"Happiness is the sublime moment when you get out of your corset at night."- Joyce Grenfell

I found on the Victoriana website this picture of young Victorian ladies dressing themselves. The picture is copyrighted in 1900 and the photographer was William H. Rau.

Good luck trying to sing well in that corset. I often wonder about the particular vocal quality of woman during this time period. There are not many recordings from the Victorian era, but there are from just afterwards when woman still wore this tight corseted clothing. How could they ever have any real depth to their voice when a low breath was virtually impossible? I'm thinking of the fluttery voice of Adrianna Caselotti, aka the voice of Disney's Snow White. Although that was filmed in 1937, tight undergarments were still worn. It seems probable that the light, fluttery voices of females during the early part of the century were related to the corsets that were popular during this time.