‘The question of the corset’: fashion, health and identity in late Ottoman history

This article examines discussions on the corset in illustrated press, text-book for girls, and medical advice literature reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876–1909). The argues that functioned as a cultural benchmark establishing terms Ottoman Muslim female sartorial decorum larger medicalized public debate modern indoor dress. Hamidian reformers responded to set intertwined but rather conflicting requirements placed upon women’s bodies, then positioned central pillars community building. Caught between consumer desires fashion, health, population, stalled by traditional discourse regulate dress, mobilized associating health patriotism. Debates over insisted authentic femininity drawing binaries fashion against foreign Muslim, beautification beauty. Corset debates opened path towards shifting beauty its preservation from an individually pursued private aesthetic into scienticized which represented moral virtue patriotic duty goal communal imperial wellbeing.