Great website about the history of women's (and sometimes men's) undergarment's. Women choose to wear these, it gives them a better posture and of course women once believed it helped them lose weight, gave them a bigger bust permanently instead of temporally. Just like wearing clothes, or shoes.
"At the outset, we must admit that this site is not a work of scholarship, simply a collection of memories and facts gleaned from material of the period, both garments and catalogues. There are few references and although we own many of the pictures, some are obviously internet sourced and may or may not be protected by copyright. We have never made any money from this site; in fact it is quite expensive to maintain but it is a labour of love. In fact, we have used the collection of corsets to construct calendars with the garments modelled by willing volunteers. All monies received from these calendars have been given to charities chosen by the models.
For many years my husband and I researched and added to an inherited collection, the articles from which form this basis of this web site. The original idea was to publish the fascinating history of Spirella and the corsetieres who worked for this company before knowledge of the era became lost forever. However, the idea of compiling a small book that would almost certainly never be published was overtaken by the advent of the Internet. Definitely not of the Internet generation, our introduction to this new medium was slow and painful, but ultimately so worth while.
We found many sites dedicated to foundation garments. Their professional approach to the subject and their layout left us acutely aware of our limited abilities to create a web site. It was simply the unexpected discovery of Microsoft's Front Page that allowed us to start building this site.
As the compilation of this web site progressed, we began to realise how little we knew about this fascinating era. What I believed was my 'in-depth' knowledge was very much based on the experiences of somebody who has lived in Britain and Holland. These experiences differ in detail from the American experience and I am always grateful to correspondents who correct me when my assumptions from the east of the Atlantic contradict those from the west.
The major additions to this site have largely been completed; however, there is quite some text that should be added to lend substance to the photographs. The site has grown rather like 'Topsy', a consequence of our inexperience, but one day we may try to rationalise all the pages.
Several visitors to our site have requested that recent changes be indicated for the regular reader who may not want to trawl through the entire script repeatedly. This has been incorporated into the Contents Page, which should allow easier navigation of the site.
Various styles have been adopted in the text. For example, the Spirella pages have a completely different layout from those describing Spencer. This was a consequence of the material available and our personal whims and fancies at the time. We have tried to be scientific in our research and to catalogue references. Occasionally my husband, who has helped enormously with the scanning and compilation, makes his presence felt in the text by the inclusion of the odd flippant comment. I have left these in since some are actually quite amusing, and they do represent a curiously male attitude to the serious topic of foundation garments.
We have been sent many accounts, recollections and articles, both solicited and unsolicited. The veracity of these is checked as well as we can, however, there is no guarantee as to their authenticity. We have avoided those texts that describe blatant wish fulfilment, that are too explicit or that simply do not pass the criteria of our scrutiny. "
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