“I have loved corsets since I was small,” said John Paul Gaultier in 2001. “When I was a child, my grandmother took me to an exhibition, and they had a corset on display. I loved the flesh color, the salmon satin, the lace.”
Two decades later, and over 1000 years since the creation of the first corset, we are still as captivated by them as ever. Last night, between the Oscars red carpet and its Vanity Fair afterparty, they were everywhere.
Kendall Jenner arrived looking visibly cinched beneath a sheer Maison Margiela gown from John Galliano’s instant classic SS24 haute couture collection, sans merkin and avec some modesty tailoring around the bust. Jenner’s appearance in the Margiela garment makes her the third celebrity to have donned this much-sought after collection on the red carpet, after Hunter Schafer and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Meanwhile, Margot Robbie wore her embellished Mugler SS96 corset loud and proud, with nothing else but a copper-coloured silk shrug draped around her elbows. This collection debuted some six months before Mugler’s history-making AW96 show, which you may recall was recently resurrected in service of Zendaya’s fembot look at the Dune 2 world premiere.
Celebrity stylist Emma Lane cites Margiela and Mugler as the main influences in the rise of red carpet corsetry this season, telling the Evening Standard: “I personally think this is due to more frequent archival looks that are appearing on the carpet and with this comes more traditional shapes and silhouettes such as the corset. This traditional structure dates back centuries and continues to emerge the more that stylists and fashion designers alike look back for inspiration from classic pieces.”
Elsewhere there was Zoey Lister-Jones, dripping with crystals and bound in white satin by Wiederhoeft FW23, and Victoria Monét, whose Harris Reed gown was punctuated by clear black boning.
More contemporary corsetry was also on offer: Kim Kardashian was accused of “serving napkin” in her pointed Balenciaga number, and Florence Pugh offered a more alien iteration earlier in the night, with her SS24 Del Core gown.
On the modern corsets, stylist Corina Gaffey says: “Rather than constraining and serving as an undergarment, corsets are now on show, with designers leaning into design details like lacing, boning and sculptural shapes.
“It’s more about subtle waist-cinching and creating a clean-line silhouette and sculptural shape rather than being oppression. The corsets we saw on the red carpet at the Oscars and after-parties are custom-made to fit the wearer, rather than the other way around.”
Plus, Danielle Brooks proved that corsetry can also be a plus-sized pastime, with her Dolce & Gabbana black and gold “deconstructed tuxedo” look on the Oscars red carpet.
“Danielle is my plus-size doll, and this industry is not always forgiving when you’re not a certain body type,” her stylist Jennifer Austin told The Hollywood Reporter.
“But she’s comfortable with the woman she is, and she owns it. This season we also have both Danielle and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, two plus-sized dolls with curves on this incredible platform. I love working with someone who proves that no matter whether you’re a size 2 or a size 20, we all can be gorgeous and fashion-forward out here.”
So get lacing yourselves up, ladies and gentlefolk, because the corset is coming for us all.
