The Corset: Fashioning the Body Installation View

Left to right:
Corset / Birch wood / Lent by Mr. Robert Graf, Dress-sire

Hussein Chalayan "Surgical" corset / Cotton, leather, and metal / England, 1998 / Lent by Hussein Chalayan

Jean Paul Gaultier corset / Acetate, cotton, spandex / France, 1992 / Museum Purchase, P92.43.2

Dean Sonnenberg and Anthony Pacesa / Evening ensemble / Metallic leather, silk moiré taffeta, silver / USA, 1997 / Lent by Catherine and Robert Jung

Catherine Jung is a tight-lacer, who has reduced her waist to 17 inches, measured around the outside of the corset; on the inside, the measurement is less than 16 inches. This dress, designed by Dean Sonnenberg, has a built-in corset. The silver over-corset by Anthony Pacesa is purely decorative and can not be tightened.

Right:
Alexander McQueen / Corset bodice / Silk moiré faille, canvas, lace, beads, metal boning / England, 1998 / Lent by Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen's work combines exquisite craftsmanship with a powerfully dark erotic sensibility. This heavily boned corset bodice expresses McQueen’s Gothic visions of deathly desire through a color palette symbolic of magic and mourning, the church and the king. Lacing tightly up the back, the bodice is characterized by extremely high lapels that obscure the wearer’s face. It was constructed for McQueen by the tight-lacing corsetier, Mr. Pearl, who has also worked for Christian Lacroix and Karl Lagerfeld.