While going through some postcards that we bought at the V&A Museum during our recent trip to the UK, I came across this beauty:

Corset, c. 1890 – 1895; V&A Museum (T.738-1974)

Here’s another view from the V&A website:

This is probably one of the best extant example of corsetry from the 1890s and it helped to create the wasp-waist silhouette that was characteristic of this period. Just for comparison is another corset from 1883:

Corset, 1883; V&A Museum (T.84&A-1980)

Corset, 1883; Victorian & Albert Museum (T.84&A-1980)

From a general perspective, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between these two corsets. At some point, we’ll take a more detailed look at corsetry so until then, enjoy these pictures. 🙂