When Ella Langley accepted Song of the Year at the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, she did so in a gown that spoke volumes about the enduring power of the corset. The 27-year-old's pristine white strapless dress featured a satin corset bodice with a sweetheart neckline, paired with a mermaid skirt of layered sheer fabric. The silhouette, anchored by a dramatic train, recalled the structured boning of 19th-century lingerie - an era when corsets were both restrictive and liberating, shaping the female form for public display. Langley's choice nods to a lineage of undergarments turned outerwear: from the Victorian corset's role in defining posture to its 20th-century revival by designers like Dolce & Gabbana, whose fall 2004 snakeskin-print dress she wore at last year's ceremony. That earlier look, sourced from vintage archive The Kit Vintage, featured lace and rhinestone accents, bridging the gap between lingerie's hidden past and its current status as a statement of empowerment. Langley's jewelry - a gold floral necklace and ring echoing her "Dandelion" album - added a botanical counterpoint to the corset's rigid architecture. White, her recurring motif, appears in album art and on red carpets, most recently at the 2026 Billboard Women in Music event in a Schiaparelli design. By choosing a corset gown, Langley aligns herself with a history of women reclaiming intimate apparel as armor: from the suffragettes who wore modified corsets as symbols of control to modern stars who use them to command attention. Stylist Stefani Colvin understands this dialogue. In Langley's hands, the corset is not a relic but a tool - one that, like her music, chooses Texas and tradition while rewriting the rules.
Originally reported by WWD