A basque is an item of

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

. The term, of French origin, originally referred to types of bodice or

jacket A jacket is a garment for the upper body, usually extending below the hips. A jacket typically has sleeves and fastens in the front or slightly on the side. Jackets without sleeves are vests. A jacket is generally lighter, tighter-fitting, and ...

with long tails, and in later usage a long

corset A corset /ˈkɔːrsɪt/ is a support garment worn to constrict the torso into the desired shape and Posture correction, posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of Baleen, whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in th ...

, characterized by a close, contoured fit and extending past the waistline over the hips. It is so called because the original French fashion for long women's jackets was adopted from

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

traditional dress. In contemporary usage it refers only to a long item of

lingerie Lingerie (, , ) is a category of primarily women's clothing including undergarments (mainly brassieres), sleepwear, and lightweight robes. The choice of the word is often motivated by an intention to imply that the garments are alluring, fashio ...

, in effect a brassiere that continues down, stopping around the waist or the top of the hips. The lower part can either be purely decorative, or it can feature suspenders to be attached to stockings, obviating the need for a garter belt. In Victorian fashion, ''basque'' refers to a closely fitted bodice or

extending past the waistline over the hips; depending on era, it may be worn over a hoopskirt (earlier Victorian era) or

bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skir ...

(later Victorian era). A basque bodice (i.e., when considered as a dress component, to be worn with a specific skirt) could also be referred to as a "corset

waist The waist is the part of the Human abdomen, abdomen between the rib cage and Hip (anatomy), hips. Normally, it is the narrowest part of the torso. ''Waistline'' refers to the horizontal line where the waist is narrowest, or to the general appe ...

", because of its close fit. The modern French-language usage is completely different, much closer to the historic original, and usually used in the plural.

Torsolette

In 20th century and contemporary attire, the term is used to refer to certain articles of

, particularly a type of

known as a ''torsolette'', or alternately a torso-hugging camisole that resembles a corset (typically featuring decorative front or back lace-up detail), but of more delicate construction and offering little or no figure-moulding compression. Instead the modern basque usually emphasizes allure, with details such as frilly

lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

and cutout, "peekaboo" designs, and sometimes garters (suspenders in

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

) to join to stockings. The undergarment is similar to a Victorian-era corset, but with less compression of the

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

s. The modern-day torsolette features lace-up or hook-and-eye fastening, as well as boning or vertical seams for structure and support. It usually, though not always, has brassiere cups and is distinguished from the bustier by its length. In American English, it is sometimes known as a " merry widow" (or "merrywidow").

Variations and relatives

*A soft torsolette is like an elongated bandeau *A long torsolette is a corselette

References

External links

* 19th-century fashion 20th-century fashion Lingerie Jackets Corsetry Fetish clothing Women's clothing {{clothing-stub