Fashion Corset

Fashion corsets are modern garments that strongly resemble their functional counterparts but are not intended to change the shape of the body. They often tie at the top or bottom, have no boning behind the seams, or have other adaptations made for comfort or aesthetics, and are worn as outer garments.

History
Despite many people's perceptions of the eras portrayed at Renaissance Festivals and in movies the world over, the corset was exclusively an undergarment until the custom of wearing separate undergarments in the form of bras and panties - without girdles - in the 1960s that it fell out of use and became something of a novelty. Even so, it was not until more than a decade later that wearing a corset so visibly lost some of the stigma of embarrassment and it was still not a very popular fashion. The growing prevalence of the fashions of alternative subcultures, namely the 80s goth influence, in the media since the turn of the century, as well as the advent of certain fiction genres and the internet as a repository of information on clothesmaking and history, have heightened the appeal of the corset as both an attractive option for casual wear and costume pieces, and many formal gowns and wedding dresses feature elements of them as well.