2-942-353 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Laceing a Dandy, published January 26, 1819. Two servants, one possibly a slave, pull on the laces of a man's corset. The hairdresser on the right is a caricature Frenchman or Italian. Men were not immune to the lure of fashion, and fashion-conscious dandies squeezed themselves into corsets in order to maintain a modishly trim figure. 'Fore Gad ye wretches you'l never get my Stays tight enough go brutes and call John James & Thomas to help you take care you don't Spoil my Breasts!!'; 'Vi don't you pull by Gad if you no pull tight my Lord will have on D[am]n big John Bull Belly';