Gossard Historical Information

In 1900 Henry Williamson Gossard while looking for new materials for a dressmaking firm travelled to Paris and saw the 56 year old Sarah Bernhardt portray a 20 year old boy dying of consumption in a play. He puzzled how a lady in her 50's could acheive the sylph like figure needed to play the part. The answer, he found was a specially designed corset that using strings at the front pulled the curvaceous contours of Miss Berhardt in to create a boyish silhouette. He knew this would be a winner so created the H W Gossard Company in Chicago in 1901 to produce corsets.

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