The Junior Summer Fellowship program awarded Sadye Lackman ’22 a grant this summer for her corsetry project. Lackman said the project, titled Victorian to Vogue: Corsetry and Criticism, combined her artistic and historical interests.

She said she was intrigued by the program when the school gave a presentation introducing it toward the end of last year. Though she said it was difficult at times, Lackman said working on the corset proved to be a rewarding experience.

“Watching it come together and become an actual corset was probably the most exciting part of this project,” Lackman said. “For me, there is nothing quite as satisfying as making something that actually ends up becoming the vision that you imagined.”

Lackman said both the artistic and historical aspects of the project were difficult; finding sources proved to be an especially difficult task, since many books on Victorian corsetry were written much later and were not always accurate.

“For the historical side of my project, I really didn’t want to go into any biases or inaccuracies, but instead focus on how corsetry was affected by industrialization,” Lackman said. “The sewing machine was invented right at the beginning of the Victorian era, so I wanted to look at how that impacted the corset industry.”

Lackman said the long-term nature of the project taught her to budget her time more effectively, especially since this was such a long-term project. She also said she is glad that she had the opportunity to learn the mechanics of physically sewing a corset.

Lackman said students should follow the passions they want to pursue, regardless of how others perceive them.

“That idea that has been in the back of your mind for a while that you don’t know if anyone actually cares about is definitely worth pursuing,” Lackman said. “It doesn’t matter if others don’t care about it. If you care about it and want to learn about it, then it shouldn’t be ignored, and you should definitely study it.”