Camisole de Force

I’m all about wearing an outfit that screams, “I’m in charge.” If I can do that with a lacy number, even better. Thus, when I recently researched the ‘camisole de force,’ I must say I was a bit surprised to learn that, despite sounding fiercely sexy, it is the French’s fashion centric term for a major fashion faux pas: the strait-jacket. While wearing a camisole de force may involve screaming, “I’m in charge,” will most likely not be what others hear.

This jacket, now a key accessory for escapologists and those into bondage, was originally invented to restrain individuals with mental illness. Or, as they said back in the camisole de force wearing days, the ‘insane.’

In the late 1800s, early 1900s, a lot of ‘insane’ people were admitted to asylums for a variety of reasons. While reviewing a detailed list of causes for asylum admission during that time period, I thought to myself, “This sounds like me and my friends. Or, better yet, somebody’s online dating profile.”

Former reasons of insanity include ‘masturbation’ – often referred to as ‘onanism’ or ‘coitus interruptus” back in the day; ‘drink and dissipation;’ ‘reading novels;’ ‘studying prize fighting;’ ‘suppressed secretion;’ ‘girl trouble;’ and, my favorite and a real problem in rural parts of our country, ‘sheep herding.’  That’s right, sheep herding.

What do you call a guy standing on the corner with a sheep under each arm? An insane pimp.