Date: c. 1910-1920s
Origin: Great Britain
Fabric: Metal and cotton
Brand: Oktis, manufactured by William Pretty & Son
Oktis brand ‘corset shields’ were designed to be sewn to the interiors of corset waists and purported to ‘double the life’ of the garments by preventing the corset bones from breaking at stress points. The shields are created from vertical bones of ‘zairoid’, a metal that the manufacturers claimed was as flexible as steel and rust proof, encased in cotton casings with a horizontal waist tape. This product was first sold in the late 1890s, and gained popularity at the turn of the century, and was developed and patented by William Pretty & Sons corsets of Ipswich (Suffolk, England). This set appears to have been manufactured at the turn of the 1910s/1920s. with the hair style and corset silhouette of the illustrated model typical of this time period.
From the collection of Karolina Laskowska
