Corsets. They were not uncomfortable or restrictive, and they did not make women faint. Only the Victorian equivalent of the Kardashians were into dangerously tight lacing – for regular women, they were just a fitted support garment, no worse than spanx. I’ve worn them for 25 years as a late-Victorian reenactor. They’re actually really nice for back pain.
On the other hand, hoop skirts were immensely dangerous, and women were burned to death when their skirts caught an open flame (of which there were many), were dragged to death when their hoops caught in coach wheels as they disembarked, and fell to their deaths when the wind caught their hoops and sent them flying Mary Poppins style from rooves and balconies.
On the same note, knight’s armour was hot but not hard to move in. IIRC is weighed about as much as a modern soldier’s gear does all together.
I have an adage that “the locals are never stupid”; all historical things are going to have been well-adapted for the person who commissioned them, given the available materials and techniques. Even hoop skirts were I imagine comfortable enough when not on fire or caught in something. (And if an accident happened, well, she was lucky to have survived that far)
Eh. The problem is that the way they work is by taking strain off muscles. In the long term, that ends up weakening the muscles that you need to support your torso. In most cases, the best thing you can do for back pain is physical therapy.
Not necessarily, if your back pain is caused in part by heavy breasts. Imagine wearing a school backpack on your chest all day every day, and how that would strain your back and shoulders. Then try wearing a hiking backpack instead with a hip belt. It redirects where the weight is resting on your body. The average women’s corset in the 1800s was strengthened with paper or cording or sometimes whale balleen, a material similar to heat sensitive plastic, which are not really materials rigid enough to limit your movement much. Historical corsets were designed to redistribute the weight of breasts to the hips, for most women it was meant to provide support to the breasts first and foremost, and smoothing a tummy roll or giving a smidge more definition in the waist was just a bonus. Working women who wore corsets in kitchens and laundries and schools or farms had no issues with weaker core muscles.
Corsets. They were not uncomfortable or restrictive, and they did not make women faint. Only the Victorian equivalent of the Kardashians were into dangerously tight lacing – for regular women, they were just a fitted support garment, no worse than spanx. I’ve worn them for 25 years as a late-Victorian reenactor. They’re actually really nice for back pain.
On the other hand, hoop skirts were immensely dangerous, and women were burned to death when their skirts caught an open flame (of which there were many), were dragged to death when their hoops caught in coach wheels as they disembarked, and fell to their deaths when the wind caught their hoops and sent them flying Mary Poppins style from rooves and balconies.
Corsets were fine; hoop skirts were a death trap.
I was thinking of gettingy ex-wife a hoop skirt for her birthday.
On the same note, knight’s armour was hot but not hard to move in. IIRC is weighed about as much as a modern soldier’s gear does all together.
I have an adage that “the locals are never stupid”; all historical things are going to have been well-adapted for the person who commissioned them, given the available materials and techniques. Even hoop skirts were I imagine comfortable enough when not on fire or caught in something. (And if an accident happened, well, she was lucky to have survived that far)
Eh. The problem is that the way they work is by taking strain off muscles. In the long term, that ends up weakening the muscles that you need to support your torso. In most cases, the best thing you can do for back pain is physical therapy.
Not necessarily, if your back pain is caused in part by heavy breasts. Imagine wearing a school backpack on your chest all day every day, and how that would strain your back and shoulders. Then try wearing a hiking backpack instead with a hip belt. It redirects where the weight is resting on your body. The average women’s corset in the 1800s was strengthened with paper or cording or sometimes whale balleen, a material similar to heat sensitive plastic, which are not really materials rigid enough to limit your movement much. Historical corsets were designed to redistribute the weight of breasts to the hips, for most women it was meant to provide support to the breasts first and foremost, and smoothing a tummy roll or giving a smidge more definition in the waist was just a bonus. Working women who wore corsets in kitchens and laundries and schools or farms had no issues with weaker core muscles.