#UPMTC: Women and Corsets in Toronto, by Alanna McKnight
This blog post covers the Underpinnings Museum Twitter conference presentation from Alanna McKnight entitled Women and Corsets in Toronto, 1870-1914.
This study argues that corsets were a site of feminist agency, using Toronto’s consumer and manufacturing centres as a case study. Toronto’s corset manufactures were instrumental in the urbanization of Canadian industry, and created employment in which women earned a wage. The women who bought their wares were consumers making informed purchases, enacting agency in consumption and aesthetics; by choosing the style or size of a corset, female consumers were able to control to varying degrees, the shape of their bodies. Using archival and material culture analyses, the female economy of Toronto’s corset industry is uncovered.
Alanna McKnight is a PhD Candidate in Communications and Culture at Ryerson University in Toronto, specializing in women’s labour and history in Canadian fashion, due to complete in January 2018. Her doctoral dissertation is informed by undergraduate degrees in theatre costuming and History, as well as a masters in history, with a thesis on Toronto dressmaking. She has been an avid maker and wearer of corsets for 18 years.
1 #UPMTC This presentation explores the production and consumption of corsets in Victorian era Toronto. The central argument is that rather than being instruments of torture fashioned to keep women submissive, corsets provided them a site of paid employment and body autonomy. pic.twitter.com/D2K21dJZD5
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
2 #UPMTC The data collected for this study was obtained from Toronto City Directories, newspaper articles and advertisements, and the Census of Canada – all between 1871 and 1914.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
3 #UPMTC During the time period covered, Toronto had 51 businesses making corsets ranging from large national companies, to agents for companies outside Toronto, to individuals. 16 of these businesses producers were owned and operated by women.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
4 #UPMTC Several of the businesses that were listed in the sources as being owned by men were actually run by women. Because of gender bias reasons, these women chose to have their husband or a male partner act as the public face of the business.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
5 #UPMTC Many of the female-run businesses were small; however, one owned by Hannah Vermilyea employed upwards of 150 women. Vermilyea spent most her life living outside of Toronto, and owned corset factories in other cities.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
6 #UPMTC Prior to the factory reform legislation of 1886, the women who were employed in corset factories were of varying ages & marital status. Though these reforms enforced that all workers be over 14yrs, subcontracting and homework was rampant; children were likely put to work
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
7 #UPMTC Btwn 1871 and 1914 approx 754 ppl worked in corset making in Toronto: 496 women/ 258 men. Women were largely employed as factory labour (470), although the 26 employed as managers & clerks is significant, as these positions were not traditionally accepted “women’s work”.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
8 #UPMTC Once manufactured, corsets in Toronto were sold at department stores & boutique shops or displayed at the National Exhibition, now the CNE. Toronto vendors also imported corsets from England, Belgium, and America, among others. Corsets cost between 24¢ and $20.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
9 #UPMTC Manufacturers & retailers used ads heavily and not merely as enticement for sales. Ads were used to sully their competitors with patent wars, seek employees, sell businesses wholesale, and (perhaps most importantly) describe the transformative promises of their corsets.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
10 #UPMTC The story of corset wear is complicated by the dress reform movement. Toronto women were advised to stop wearing corsets for health and aesthetic reasons by fashion columns, lectures hosted by pundits of the movement, and flyers and other polemic literature.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
11 #UPMTC Yet alongside the vocal dress reform movement, women were also offered advice on the most current corset style, including how to wear corsets for cycling and other sports and even corset suggestions for women entering white collar work.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
12 #UPMTC Although corsets are recalled in pop culture as anti-feminist and encumbering, the manufacture of these garments provided significant paid employment to women. Furthermore, the variety of styles available allowed women to choose how severely or not they wanted to lace.
— Alanna McKnight (@VetusVeste) January 12, 2018
We will share each of the conference presentations via its own blog post over the coming weeks. If you’re on Twitter, you can join the discussion via the Underpinnings Museum’s account and the conference hashtag #UPMTC
The header image for this post is of a ‘Droit Devant Forme Nouvelle’ drab coutil corset with flossing embroidery (c, 1900-5, France) from the Underpinnings Museum collections. Photography by Tigz Rice.