WHAT IS A CORSET OR BUSTIER?
Intermittently fashionable for centuries, compression of the female waist has been a rattling good U.S. industry since 1876, when two gynecologist brothers named Warner opened a corset factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Appropriately the biggest fashion show during the recent three week wholesale corset-buying period in Manhattan, New York, was that of Warner Brothers, whose 61 year-old firm is corsetry’s oldest and greatest. Today, United States women are spending $65 million a year to keep their figures under control, and Warner Brothers gets the lion’s share of this business. Shown on the following pages are scenes from the Warner show, which attracted 1,100 buyers from department stores in 180 cities in the United States and Canada to the Grand Ballroom of the Astor Hotel (photo to the right). There, 32 models gave the trade a preview of spring and summer styles. Clearly demonstrated was the fact that the 1937 streamlined latex corset, although containing no bones, still performs
