VLT Editorial
THE 1900s: EDWARDIAN GHOSTS
Corsets, high collars, and the restrictive elegance of the turn of the century.
The Edwardian silhouette is one of the most physically demanding fashion statements in Western history. The S-bend corset, named for the curve it imposed on the female body, required the pelvis to be thrust forward and the shoulders back, creating an unmistakably artificial posture that was considered the height of elegance and that we now recognise as a form of controlled suffering.
The clothing in these images weighs between twelve and eighteen kilograms. The hat alone requires its own structural support. Everything about the garments communicates the same thing: the wearer is controlled, contained, and absolutely certain of her position in the world. The uncertainty is concealed beneath layers of silk and stays.
This is where it begins. The VLT Archive project starts here, at the turn of the last century, at the beginning of everything we might recognise as modern fashion, because you cannot understand where we are without understanding where we started. The corset is not history. The corset is an argument that keeps returning in new forms.
These images were produced in collaboration with historical costume specialists. Every garment is accurate to within a decade.