When stepping into fashion history we can’t help but notice the variety of shapes women’s garments have been molded into creating many modified silhouettes. Most of these exaggerated forms were achieved from the wearing of foundation garments especially during the 19th century. Caged structures creating volume, structures that warped the body part inwards and those that added bumps for exaggeration. This constant re-shaping of the female form was being continuously reinvented. Women’s bodies were pushed into anything but the natural form! Contemporary artists like Jana Sterback, Sarah Garzoni and designer Rei Kawakubo have recontextualised historical garments into thought provoking art. These specific artists use elements of the crinoline, the corset and the bustle: these foundation garments that have altered the woman’s form by limiting motion and inescapable constriction. Remote Control, Breeching and Dress meets body meets dress are three contemporary pieces that illustrate the conceptual exploration of some complications in historical garments. How do these works address possible issues of foundation garments? What sort of concept of body image do they explore? How do they communicate the issues found when those garments were worn? Presenting these three works together will allow the viewer to deconstruct and learn about the possible problems behind these particular foundation garments.
19th century foundation garments; the crinoline, the corset and the bustle.
The items explored in this exhibit are foundation garments worn during the 19th century. The crinoline perhaps the most cumbersome of the foundation garments came, in its existence around the 1856. Women became tired of the weight the layers of petticoats used to achieve the mass desired for the look of a large voluminous skirt. The “cage“ like structure of the crinoline was invented and built out of steel wires to achieve volume without out the extra weight. Although this structure was much lighter, the skirts became rigid and cumbersome. Women became dependant on men for daily tasks like being helped in and out of carriages and they also required someone to help them get dressed to get in and out of the crinoline. (Cooper Oct 7,2011) These cage like structures became disabling for women’s ease of movement and often accidents did happen. Stories about women in carriages “ being caught in their hoops” or skirts catching fire due to the cumbersome volume and flammable fabrics. (Johnstone Corsets & Crinolines in Victorian fashion web) The press often made fun of these crinoline mishaps with caricatures. (Johnston 128)
19th century foundation garments; the crinoline, the corset and the bustle.
The items explored in this exhibit are foundation garments worn during the 19th century. The crinoline perhaps the most cumbersome of the foundation garments came, in its existence around the 1856. Women became tired of the weight the layers of petticoats used to achieve the mass desired for the look of a large voluminous skirt. The “cage“ like structure of the crinoline was invented and built out of steel wires to achieve volume without out the extra weight. Although this structure was much lighter, the skirts became rigid and cumbersome. Women became dependant on men for daily tasks like being helped in and out of carriages and they also required someone to help them get dressed to get in and out of the crinoline. (Cooper Oct 7,2011) These cage like structures became disabling for women’s ease of movement and often accidents did happen. Stories about women in carriages “ being caught in their hoops” or skirts catching fire due to the cumbersome volume and flammable fabrics. (Johnstone Corsets & Crinolines in Victorian fashion web) The press often made fun of these crinoline mishaps with caricatures. (Johnston 128)
Figure 1. Crinoline about 1880 Victoria & Albert Museum http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58867/cage-crinoline-a-favorite-of-the-empress
The corset on the other hand, did the opposite, it enabled women’s bodies to be brought inwards and become minimized. Although the corset had been part of everyday fashion for 400 years, and in the 19th century, having the smallest waist size was all the rage. (Steele 1) There is so much written about the corset, whether it is an oppressive garment or one imposed on women by men but in reality the corset is not a one sided linear existence as Valerie Steele explores this best in The corset a cultural history. For this exhibit we are focusing on the health concerns brought forth by the corset. In pursuing this, many women suffered from health problems and damaged their internal organs from tightening their corsets beyond their body’s limits. (Steele 1) Corsets were boned with steel to be able to achieve tightness and durability, although some corsets made with steel have been known to snap and pierce the wearers’ skin. (Summers 8) During the late 1860’s – early 1890’s medical journals wrote several articles on the act of tight-lacing causing a long list of internal organ damage and even death. (Steele 67) This lead to reinventing new corset designs in attempting to creating healthier and more hygienic corsets, yet it seemed they still caused problems and were continuously uncomfortable.(Steele 85)
Figure 3. Corset, 1880’s France, steel busk & boning, Silk satin, Kyoto Costume institute http://www.kci.or.jp/archives/digital_archives/detail_81_e.html
1868 brought on the invention of the bustle, also called a Tournure (Corsets and Crinolines 121) It gave women better ease of movement and shifted volume onto their posterior. Several versions were made out of metal, horse hair, and even ones resembling stuffed fabric buns. There were also short ones for walking or light activity and long ones used for evening wear. The bustle was worn with a corset so it completely altered a woman’s figure top and bottom. This exaggeration of the posterior area according to a women’s contemporary magazines in 1884, it was seen as “…a little absurd, the tournure has reached ridiculous proportions and from day to day the eye becoming used to the effects has become blinded to the ugly side of stylish mode.”(Waugh 127) The bustle, when entering the fashion market seemed possibly quite avant garde in the way it distorted the body.
Bustle: 1884 Great Britain. Figure 5. Steel wires and cotton tape. Victoria & Albert Museum http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O73542/bustle-the-new-phantom
Art for fashion’s sake
Fashion often looks back into the past and the same can be said about art. Jana Sterbak visits the embodiment of the crinoline in Remote Control (I and II). This work is not only meant to be seen but also to be worn and performed in. The construction holds a woman’s body suspended with legs dangling in a harness this leaves the lower body useless and the upper body stiff. (McLerran543) The cage’s movement is controlled electronically by a remote control that can be manipulated either by the wearer or by the viewer. (McLerran 543) Sterbak’s remote control cage was drawn from the shape of a model from an 1856 crinoline, which enhanced the hips and restrains the wearer. Here she demonstrates the helplessness through the mechanism of the cage making the wearer feel trapped. (McLerran 543) Remote Control allows us to wonder about the mobility women actually had while wearing such garments. When thinking about these elements in a fashion history context, the devices Sterbak used explore the loss of power women might have felt.
Fashion often looks back into the past and the same can be said about art. Jana Sterbak visits the embodiment of the crinoline in Remote Control (I and II). This work is not only meant to be seen but also to be worn and performed in. The construction holds a woman’s body suspended with legs dangling in a harness this leaves the lower body useless and the upper body stiff. (McLerran543) The cage’s movement is controlled electronically by a remote control that can be manipulated either by the wearer or by the viewer. (McLerran 543) Sterbak’s remote control cage was drawn from the shape of a model from an 1856 crinoline, which enhanced the hips and restrains the wearer. Here she demonstrates the helplessness through the mechanism of the cage making the wearer feel trapped. (McLerran 543) Remote Control allows us to wonder about the mobility women actually had while wearing such garments. When thinking about these elements in a fashion history context, the devices Sterbak used explore the loss of power women might have felt.
Sarah Garzoni Breaching demonstrates a visceral need to demonstrate a crisis.(Yukiko Kawase Gallery) Her beautifully constructed corset sits laced laying on it’s side so we can see its internal structure. Where the body would have braced the lining are carefully placed shark teeth, around one thousand in total. The use of shark teeth links the wearing of the corset to pain and mutilation of the body, making the intent of the work visceral. Garzoni is addressing the mutilating effects the corset has had on women in the history of fashion. One interpretation of Garzoni’s piece is that the idea constructed out of attaining a level of dictated beauty leads to a breaching point, a crisis imposed to women’s bodied during the Victorian era. The crisis being the many health risks brought on by the corset including possible death in extreme cases of tight-lacing. Breaching is certainly commenting on the painful effects of corsetry, which was existing, but what about the idea of the corset being empowering? Corsets were not forced upon women by men, women accepted this foundation garment enough so that they wore them for 400 years.(Steele 35) So does Garzoni’s piece complicate the matter of the corset or do we still become mesmerized in her beauty as an object?
Rei Kawakubo’s put it best when describing her idea of fashion as “We must break away from conventional forms of dress for the new woman of today we need a new strong image, not a revisit to the past.”(Morris 40) Exhibiting a piece from Commes de Garcon 1997 collection called Dress meets body, Body meets dress (also known as the Bumps and lumps collection). This piece is an exploration of asymmetry using padding to modify the body into exaggerated forms. (Richards 110) Very similar to what the bustle once did to women’s dress. Kawakubo was trying to defy the ideas of conventional body shapes used in contemporary fashion. Her fresh reformulating of the body’s anatomy with the placement of these unusual organs creates a whole new silhouette never really realized before. Kawakubo has taken the conventional guidelines for beauty and has forced us to challenge them. (Koda 34-35) In the specific piece in this exhibit the lumps and bumps are placed in a way that mimics the look of the bustle. Although a bustle was often made of rigid metal or horsehair, Kawakubo’s bumps are filled with down feathers making the piece extremely light and even comfortable.(Thurman 59) Both the bustle and Kawakbo’s Dress meets body meets dress morphed and moved way from the natural bodies shape. Kawakubo's intent was to put forward postmodernist mind-frame as could be said about the advent of the bustle.
Figure 6. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997 Dress becomes body becomes dress http://designblog.rietveldacademie.nl/?m=201001 Figure 7: Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997. Fashion at the Edge. p 268
The shape of Victorian era of fashion was made possible by these incredibly engineered foundation garments. Although the 19th century brought on explorations and experimentation on the altering of the female figure they also created the problems and mobility issues. Why were such extreme measure taken to alter the female form during this time? This exploration in body shaping was necessary to lead to the Fashion innovations of the 20th century. Jana Sterbak’s reinterpretation of the crinoline, Sarah Garzoni’s commentary on the corset and Rei Kawakubo’s morphing of the body all demonstrate that looking to historical foundation garments and understanding their use, power and subversion can help us understand them more. These artists push ideas of altering the natural body’s form in fashion history expressed within an art practice. What does the future of dress hold for us next? What will be communicated about the beauty standards of our time? Whatever does happen body shape in fashion will always evolve and women will brace themselves and hope that whatever happens it better be comfortable.
Bibliography
Cooper, Cynthia. “18th-century fashion and fashion exhibitions.” Lecture at Concordia University, Montreal, QC, October 7, 2011.
Johnston, Lucy. Nineteenth-century Fashion in Detail. London: V&A Publishing, 2005
Johnston, Lucy. “Corsets and Crinolines in Victorian fashion” Accessed November 24, 2011. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/corsets-and-crinolines-in-victorian-fashion/
Koda, Harold. “Rei Kawakubo and the art of fashion.” Refusing Fashion: Rei Kawakubo. Detroit: MOCAD, February 2008.
McLerran, Jennifer. " Disciplined Subjects and Docile Bodies in the Work of Contemporary Artist Jana Sterbak.” Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 535-552. Accessed November 21, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178578.
Mears, Patricia. “Exhibiting Asia: The Global Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and Galleries.”Fashion Theory 12/1 (2008) :95-120. Accessed December 5, 2008 http://0-web.ebscohost.com.mercury.concordia.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3652bc5d-7457-46a5-aef4-71053be20a45%40sessionmgr10&vid=4&hid=18
Morris, Bernadine. "The New Wave from Japan." New York Times Magazine 30 January 1983: 40.
Steele, Valerie. The Corset A cultural History. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001
Summers, Leigh. “Sanitising the Female Body: Costume, Corsetry, and the Case for Corporeal Feminism in Social History Museums.” Open Museum Journal 1. 2000. http://hosting.collectionsaustralia.net/omj/vol1/pdfs/summers.pdf
Thurman, Judith. “The Misfit.” Refusing Fashion: Rei Kawakubo. Detroit: MOCAD, February 2008.
Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. New York: Theatre Arts books, 1954
“Sarah Garzoni Breaching.” Galerie Ykiko Kawase. Accessed November 24, 2011. http://yukikokawase.free.fr/SGbreachingtext.htm.
Photos
Figure 1. Crinoline cage, about 1860. Victoria & Albert Museum. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58867/cage-crinoline-a-favorite-of-the-empress/
Figure 2. Jana Sterbak, Remote control (I&II), courtesy Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. http://arttattler.com/designinstallingallusions.html
Figure 3. Corset, 1880’s France, steel busk & boning, Silk satin, Kyoto Costume institute. http://www.kci.or.jp/archives/digital_archives/detail_81_e.html
Figure 4. . Breaching, Sarah Garzoni 2010. satin, cotton, shark teeth http://io9.com/corset/
Figure 5. Steel wires and cotton tape. Victoria & Albert Museum. online archive
Figure 6. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997
Dress becomes body becomes dress online http://designblog.rietveldacademie.nl/?m=201001
Figure 7. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997
Dress becomes body becomes dress. Fashion at the edge p 268
Figure 8. Jana Sterback Remote Control (I&II) 1989. From article. McLerran, Jennifer. " Disciplined Subjects and Docile Bodies in the Work of Contemporary Artist Jana Sterbak.” Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 535-552. Accessed November 21, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178578.
Figure 9. Rei Kawakubo Dress meets body meets dress 1997 http://anabundanceof.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html
Bibliography
Cooper, Cynthia. “18th-century fashion and fashion exhibitions.” Lecture at Concordia University, Montreal, QC, October 7, 2011.
Johnston, Lucy. Nineteenth-century Fashion in Detail. London: V&A Publishing, 2005
Johnston, Lucy. “Corsets and Crinolines in Victorian fashion” Accessed November 24, 2011. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/corsets-and-crinolines-in-victorian-fashion/
Koda, Harold. “Rei Kawakubo and the art of fashion.” Refusing Fashion: Rei Kawakubo. Detroit: MOCAD, February 2008.
McLerran, Jennifer. " Disciplined Subjects and Docile Bodies in the Work of Contemporary Artist Jana Sterbak.” Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 535-552. Accessed November 21, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178578.
Mears, Patricia. “Exhibiting Asia: The Global Impact of Japanese Fashion in Museums and Galleries.”Fashion Theory 12/1 (2008) :95-120. Accessed December 5, 2008 http://0-web.ebscohost.com.mercury.concordia.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3652bc5d-7457-46a5-aef4-71053be20a45%40sessionmgr10&vid=4&hid=18
Morris, Bernadine. "The New Wave from Japan." New York Times Magazine 30 January 1983: 40.
Steele, Valerie. The Corset A cultural History. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001
Summers, Leigh. “Sanitising the Female Body: Costume, Corsetry, and the Case for Corporeal Feminism in Social History Museums.” Open Museum Journal 1. 2000. http://hosting.collectionsaustralia.net/omj/vol1/pdfs/summers.pdf
Thurman, Judith. “The Misfit.” Refusing Fashion: Rei Kawakubo. Detroit: MOCAD, February 2008.
Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. New York: Theatre Arts books, 1954
“Sarah Garzoni Breaching.” Galerie Ykiko Kawase. Accessed November 24, 2011. http://yukikokawase.free.fr/SGbreachingtext.htm.
Photos
Figure 1. Crinoline cage, about 1860. Victoria & Albert Museum. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58867/cage-crinoline-a-favorite-of-the-empress/
Figure 2. Jana Sterbak, Remote control (I&II), courtesy Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. http://arttattler.com/designinstallingallusions.html
Figure 3. Corset, 1880’s France, steel busk & boning, Silk satin, Kyoto Costume institute. http://www.kci.or.jp/archives/digital_archives/detail_81_e.html
Figure 4. . Breaching, Sarah Garzoni 2010. satin, cotton, shark teeth http://io9.com/corset/
Figure 5. Steel wires and cotton tape. Victoria & Albert Museum. online archive
Figure 6. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997
Dress becomes body becomes dress online http://designblog.rietveldacademie.nl/?m=201001
Figure 7. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons, Spring/summer 1997
Dress becomes body becomes dress. Fashion at the edge p 268
Figure 8. Jana Sterback Remote Control (I&II) 1989. From article. McLerran, Jennifer. " Disciplined Subjects and Docile Bodies in the Work of Contemporary Artist Jana Sterbak.” Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 535-552. Accessed November 21, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178578.
Figure 9. Rei Kawakubo Dress meets body meets dress 1997 http://anabundanceof.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html