The Contradiction of Celebrities & Corsets
The below Thread by Laura Tessaris made me realize something - many celebrities who complain about wearing corsets in period dramas also wear corsets on the red carpet with no complaints. The reasons for this hypocrisy are: (1) the corsets in movies are not as well made as those on the red carpet and (2) the myth that women's historical clothing is anti-feminist remains unchallenged in press interviews.
The movie Nosferatu (2024) is set in 1838 Germany and features historically accurate costuming, including corsets. Lily-Rose Depp is the primary star and during press for the film, said her corset made "physical all of the oppression against women at the time" (Interview Magazine, archive). That’s a bold claim, and yet Depp frequently wears corsets outside of film, from editorial spreads to high-profile events like the 2019 Gucci afterparty following the Met Gala. Laura Tessaris mentions in her thread that historical fashion is more than just corsets. The entire dress of the 1830s silhouette involves a large skirt and a neckline with the sleeves that makes raising your hands a lot more difficult than say, a t-shirt with overalls. But instead of describing how the entire dress of the time and of the women's class could limit her movement, it gets shorthanded into "corsets, bad."
Also, Depp makes it sound like the corset was a tool of oppression, something that men used against women, however Victorian men despised women wearing corsets. Cara Delevingne is another actress who often wears corsets on the red carpet but then has complained that corsets are to "muzzle" women. These statements come for an erroneous understanding. Corsets often weren't of the male gaze, they were often a choice by a lot of women to wear what they wished (Karolina Zebrowska, article).
Lily James wore a corset for Cinderella while Emma Watson chose only a flexible bodice for Beauty and the Beast. Both actresses are consistent on and off the red carpet; Lily James often wears structured garments while Emma Watson has a looser style.
There was a lot of press when the poster for Cinderella was first released, asking if Lily James' waist was digitally alerted and Disney was perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards. James responded that it's simply forced perspective and that such press fuels commentary and dissection of women's bodies, as yes, her waist is that small, please stop talking about it. Emma Watson "didn't want her Belle to be a "corseted, impossible idea of female beauty." (Harper's Bazaar, archive). For both Disney Princess movies, the question of the corset is if it sets a bad example of what a woman should look like. In the same way the celebrity press fails to push back on actresses like Depp who are contradictory in wearing corsets, the media and the viewing public failed to simply let women choose to wear a corset or not; instead there are many articles, blog posts, and social media comments about their bodies.
Sometimes corsets are bad. Producers and directors sometimes refuse to provide comfortable costumes and force their actors into clothing that harms their bodies. The most famous story is, of course, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. It's really common form movies to lack stays, including the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, meaning the boning sits directly against the skin which is highly uncomfortable and not the way the historical dress should be worn (but it looks sexier, says some producers!). The rumor is that Bridgerton actors are uncomfortable in their costumes because the short filming schedule for that show means the costume department doesn't have time to make the dresses as custom to the actors' bodies as they should be. We can have historical clothing that's comfortable, a corset that fits well to the body with the proper undergarments, but that requires time and money. A famous example of a woman wanting to wear an undergarment because she was uncomfortable and a producer telling her because he thought it was sexier if she didn't is Minnie Driver in Hard Rain (link). We have a lot of myths about "beauty is pain" and "suck it up" and that shows up on movie sets where actors suffer uncomfortable clothing when they shouldn't have to.
Another reasons corsets are often painful is that they are over-laced or over-tightened. Again, that is a problem with production choices, but it something some celebrities choose to do for the red carpet. Kim Kardashian famously loves to over-tighten her corsets to get press of everyone acting shocked how restricting and painful it must be (Abby Cox). The debate about corsets and using commentary about corsets to get free press is a time-honored tradition since the Victorian era.
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