Date: c. 1920s
Origin: USA
Fabric: Cotton bobbinet, silk ribbon
Brand: Gladys Neal
A delicate girdle crafted from a fine cotton bobbinet tulle and trimmed with silk satin ribbon. The garment is entirely hand stitched. There are keyhole cutouts at the sides of the lower hips, with a channel of silk ribbon encasing small pieces of elastic that would have presumably offered some extra flexibility of movement. The hem is trimmed with a tulle ruffle, and there are four garter straps made of silk ribbon and elastic. The girdle fastens at the centre back, with a row of of shell buttons and loops hidden beneath a silk ribbon placket, and the garment is embellished with hand embroidered leaf motifs at the waist and hip lines.
Shorter girdle styles like these were a dramatic departure from the extra long corsets that dominated the the early 1910s. These shorter corsets offered the wearers a much greater flexibility in movement, in line with the shifting womenswear fashions and move to shorter hemlines and less restrictive cuts.
From the collection of Karolina Laskowska
