An inserted piece of material that adds room, shape or flexibility to a garment or shoe.
A gusset is a piece set into a seam to add room, ease or fullness. In garments it often sits under the arm: the V&A describes small, diamond-shaped underarm gussets on a 1950s day dress, there to allow ease of movement and comfort, and a 1630s shirt cut from rectangles with two square gussets. Gussets can also add fullness at the hem, as the small side gussets do on a linen chemise of about 1850 in the same collection.
In footwear, the word names the elastic panel in each side of a Chelsea boot, which Crockett & Jones calls a side-gusset or side-gore. The elastic lets the boot be pulled on and off without laces. R.M.Williams secures the side elastics of its one-piece Craftsman boot with twin-needle stitching, which the house calls the only visible line on the boot, and its care guide says that pulling by the pull tabs spreads the strain over the tabs and the elastic.
In job listings
The gusset is not named in current listings on Cerulean. The nearest roles are pattern makers in apparel and footwear. See current pattern maker roles.
