Mixing Flapper and Corset

[Spaugs]

ok, I love flapper fashion, but I also love corsets, do you ladies have any ideas as to how I can get the two to work together. I have trouble with fashion sometimes.

thanks

 

[Miss 1929]

If you did...

wear a corset under a flapper dress, no one would know. Since they just hang there. But you will be less comfortable...

And remember, the entire flapper 20s fashion thing is built on the rejection of centuries of corsets!

Why not dress one way sometime, and the other sometimes? Why mix them? I mean, I suppose you could say "why not", but I fail to see the attraction myself. For everyday wear? That's perfectly fine. Anything goes, as Cole Porter says! or, whatever, as youth today would have it...

Not for period events, I hope, as people would probably just assume you didn't know any better. And then it is distracting for them and pulls them out of their fantasy time travel...I always feel if it is a period event, I owe it to everyone there to try and pitch in and make it more believable.

 

[Mojito]

If you're not looking for an authentic look, there's no reason why you couldn't mix them. Are you talking about wearing a corset as outerwear? Then a corset with, say, a beaded chiffon skirt, strings of beads and bangles, perhaps a choker, and a bandeau or other elaborate hair ornament will be a nod to both eras. But as Miss1929 points out, they're rather polar opposites in emphasis - a nipped waist emphasising the bust as opposed to the garconne silhouette. We tend to think of 1920s dresses as rather geometric - almost a rectangular shape - but very slim girls did wear quite form fitting dresses that had some flare below the dropped waist. They otherwise adhered to the boyish ideal, however, and the bust remained flat. Some of the Lanvinesque robes de styles fit more snugly in the torso, only to flare to a full skirt...I suppose that could be adapted to wearing a corset.

 

[Lauren]

They actually did have corsets in the 20's! That they didn't is a huge myth, although some "bright young things" discarded them in favour of the new-ish brassiere and knickers.
Here's a few images from Lara Corsets.

 

[Miss 1929]

Yes, that's true -

I guess I automatically assumed that Spauds' fascination with corsets is of the more shape enhancing type. 20s corsets squeeze in the bust and hips, to try and make you more tubular! Not a good look on me, I can tell you! Most 20s clothes make me look like a box.

 

[Mojito]

Ah yes - quite right, Lauren! And unless you were a very nubile young thing who could get away with, say, the very unsupportive brassiere (really just a strip of cloth with a bit of ruching) and dance pants, you'd want to be wearing one. I guess I also assumed that Spaugs was going for the Victorian Gothic look, which uses corsets to emphasise the smallness of the waist and the fullness of the bust and hips. Spaugs, were you thinking of using them as outerwear, or just to sculpt the body?

That might be an interesting twist on the corsetted look...a 1920s style corsest worn as outerwear. It wouldn't even need to be one of the flattening overbust styles...you could wear and underbust style that smoothes the waist and hips over a cami on top. It might be difficult to find a wearable, decorative 20s corset suitable as outerwear - I've been looking for someone who manufactures a good 20s style, but most are decidedly Victorian (and some quite pretty and decorative).

 

[Spaugs]

See, I am fond of both kinds of corsets. I would wear the victorian ones when dressing in a different fashion than flapper though. I was actually wondering if I could do exactly what Mojito was discussing. That would actually be a very interesting idea! Thanks so much for the idea!

 

[miserabelle]

Some fashionable women at that time would wear them to keep their figures trim and boyish under their dresses so I don't see why you couldn't wear one!

xx