Putting On, Taking Off 1860s Lingerie

In the 17th century they let their breasts hang out, but in the Victorian era they tied them up with string, which romance novelists have been investigating for their bosomy romance-novel purposes.

(“He held her in his arms and felt her heart beating as he began to unlace the thing outside her outfit, and then underneath that was a smock-type thing, and he untied that, and she helped, and then under that was the corset, so he unbuttoned the little steel twists at the back, and then loosened the thing under the twists, and then she called in her friend, Lucy, and they got the corset off, and then she said, ‘Hold on,’ and pulled the chemise gingerly over her curls, and then she was topless in her loose bloomer-y pants until she undid their belt, and they made love until they both wept.”)