Historical & Contextual Studies in Fashion Essay - 1

Historical & Contextual Studies in Fashion - Essay Example For women, the corset was worn to support the breasts and to develop a curved figure, narrowing the waist. In 1500s, the corset was introduced in France by Catherine de Medici. At that time, the corset was worn as an undergarment. It was a tight elongated bodice worn by Women of the French court in the 16th century (Davies, 1982). In this period, the women of the French court embraced the corset because it was considered as a necessary garment for the beauty of a female figure (Tortora and Eubank, 1989). It was worn with a farthingale in order to hold out the skirt and form a stiff cone. The corsets in this historical context also turned the upper part of a human torso into an inverted cone shape (V&A, 2015). The corset was also made of shoulder strap and had flaps at the waist. In order to form a good shape for the woman body, the corset flattened the bust. As a result, it pushed up the breasts. The corsets were made of layered fabric fastened with glue and tightly laced (Tortora and Eubank, 1989). A busk was used to stiffen the forefront of the bodice. It was made of wood, metal, whalebone, ivory or metal (V&A, 2015). The steel busk of the corset was spoon-shaped, and was wider at the bottom than at the top in order to exert pressure on the abdomen (Davies, 1982). This shape made the corset wearable and more restricting in order to tighten the waist. During the Victorian era, the busk was made of steel. As fashion changed, the corset also changed. In 1870s, the corset changed it shape, becoming longer so that it can cause the fashionable long and slender silhouette (Takeda and Spilker, 2010). The corsets also became more rigid in order to hide the layers of the underwear. They were heavily boned, and were cut from different pieces and toughened with leather. Whalebone was used because it was strong and flexible, achieving the shape of the corset and the body

My Familys experience with cities over the past three generations Essay

My Familys experience with cities over the past three generations - Essay Example Who could have blamed them Over the past sixty years, Santiago has seen numerous political rebellions and battles which finally lead to a nearly twenty year dictatorship. If my mother finally decided to move to the United States, it is, to my opinion only because of me and the opportunity she had for all of us. Wouldn't we have been there, she would have remained in Santiago. In this essay, I will present the ties my family and I have to our cities and explain on what they rely and their differences. I will try to show that even though we were all born and raised in the same place, our point of view at the same age - 20 - were totally different and the way that we have lived our lives there reflects it. We will see that the city is a My Grandmother, Liliana Domingo, was born in Santiago, Chile in 1942 and since than has been living all her life there. In 1962, at the age of 20, she was working at a local hospital as a nurse. That year marked the fourth anniversary of the president's Jorge Alessandri Rodriguez election. He was promoting foreign investments and free enterprise. The political developments were easily seen in Santiago and often noticed by my grandmother. She started nursing more and more foreigners who were visiting the country for business. It was this people who participated to the modernization of the city. She soon began to think that maybe one day Santiago will become an international city just like London, Paris or New York. These believes helped her in her everyday life which was not so easy. As both a working woman and mother she was busy 24 hours a day, barely finding some time to rest. She woke up very early in order to prepare the entire family, went to work, on her way back did the groceries and finally took care of dinner for all. In the meantime her Santiago was changing. The tramway nearly disappeared, leaving the empty space for buses and trolleybuses. She found it amazing as she never could take the tramway to go to work and spent an hour walking to the hospital. When the buses arrived, it took her only twenty minutes to go to work as the bus was passing just in front of her house leaving her just two blocks away from the hospital. Buses and Trolleys were principally of European origin. As she recalled treating European patients, she was proud in believing that she helped, in a certain way, create this new system of transportation. This is what Santiago was for her, a sort of haven. Though she spent most of her time working at the hospital or at home, she found it much more easier now because of all the new transportations available in the city. Her opinion was that this is the kind of means that a city has to put up in order to make people's life easier and more pleasant. Electricity, water and gas were now available to everybody. Schools, universities were spreading. It was alike a new city was being built just on top of the new one and an extraordinary quantity of opportunities at the same time. Santiago, in 1962, according to my grandmother was an example of modernity combined with a respect of a good and decent way of living; I believe even before my mother reached 20, that my