Dear Sir,–I read in the brochure on corsetry issued by a British firm on corset-makers “Now the cardinal principle of really smart appearance is the straight unbroken silhouette.”
This may be a decree sent forth by the hidden hand whom we have to thank for our fashions, but it does not commit men to admire it. Surely it is the subtle curves which we admire chiefly, and which the corset is intended to preserve, such as the lines of bust and hips accentuated by control of the waist.
I maintain that it is more natural and more pleasing to accentuate acknowledged beauty of form than deliberately dispel it. Good taste in deciding upon the extent of slenderness to be achieved through the medium of lacing is needed of course, and there is surely comfort some divergence of opinion with our undue offence to the eye.
It does not seem to me a savour of a sane attitude of mind which deliberately expresses all evidence of the physical features which, since the dawn of time, have never been associated with the female form and which have called forth the poetic expressions of delight ever since. I allude, of course, to the neck, shoulders and busts. Obscurity is not in itself a thing to be desired, and the fig lead is not to be taken literally but figuratively. There is another aspect, however, of corseting, to which I will enter in on another occasion.