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Swiss waist, waist cincher, corset, and corselet: what's the difference? - The Dreamstress

By A Mystery Man Writer

For this week’s terminology post I go back to last week’s Rate the Dress, and Rae’s comment about whether Victorian women wore corsets outside of their dresses. The simple answer is, they didn’t. But they did wear Swiss waists & corselets outside of their dresses, and these can look a lot like corsets if you don’t look closely. So what are these things, and how are they different from corsets? A Swiss waist is a boned, pointed underbust garment worn over skirts and blouses or dresses. Unlike a corset, a swiss waist NEVER fastens with a metal front busk. Swiss waists can have a flat front, with no front opening, or can lace up the front with hand worked eyelets (never metal eyelets). The backs fasten with lacing (also with worked eyelets, not metal eyelets) or buttons. Swiss waists were extremely popular in the 1860s, worn by empresses and common women alike. In the 1860s they were more likely to be called corsages (an un-specific term for a bodice), swiss bodices, swiss belts, or swiss …