Corset, Pannier, Chemise

Throughout the eighteenth century, the silhouette of a woman's dress was formed with a corset or a pannier. In order to push up the bust for a feminine outline, the corset was framed with pieces of whalebone. First appearing in the early eighteenth century, the pannier became a mandatory item for court dress up until the time of the French Revolution. As the skirt widened in the mid-eighteenth century, the pannier was modified and split into left and right halves. Such huge panniers frequently became the subject of caricatures.