Dress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Empire waist that emphasized the bosom was a deliberate rather than an ancillary effect of the corset's displacement of flesh. This can be seen in the introduction to the corset's construction of gussets, triangles inserted at the chest to support the breasts separately. From the 1790s to the 1810s, fashions held little refuge for women of ample proportions. Still, for all the apparent revelation of the natural body suggested by that period's sheer Neoclassical styles, evolving technical strategies were necessary to create the newly fashionable high-bosomed silhouette.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art