JavaScript Menu Powered By Milonic
Costume designer DARREN MILLS shares his insights on the history of the corset and its important place in Esther’s world, work, and private life in Intimate Apparel.
 |
In the spring of 2002 Linda Whitney told me about an intriguing play that had just received a reading in Los Angeles, meaning that it was still in the early stages of development. Set in 1905, it told the story of a lonely black seamstress who made her living constructing exquisite intimate apparel for wealthy white women as well as black prostitutes. Linda knew that she wanted to produce the play and that it would be a magical collaboration for both of us. Intimate Apparel has lived with me ever since. Rarely does a play present a costume designer with the opportunity to make an item of period underwear, a corset, the predominant costume piece in a number of scenes. Explore the history of the corset, and you will find that this miracle of engineering has been a crucial part of the western woman’s wardrobe on and off (mostly on) for a few thousand years. Meant to contain and shape milady, the corset was also doing a good part of supporting the bosom for several centuries. Just as important as the proper brassiere is today, until about a hundred years ago, the corset provided the desired silhouette for the garment worn over it. I made my first corset in 1998 for Harlequin’s production of O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and my fascination with the structure and engineering of corsetry was confirmed. The corset must fit properly and, on occasion, do some heavy lifting, yet be just bearable enough to wear. The idea that women throughout history have resorted to such extreme and painful lengths (including the removal of ribs) to slim the waistline is amazing to me. Yet, we can certainly find myriad parallels today in the cosmetic surgery industry. That so many women, and more and more often men, will go through such painful, invasive and risky procedures for the sake of an ideal figure and face would astonish the Gibson Girls of old. The corset is quaint by comparison. |
Around 1900, corset designers and doctors alike had recognized the ill health effects of the hourglass shaped corsets that had been worn for years. The solution was the anatomical or “specialite” corset which featured a flat front that didn’t put constricting pressure on the vital organs. It is this “S-Shape” or “mono-bosom” silhouette popular with the Edwardians that you see in Intimate Apparel. By the mid-1920s corsetry had all but disappeared, giving way to a new era of female form that addressed the reality of the female body without severely altering its shape. During the post World War I period, dresses became shorter and roomier. Women got the vote and embraced lives and activities that could not be contained by corsets. But even today a stroll through any department store lingerie department makes it clear that the defining and redefining of the feminine form is still with us. Miracle fabrics have made stays less predominant in these structures, but the corset casts a long shadow across these sleek underpinnings. Beyond being just a great design opportunity, this project has provided an unusual connection between my work and the character of Esther Mills.
|
|
|
Coincidentally, we even share a surname! Many of the costumes you see, the corsets, smoking jacket, crazy quilt and even her own clothing would have been made by Esther herself. The dedication and love of craft that Esther - and the many thousands like her in this period when all well-to-do households had dressmakers - informed my work in a unique way. I am a proxy in the creation of costumes for Intimate Apparel, Esther herself is the designer. - Darren Mills, Costume Designer |
Back to Intimate Apparel page.
Real. Live. Theater.
Box Office 360-786-0151
Graphic Design - WHITNEY DESIGN • TORSTUDIOS - Photographer