A Warner Brothers Coraline cotton-twill nursing corset, 1881

stamped Dr. Warners, the corded corset with boning to centre back, steel busk to front, cut-outs over each breast, modesty panels attached with grommet for access, adjustable shoulder straps, waist approx 56cm 22in

The Warner Brothers Corset Company was co-founded by brothers Dr Lucien Warner and Dr Ira De Ver Warner in 1874. Both were prominent doctors who decided to abandon their medical practices in an effort to develop a more healthful, flexible corset. Dr Warner’s Coraline Health Corsets were made of ’Coraline’, produced from the fibres of the Mexican Ixtle plant. By 1876, these ’health corsets’ had grown in popularity so much so that the company was producing approximately 6,000 corsets daily. In 1883, Harper’s Bazaar advertised the four most popular corsets in America as Dr Warner’s models. In 1914 they bought the patent for the brassiere from inventor Mary Phelps Jacob, who had invented the brassiere a year earlier. In 1968, the company’s name was changed to Warnaco, and it rapidly expanded throughout the second half of the twentieth century. In 2011, Warnaco was operating with a yearly revenue of US$2.51 billion and owned the patents for Speedo. It was a main producer of underwear for Calvin Klein, Victoria’s Secret, Fruit of the Loom, and Ralph Lauren. In 2013, Warnaco was acquired by PVH, which sold the brand to Basic Resources Inc. in 2023, a major producer of legwear, loungewear, and underwear.

An almost identical nursing corset is held in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society.

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