We might only be in the second month of the year (yes, I know, really), but already a style—certainly not a new one—is emerging as a key fashion silhouette. It is, of course, the corset—a Minoan invention, though mostly associated with the Victorian era and all its attendant rigidity—which quite literally reshaped women’s bodies (and internal organs, if we’re being graphically honest) to fit society’s neat categories.
It’s precisely this legacy that makes the corset so much more than a garment. It has always been a signal of power—first through the enforced dress codes of its time, later as a way for women to reclaim agency and challenge its own history. Whichever way you slice it—or, should I say, lace it—the corset makes a statement about who holds power.
