A Proper Fit: Women at Work in a City of Corsets

The twenty-first century has seen the emergence of the corset as haute couture, red carpet finery. A Proper Fit tells only part of the story of the garment’s evolution and its importance to large groups of women in a New England city.

For Anne Marie Murphy, what began as curiosity about one female business owner from 1904, became an exploration of a huge industry in Worcester, Massachusetts: corset making. From the Civil War to the 1980s, the city was home to an astounding 126 corset-related businesses. Women were at the helm of half of them. The industry created a wealth of female self-employment opportunities long before American women had the right to vote. One woman, in particular, operated at the highest level—factory owner Mary Heintzelman Gifford Bowne. How did she learn the trade? How did she become a world famous corset designer? And, how did she fare as a female factory owner in the U.S. in that era?

A Proper Fit highlights Mary’s story as well as those of other women who supported themselves through long-term relationships with clients who came to them for this bespoke foundation garment. The city was filled with corset makers, at large factories and small shops where “corsetieres” made garments from scratch or as customized versions of mass-produced products. In addition to Mary, the manufacturing executive, we meet a downtown corsetiere with grocery store experience, the widow of a corset “cutter” who struck out on her own, and a factory forewoman who parlayed her experience into decades of downtown retailing. The Burnside and Slater Buildings on Main Street became hubs with fourteen corsetieres from wildly different back-grounds. Through the makers we learn about the garment itself—how it was made, worn, and sold to the American woman.

As a leading New England industrial city, Worcester, Massachusetts, “would be a great place for any ambitious young businesswoman to set up shop, especially a corset-making one,” Anne Marie Murphy reminds us. A deep dive into the history of both a garment and a city, A Proper Fit is a fascinating visit to a once-thriving industry driven and supported by thousands of women in a city of innovation, diversity, access, and opportunity. While much has been written about the history of the corset, Murphy’s in-depth, years-long study brings to life personal stories in America’s shift from rural farm economy to urban industry. A Proper Fit is a fascinating account of a city full of female corset makers—from one-woman shops to large-scale factories—at a time of world-wide fashion-driven cinching, compressing, and sculpting. — William Wallace, Executive Director, Museum of Worcester