Unlacing the Victorian Woman

The figure of the corseted, prim Victorian woman has long been released from period-drama purgatory, co-opted by the burlesque movement (born when the corset was hardly an old-fashioned item) to denote the extent of women's liberation as she helpfully takes her kit off.

Still, there's more to be said about what those costumes meant to her: If she didn't want to dress as she did, the experience still was powerfully connected to her sense of self, and her sense of a world that decreed her waist should measure 12 inches in circumference.

Barbara Meyer Darlin, a costume historian, has plenty to add to the discussion -- and not all of it is talk. A graduate of Indiana University, Darlin presents a lecture and live demonstration whose topic is certain, but might range in tone between The Forsyte Saga and The Female Eunuch: She'll show not only the lengths 19th-century women went to in order to fit into their dresses, but explain why painful whalebone bodices and tiny, unforgiving shoes weren't just uncomfortable in their own right, but channeled other social tortures of the class system. She'll dress in period, she'll strip, she'll discuss the details of her undergarments, and the whole audience gets to join in. It's a rare opportunity to experience these clothes up close, and reminds us why we're now so relieved to see women who can eat, drink and risk breaking out of this strictured mold.

Unlacing the Victorian Woman, Wed., March 3, 7 p.m., free, Main Gallery, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Main St., Collegeville, 610-409-3500.

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