Corsets: A new Victorian clothing exhibition
October 4, 2006 
A number of bodices, corsets and other garments worn by Victorian ladies are going on show at a museum in the United States.
The museum in the Placer County Courthouse, Auburn, will feature a display of Victorian frocks and finery, including richly brocaded bodices, corsets, petticoats and other garments.
The Washington state museum is hosting a new exhibition entitled Curves and Compromise: the Victorian Silhouette that aims to show what women put themselves through in search of the perfect hourglass silhouette during the latter half of the 19th century.
The Victorian clothing exhibition illustrates how the iconic Victorian shape, with tiny waist, curved hits and full cleavage, was achieved via restrictive wood and whalebone corsets, and provides background information about the era in which the clothes on display were worn.
Admission to the exhibit is free and visitors can read out how women would squeeze themselves into extremely heavy clothing for the sake of their figure and were apt to pass out as a result of the heat, often requiring a fainting couch or fan to aid their recovery.
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