From what I know of Victorian versus Edwardian dress and corsetry, there was a radical change around the turn of the century. You can see the results of it here in the very strange carriage of these women. I have seen images in corsetry ads from this era that made me scratch my head:
Now, I am aware that a woman in that era would wear a bustle: a big wad of extra padding supported with wires and fastened at the top of the bum that was kind of the Kim Kardashian "booty" of the era, making the bent-back appearance of the body even more exaggerated. What this was doing to the female spine is hard to fathom. Corset enthusiasts/fetishists will insist that corsets were actually GOOD for women and supported their posture, claiming that medical reports of internal damage were sensationalized and just wrong.
But look at this: the belly and bust are leaning forward alarmingly and so in line with each other that they are practically flat, with the pelvis and hips twisted backwards at a nearly-90-degree angle, then forced to bear the weight of heavy gowns, petticoats and that damned, damnable bustle.
There is something of the china figurine in these women's bodies, and frankly I thought those ads were a bit ridiculous and had to be exaggerating. . . until I saw this:
This alarming thing is called a "health corset", for reasons unknown. I wonder if women sometimes fell on their faces from being pushed so far forward, and how in fact a corset was even able to reshape and even deform a human body to such an extreme degree.
But it's no mystery why this woman is leaning on the chair for support. Without it, she'd likely face-plant. The fact the dangling garters look like something you'd strap onto a plough horse is another story.
