Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Breasts, breasts, breasts "I am weary of so often describing the container. Might I not devote a page to the contents, the lovely twins so many poets have sung, the glorious breasts? Marble, satin, velvety rock Just consider this the boob entry. I'm reading an interesting book called _Support and Seduction, a History of Corsets and Bras_ (mentioned in the late update I wrote yesterday), and I think I might write an epistle to the List about corsets. Harriet Vane, while watching the dancers revolve in _Have His Carcase_ notes that the waists are slender in reality, and not because of corseting. "At the Labor Exposition of 1885, the artificial breast was introduced. It could be made of chamois leather, quilted satin, or India rubber. One model, the "Mammif," was a pair of false breasts designed to be worn in a corset, its particular interest being that it could be inflated at will!" Considering how horrible I feel when my jeans are too snug, I think I am quite lucky to have escaped the age of the corset. Of course, if I were in that era, I wouldn't be expected to do all that much. Weetabix has an interesting examination of the water-filled bra, for anybody who is curious. This entry is loosing focus, so I will end with this quote: "It was the era of the corset. I declared war on it. The last of the rotten gadgets was a thing called the Gaches-Sarraute. Of course I have always known women to be encumbered by their endowments and anxious to hide or distribute them. But the corset split them into two distinct masses, on the one hand the bust, throat, and breasts, on the other the entire backside; so that women seemed to be divided into two lobes and hauling a trailer...It was in the name or Liberty that I advocated against the corset adn in favor of the brassiere, which has gone on to become extraordinarily successful. But at the same time that I was freeing the bust, I was restricting the movement of the legs. What tears, what wailing and gnashing of teeth was caused by this fashion decree! Women complained that they could no longer walk, no longer climb into a car." - Paul Poiret 8:48 a.m. - 2002-02-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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