Sunday April 21, 2002 Daily Fashion Buzz: Cinch Me Up, Scotty! by Staci Layne Wilson see corsetted.com webmistress' notes at the bottom Take a deep breath. The torture chamber of ladies' underwear is making a comeback. Nicole Kidman’s corseted curves in the critically acclaimed film Moulin Rouge have pushed, pulled and prodded the waist-whittling lingerie back into the spotlight. Moulin Rouge, set in 1899 Paris, squeezes its leading lady and her crew of can-can kickers into the wasp-waisted garments so tightly, one might think a can-can-opener would be needed to extract them. Who cares that Nic cracked two ribs during the making of the film? She looks smashing. Looks, not health, are what corsets are all about -- and getting those looks was all-important to the Victorian lady (1840 – 1910). Contrary to common conviction, almost every woman, women of all classes, wore corsets in those times. Fashion was dictated by the upper crust, so they were the primary wearers of the fashion devices like corsets and crinoline, but even the working class dogs obeyed the trends of fashion to as high a degree as possible. Victorian times were the times of the long, stiff corset which completely molded the body, reducing the wearer to an object of beauty, unable to perform any tasks; wearing one was a sign of status, whether you really had it or not. The corset wasn't born with Scarlet O'Hara. In Europe, it was in use as early as the middle ages, though not always in the hourglass shape we associate with it. But, the corset has at all times been used for shaping the body, primarily for compressing the waist, but sometimes for elevating, or even flattening, the bust. It's not only women who've become slaves to this fashion. In 15th century, men also wore corsets as a matter of course. How tightly were the corsets laced? There are rampant reports of waists whittled between 18 and 14 inches, and even 12 inch waists are touted here and there. (There is a great passage in the Gone With The Wind novel, in which Scarlet wails her waist is a huge 20 inches after having her baby.) Most accounts of these very small waists represent the extreme few, and reference to corsets in museum collections indicates that most corsets of the time 1860 to 1910 measured from 20 to 22 inches. Madonna, certainly the one of the most celebrated pop stars on the planet, and the famous French designer Jean Paul Gaultier who designed the bullet bra and a super-cinchy corset she onstage, got their names in the history books of fashion world, circa 1990's. Corsets came back into the picture then, but it's nothing like now. With the advent of Moulin Rouge, Bloomingdale's opened a specially designed Moulin Rouge shop to cash in on the film before it was even released. Corsets and bustiers are cutting edge on the catwalks, and at this year’s Oscars, Juliette Binoche’s Gaultier dress was corseted, as was Catherine Zeta Jones' floor length black gown. Are you ready, ladies? Take a deep breath and hang onto those bedposts! Visit my "home on the Web" Staci Wilson where you can read intriguing stories and unusual articles, read NEW movie reviews, and check out the coolest links page ever!! corsetted.com webmistress says: Firstly, Nicole Kidman did not crack 2 ribs during the making of Moulin Rouge because of the corsets she was wearing. Yes, she sustained said injury, but it was due to an improperly executed dance move, not the tightening of her corset. Anyone who has seen the movie knows that there is alot of dancing in it, and Kidman broke her ribs rehearsing a lift (a move where the male dance partner lifts up the female dance partner and supports her with his hand on her chest, thus all her weight presses against her ribcage). In my opinion, Kidman got injured because she lacked proper bone density and strength. Anorexia and Hollywood starvation diets that stick-thin model/actresses are known for aren't exactly famous for creating healthy bones. Also, the ribcage is one of the most flexible bones in the adult human body, it expands and contracts as we breathe. It's used to getting moved. In order for a corset to crack a rib, it would have to go from completely loose to all the way closed (very tightly) in a matter of 2-3 seconds. Anyone who has ever worn a tightly laced corset knows how impossible that would be. Secondly, if "almost every woman, women of all classes ..." was laced so tight that they were reduced to "an object of beauty, unable to perform any tasks," who did all the work?