Corsetmaker

A corset maker was originally a tailor, who had specialized in the making of corsets. The history of this craft skill is necessarily closely linked to the history of this garment.

Maybe it has already been in ancient times, corset-like garments, but no details about their preparation are known. The 'modern' corset came up in the 1100s in France, at the time of the French King Louis VI .. it was only in the 15th century in Germany in fashion. At this time, all corsets were made by tailors custom made, exclusively for the nobility. From 1675 it was also permitted seamstresses in France to manufacture these garments.

After the French Revolution, there was no dress code, so that now the rest of the population could take over the fashion of the nobility. In 1818 Robert Werly resulted in Bar- le- Duc in the Champagne region, the factory production of corsets from a woven fabric. 1838 then opened a Frenchman in Stuttgart, the first German corset factory; 1849 was followed by a second, who worked mainly for export. While the women of the upper classes a tailor commissioned as before, the citizens women bought the corset "off the shelf "; the women of the lower classes had to sew their own bodice.

About 1860 working in Paris around 3800 corset maker, around London were about 10,000 people employed in this industry. By the end of the 19th century there was in Germany almost exclusively in Württemberg industrial corset manufacturer. A resident company exported about 1880 per year, approximately 630,000 corsets in the USA; there were only after 1890 's Manufacturer. After 1918, production was then changed with the end of the classic corset on the bodice.

In 1950, in Germany ( East and West) overall still about 120 corsetières businesses, especially in Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne and Chemnitz, including 25 large-scale enterprises.