對19世紀中期西洋婦女而言，服裝是社會地位的重要象徵，當時社會上較具地位的女仕，會根據時間、活動、場合、年齡、社會階層的不用，而選擇各種不同的服飾，因為適得其所的打扮，對女性而言是一種必要的社交禮儀，為了塑造當時細腰豐臀女性化流行體態，女性們都穿上了總重達10至30磅的整腰束腹、裙撐架以及層疊而穿的襯裙，這樣的服飾不僅造成女性活動上的不方便，更對健康造成永久性的傷害，因此，當時社會上的女性運動者、醫生、女性作家、藝術家和服裝設計師都不約而同地開始提出服飾改革的必要性。本研究的主要目的是深入探討西方女性如何從束縛官方婦女近4世紀的整腰束腹中得到解放，顛覆當時傳統的社會審美價值觀，並開啟了20世紀現代服裝造型的雛型。

For those women in the western society in the middle of 19th century, women's dresses represented their social status. A fashionable lady in that period would change her outfits five to six times according to the occasions she attended because dressing properly was considered an etiquette in that society. In order to achieve the fashionable figure, women wore underwear such as corset and crinoline, which weighted 10 to 30 pounds. The fashionable dress caused a public discussion about the relationship between esthetics and comfort in fashion because it not only limited women's movement but also injured to women's health. A group of talented artists, writers, feminists, physicians, and designers attempt to relieve women from the conventional style and therefore they promoted reformed styles for women. The purpose of this study is to explore how women relieve themselves from corsets, which constrained their bodies for almost four hundred years. The dress reforming movement not only overthrows the traditional esthetics standard but also establishes the modern prototype for the twentieth century fashion.