Project Title: The Corset Dress - A Play on Structure, History, and the Feminine Silhouette
Project Description:
This dress, titled The Corset Dress, reimagines Victorian-era ideals of beauty through a contemporary lens. Made from 100% cotton knit fabric, the bodice is sewn with elastic thread to create a shirred texture that mimics the cinched silhouette of historical corsetry—while maintaining comfort, stretch, and wearability. Rather than enforcing the body, this modern “corset” expands and moves with it.
The design draws direct inspiration from Victorian fashion, particularly the emphasis on a tightly controlled waist and a drop-waist silhouette, both of which shaped 19th-century beauty ideals. This piece engages with those historical silhouettes critically—echoing their lines while softening their constraints. The structured bodice gives way to a looser, more flowing skirt, balancing control with freedom.
The stripe pattern brings an unexpected lightness to the concept. Influenced by Alice in Wonderland, the alternating horizontal and diagonal stripes inject a sense of whimsy into the design, reflecting Alice’s curious, rule-bending spirit. While the stripes nod to Victorian motifs in their precision and symmetry, they also disrupt them—adding visual movement and a sense of modern play. The pattern challenges the formality of the corset, making the piece feel fresh, approachable, and current.
Crafted entirely from cotton, a natural and breathable fiber, the dress emphasizes wearability as much as concept. Cotton’s softness and sustainability reinforce the design’s intention: to reinterpret the rigid standards of the past with softness, comfort, and a new kind of strength.
The Corset Dress is ultimately a conversation between eras—between control and fluidity, beauty and constraint, history and imagination.
Date: April 2025
Medium: 100% Cotton knit fabric, Elastic thread
Class: Creative Technical Studio Two (knit dress project) + Design Studio Two (look 10 in final line up collection)
