Bone (corsetry)
strip of rigid material used to stiffen corsets, bodices, collars, or other types of costume
In corsetry, a bone is one of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame and gives it rigidity. The purpose of the boning in a corset varies slightly from era to era. Generally, the cinching/shaping properties of corsetry puts strain onto the fabric from which the corset is made. The boning supports the desired shape and prevents wrinkling of the corset fabric. Bones, and the substances used for the purpose, are generically called "boning"; however, the name likely arises from the use of whalebone in early corsets.
Modern corset boning comes in two different qualities: the more durable metal and less durable plastic. Since the turn of the 20th century, steel boning was the standard for a high quality corset, coming in two different types: flat spring steel and spiral steel. While spring steel is most preferred for being thin and flexible, it only has the ability to bend in a single direction. Spiral steel is able to bend both horizontally and vertically, its only drawbacks being the fact that it's not as stable and tends to not support larger figures.
Traditionally, plastic boning such as Rigilene has been considered low quality and unsupportive.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bone (corsetry)” as strip of rigid material used to stiffen corsets, bodices, collars, or other types of costume. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bone (corsetry)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.