Victorian Secrets: What a Corset Taught Me about the Past, the Present, and Myself is about one woman’s year long experience with wearing a corset and teaching herself about the lies that many people have been taught about corsets.
The author states at the beginning of the book that she didn’t wanted to be gifted a corset for her twenty-ninth birthday although her husband gets her just that, and although she doesn’t want to wear it, she is aware that he has spent a lot of money on this present and so she wears it, only to find that it helps her with so many things, making her sit up straight it gives her better posture, helps any back pains, and has her eating less than she normally would.
The book is interesting with many slices of corset history, the design of the clothing all over the novel, the only problem with it is the author’s own attitude towards the people who react negatively towards her continued wearing of the corsets, which she herself was ignorant about before she ended up wearing one, as well as just looking down at people who were larger than herself.
“Not that a small is really small anymore,” he smirked. “Right,” I laughed. “More like large, extra large and ginormous.”
*
I glanced at the lump-shaped baby boomer.
This is just a small taste of what the author is like towards those who don’t wear corsets, although it seems to be probably about half-way in her journey of wearing a corset in the year. She really dislikes having to correct people about what a corset is and isn’t and while I totally get that she doesn’t want to argue with people in regards to her choice, she doesn’t have to argue with them, nor does she have to keep looking down at them.
The other problem is that the pair of them, author and her husband look down at the people who don’t wear antique clothing, or exact replica’s at certain Victorian events, instead they were clothing that isn’t exact and isn’t made out of the same clothing that they had back then, which felt a bit privileged that they could and that the other people didn’t either want to, or couldn’t afford it.
There is also the odd moment of learning that the author and her husband collect antique clothing, although the author didn’t really know about the history of certain clothing until the pair of them look into the history of how they are worn.
It’s a decent read, but it’s not one that I will repeat now that I have read it, there are plenty of other books in relation to corsets out there.
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