DO CORSETS MEAN WE TAKE CONTROL — OR PANDER TO MEN?

FIRST MAKE-UP BAG WOMEN’S relationship with cosmetics goes back a very long way.

Traces of ingredients used in ancient times — including kohl, ochre, wax, and perfumed oils dating from 1350BC — have been excavated from graves.

In the 20th century, make-up boxes became more portable, to cater for women’s changing lives.

The swivel metal lipstick case, powder compacts, block ‘spit and brush’ mascara and later the penshaped applicator were introduced, all able to be popped into a handbag rather more easily than a Bronze Age cosmetics box. UNDERCOVER UNDIES

THE Victorians are synonymous with the fashion for tight-laced corsets, a practice condemned by doctors for causing ill-health.

The Industrial Revolution played an interesting role here: the invention of the metal eyelet in 1823 meant corsets could be tightly laced without the material tearing, while in 1839 Frenchman Jean Werly patented the machine-made woven corset, after which they became more widely available.

Interest in corsets was revived after World War II when Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ signalled a return to the hourglass figure, with a small waist and high bust.

Debate rages over whether the corset’s recent revival shows women taking control of their sexuality or pandering to men’s fantasies.

GOOD VIBRATIONS

ONE of the very first vibrators, invented in the early 20th century, was for curing ‘nervous headaches’. Any newspaper that was too open about its other uses was at risk of prosecution.

In 1902, one advert pushed the boundaries by saying ‘all the pleasure of youth will throb within you’.

Feminists went on to encourage women to explore their own bodies in the Sixties and Seventies. But it wasn’t until the dual-action vibrator, The Rabbit (invented in 1984), was featured in TV show Sex And The City in the late Nineties that the gadget became mainstream.