The Corset Work
Childhood Comfort © 2003
Click here: ChldHd Cmfrt text.PDF to download the complete text and specs
Cover Corset, vintage cotton ribbed
child undershirt with plastic buttons
Height: 14”
Width closed: 9 1/2”
Width opened: 21”
Interior Corsets. 5 Handmade (facsimile based on antique corset ad) corsets,
vintage cotton with antique lace and buttons, connected with cotton twill tape
Height: 10”
Width closed: 8 1/2”
Interior Corsets opened detail
Width opened (lower 3 buttons): 16 1/4”
5 Interior Corsets front: “A Perfect Fit,” “Youth and Style Belong Together,”
“It Supports and Strengthens…,” “…shaping and disciplining her figure…,”
“Made on a Common Sense Principle”
Interior Corsets front detail
5 Interior Corsets back
Last Interior Corset, with Antique Doll Corset Vest
Height: 6 1/2” (including straps)
Width closed: 6 1/2”
Antique Doll Corset Vest interior
Width opened 12 1/2”
If you would like any hi-res images of these photos, or if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me: tamarstone@pipeline.com
Images Copyright © 2006 by Tamar Stone. All Rights Reserved.
No images may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the artist.
This book uses an antique child's undershirt, whose title is based on a child’s bodice from the early 20th century. When opened it contains 5 handmade facsimile corset vests. This book allows the reader to interact with these child size facsimile corsets, for each of the vests can be unbuttoned to reveal more text. These hand made vests are based on a design for a child’s bodice from the early 1900's. The text on the last undershirt is from an advertisement for a child bodice that states:
"Rational Corset Bodies – for young children, Dainty and Graceful……they fit the figure as if they are molded to it."
The text throughout these corsets come from instructional booklets written for mothers who bought
the corsets for their children. I wanted to use those ideas and apply them to an object that is also instructional – continuing my interests by playing on those instructional child cloth books that taught
us how to tie our shoes and button our buttons.
