History of Corsets - After World War I

After World War I

Shortly after the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, the U.S. War Industries Board asked women to stop buying corsets to free up metal for war production. This step liberated some 28,000 tons of metal, enough to build two battleships. The corset, which had been made using steel stays since the 1860s, further declined in popularity as women took to brassieres and girdles which also used less steel in their construction. Corsets fell from popularity during the late 1910s but forms of body shaping undergarments often called corsets continued to be worn well into the 1920s.

The development of rubberized elastic materials in 1911 helped the girdle replace the corset.

The change in the economy after World War I also changed women's role in society. In the early 20th century, a young lady would typically have started wearing a corset around age 15, and live at home until she married around age 18. After the war, more young women sought an education, and in the Western world marriage was delayed into the middle to late 20s. Only overweight or pregnant women might choose to wear a corset, typically an under-bust corset.

However, these garments were better known as girdles with the express purpose of reducing the hips in size. A return to waist nipping corsets in 1939 caused a stir in fashion circles but World War II ended their return. In the late 1940s they were revived and were popularly known as 'Merry Widows'.. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s corsets remained a new revival. In the 1990s, fetish fashion became popular and corsets made something of a recovery, often worn as top garments rather than undergarments. By 2010, the corset had recovered a new popularity in fashion.