frfashion1-3, Exercise 1: "Poiret freed women from the corset"

Model answer (check the details), using the six questions:

1. Who says it? Poiret himself, in his memoir, and many later writers who repeat the story.
2. What exactly is claimed? That Poiret ended the corset. "Freed" suggests a lasting liberation, and "from the corset" suggests that the corset disappeared.
3. What would count as evidence? Dated garments, corset advertisements and sales, photographs, medical and reform literature, and the work of other designers.
4. Compared with what? Dress reformers of the 1880s and 1890s, and other designers who moved to a looser line in the same years (check).
5. Which period? 1906 to 1914, and the years that followed.
6. What would change my mind? Evidence that the corset remained widespread, or that others led the change.

Verdict: partly true. Poiret was a leader of the move to a high-waisted, less curved line, but reformers had called for change for decades, a different corset or girdle was still worn, and his hobble skirt restricted movement (check). A careful sentence: "Poiret popularised a looser silhouette that helped end the extreme S-bend, but the corset itself did not disappear."

Care: designers tend to claim credit in their memoirs. Look for independent evidence.