18th century stays - modern corsets the two types of corsets depicted in the links pages of the 18th century clothing lesson show that predominantly women were still being forced into stays that required the waist and upper body to take on a conical shape which forced the breast area together to make them look somewhat larger rather than flatten them for modesty sake. unfortunately to compare them with some modern corsets from say the 1950's proves somewhat difficult as the link provided in the lesson appears to be broken.
