Dressing to create an illusion around the shape of your body, is something we tend to think as a modern invention, yet even the Victorians were partial to using clothing to create illusions about their body shape to create the ideal shape of the day (an hourglass with a small waist).
I found this Instagram video by scientist Hannah Fry a great inight as she goes into detail about how the Victorians may have sometimes used “tight lacing” to achieve this idealised figure, but there was also a lot of trickery that was also used that didn’t create the pain and deformity of lacing corsets so tightly that your rib cage became deformed.
Interestingly, in the comments, one person mentioned that they were talking to a museum curator who explained that, essentially, smaller-sized clothing and shoes have survived (and ended up in exhibitions) because it was often just less recyclable. Many women would have been using and reusing dresses and fabric repeatedly to make new clothing, and the more common and larger sizes would have been upcycled this way. Clothing was hugely expensive and a big investment and was also something that was passed down to other members of the family (even in wills). This means that many garments in larger sizes would have been worn, recycled, and eventually worn out and never ended up in a museum. In the video below by Bernadette Banner, she talks about the survivorship bias of smaller clothes and the reasons why they have survived.
Here is a longer, fascinating video about the myth of the tiny waist and exactly how the Victorians got their apparent tiny waists.
Applying this Illusion in the 2020s and beyond
This is why with the current trend of wider leg pants, which gives you the illusion of a wider lower half, if you wear a loose blouse or top, it needs to be tucked in and then bloused (or fluffed as Bernadette calls it) over the top of the waistband to create the illusion of a narrower waist.
Shoulder pads and other shoulder details also help to make waists appear smaller. This is why a blazer can be such a flattering garment. They generally have shoulder pads and are made with a little structure that helps to smooth over our normal lumps and bumps, just like the Victorian petticoats did.
When you understand how line and scale work, you can use these illusion tools to create any body shape you want. It’s what all the body shape guidelines are based on, so next time you’re wondering if a garment suits your body and will make you the shape you desire, then you just need to use the right illusion tools!
Fashions change, but also go around in circles, with different silhouettes being the desired ones at different eras in history.
Learn About Illusion Tools
Brilliant Tricks of the Clothing Magician – How to Highlight and Camouflage for Figure Flattery
Why “Just Add a Belt” Doesn’t Create a Waist (explaining the science behind this myth)
How to Be a Style Magician
