Corset Revival by Katie Evans

Artist Name: Katie Evans

Social media link:  katie.does.fashion

Website:

 Short introduction about yourself: Hi I’m Katie! I’m a third-year fashion design student at Liverpool John Moore’s university. I am passionate about historical fashion and costume design, and I mainly work using traditional hand crafts, and I especially enjoy crochet.

Describe your corset in one sentence: Pink and white crochet corset with a high-necked frilly collar.

The story behind the corset: Like many others, the first thing that comes to mind when I thinking about a corset is the Victorian period, with women in tight laced corsets to create an impossibly tiny waist and this causing dramatic fainting spells. I have always had a fascination with the Victorian era, and how this was the period that shaped the world into what it is today with its technological advances, however, as with most periods up until fairly recently, women were seen as only being capable of being wives and mothers. Despite being ruled by a queen and the birth of women’s suffrage, it was still commonplace for women to only concern themselves with matters of the home.

This was also the time of the arts and crafts movement, a design reform movement opposing the rapid rate of industrialisation in Victorian England, advocating for traditional crafts and functional beauty. The movement was coined by William Morris and encouraged people to create their own items in a time of mass production. This movement offered women an avenue of self-expression by creating their own clothes and accessories, allowing them to be brought together through their crafts and turning the home into a creative space. It also allowed women to take hold of their own financial situations as they could sell their crafts, which was seen as a “lady-like” way of making money, yet it still allowed for much more freedom away from domestic life.

I am very proud of my final outcome, not only because of the time and effort I put in with it being entirely handmade, from crocheting to hand-sewing each part in place, but because I feel that it encompasses the theme of Victorian craft very well. Whilst having traditionally feminine elements, with the colours, lace details and the corset shape, it represents women creating their own freedoms, although subtly, and crafts allowed women to express themselves without being held back as they could create and share their skills with others.