
© The Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Takashi Hatakeyama
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Corset cover
c. 1911
- Designer
- unknown
- Brand
- Spirella
- Label
- Spirella
- Material
- White cotton corset cover with bones; lace trimmings.
- Inventory Number(s)
- AC5508 86-51-4
Bust bodice with the front boned in a lattice arrangement. The bust is pushed excessively forward, merging left and right into a single #monobosom# shape. At the beginning of the 1910s, the tops of corsets were lowered to about the level of the underbust, using a separate bodice like this to cover the bust. Contemporary mail order catalogs from merchants such as Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck referred to this sort of garment as a 'bust supporter' or 'bust extender,' and advertised it as producing a more ample bust for the slender figure.
Spirella was founded in the U.S.A. in 1904 to market a patented invention of flexible stays. The company became renowned as a corset maker, and also established manufacturing operations in the U.K. and Sweden.