The Corset Work
Click here: RCB Dedscpt+Txt.PDF
to download the complete
text and specs
The Rational Corset Body © 2002
Outside Cover Corset, vintage girdle
on old clothes hanger
Height: 16”
(28” including straps and garters)
Width closed:
8 1/2” top
7 1/2” bottom
Antique Doll Dress
Height: 10”
Width closed:
4 1/2” top,
7 1/2” bottom
Antique Doll Dress, interior
Width opened:
8 1/2” top,
14 1/2” bottom
Height: 4”
Width closed: 4”
Antique Doll Corset Vest
Width open: 7”
Blue Doll Corset Vest interior
If you would like any hi-res images of these photos, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: tamarstone@pipeline.com
Images Copyright © 2006 by Tamar Stone. All Rights Reserved.
No images may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the artist.
This book was created around the text I found while researching corset history. The title of the book is an actual name of a corset and the inside text carries through the text from that original ad which says: “It carries the beauty of a lovely figure which is the priceless possession of girlhood…into the dignity and poise of gracious womanhood.” It continues on to let the viewer know to... “Co-ordinate your mind and body to create a picture of beauty.”
As an adolescent wearing the metal and leather Milwaukee brace – and now as an adult, still at times feeling the burden of carrying around all that “low self-esteem/brace induced image” – I actually could never envision myself as the young woman that these corset ads were speaking to. This is probably why today I have a fascination with all the prescriptive text telling me what I can become if I wear these body defining garments.
The text that ends this book, inside the doll corset vest* tells us that these corsets should be worn….”To prepare her body for the best possible carriage and figure – Defining, Confining, Refining.”
* historical note: There is much literature describing young girls and their dolls to the point where the doll clothing was training girls how to dress “...to be the best possible women...” in the coming years.
Those stories are told in the corset vest books, To Ensure Grace and Causes of Female Influence.
