early 1920s, women were engaged in sporting activities that required the flexibility offered by brassieres and girdles. This trend in flexibility, combined with the fashion look of the 1920s flapper, saw the end of the corset era. In the 1980s, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Vivienne West-wood set the stage for the return of the corset as a fashion statement.
See also Intimate apparel.
Historical Dictionary of the Fashion Industry. Francesca Sterlacci and Joanne Arbuckle.