Tightlacing

thumb|An advertisement for corsets with waist sizes from 15 to 23 inches (38 to 58 cm)

thumb|A woman wearing a tight-laced corset, 1890. Note that Victorian photo editing techniques were likely used on this image, simulating a narrower waist.|alt=A view of a woman in a corset and bloomers from the back with her hands on her hips. She has a very small waist.

Tightlacing (also called corset training) is the practice of wearing an increasingly tightly laced corset to achieve cosmetic modifications to the figure and posture or to experience the sensation of bodily restriction. The process originates in mid-19th century Europe and was highly controversial. At the peak of the prevalence of tightlacing, there was much public backlash both from medical doctors and dress reformers, and it was often ridiculed as vain by the general public. Due to a combination of evolving fashion trends, social change regarding the roles of women, and material shortages brought on by World War I and II, tightlacing, and corsets in general, fell out of favor entirely by the early 20th century.

History

The corset was a standard undergarment in Western dress for about 400 years beginning in the late 16th century and ending around the beginning of the 20th century. However, the practice of tightlacing began only in the late 1820s and 1830s, after the advent of the steel eyelet in 1827. The use of steel in both eyelets and boning allowed wearers to lace their corsets significantly tighter without damaging the garment.

Additionally, corsets were among the first garments to be mass-manufactured via assembly line. This increased the accessibility of high-quality corsets and meant that middle- and lower-class women could purchase corsets where before they may have worn corded "jumps".

In the late years of the Victorian era, medical reports and rumors claimed that tightlacing was fatally detrimental to health (see Victorian dress reform). Although the structured, corseted wasp-waist made a resurgence after World War II in the form of the New Look, there was soon backlash with hippie culture; meanwhile, the rise of popular fitness culture meant that diet, liposuction, and exercise became the preferred methods of achieving a thin waist. Corsets were no longer fashionable, but they entered the underworld of the fetish, along with items such as bondage gear and vinyl catsuits, as well as alternative and runway fashions, as seen in the work of Vivienne Westwood

Corset makers themselves could also give a woman a regimen of increasingly smaller corsets:A common practice was to sleep with corsets still on, to prevent the waist from expanding again at night. tying an unusual knot that could not be replicated,

Another account from a "fashionable school in London" fondly recalls the practice as a source of rivalry and pride among schoolgirls in her youth, reporting a reduction of about one inch per month, ultimately achieving a waist of from her original .

thumb|A bar chart of waist sizes achieved by London fashion models of 1896 over the course of six months of waist training. Note that the "before" and "after" waist sizes are both corseted sizes.

Although most of these accounts describe adolescent girls, there are some sources which suggest that this process can take place at older ages, albeit with more difficulty.

Criticism

The practice of tightlacing drew criticism from a wide variety of groups. The practice was widely ridiculed in satirical sources such as newspaper cartoons, which depicted the practice as frivolous, harmful, and unattractive.thumb|left|"A cutting wind, or the fatal effects of tight-lacing", a satirical cartoon from around 1820

thumb|Advertisement of corsets for children, 1886

American women active in the anti-slavery and temperance movements, with experience in public speaking and political agitation, advocated for and wore sensible clothing that would not restrict their movement, although corsets were a part of their wardrobe. While supporters of fashionable dress contended that corsets maintained an upright, "good figure", and were a necessary physical structure for a moral and well-ordered society, dress reformers maintained that women's fashions were not only physically detrimental, but "the results of male conspiracy to make women subservient by cultivating them in slave psychology". They believed a change in fashions could change the position of women in society, allowing for greater social mobility, independence from men and marriage, and the ability to work for wages, as well as physical movement and comfort.

Along with activists, many doctors spoke out against the practice. One Doctor Lewis writes in an 1882 edition of The North American Review:

This likely alluded to problems with the reproductive organs experienced by women who wore corsets, and demonstrates the difficulties of explaining this issue due to sexual taboos.

This pushback led to a number of developments in the design of the corset. Because of the public health outcry surrounding corsets and tightlacing, some doctors took it upon themselves to become corsetieres. Many doctors helped to fit their patients with corsets to avoid the dangers of ill-fitting corsets, and some doctors even designed corsets themselves. Roxey Ann Caplin became a widely renowned corset maker, enlisting the help of her husband, a physician, to create corsets which she purported to be more respectful of human anatomy.

Notable adherents

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi);
Polaire; about 1914; 13–14 inches (33–36 cm)
Cathie Jung; 2006; 15 inches (38 cm)
Dita Von Teese; 16.5 inches (42 cm)
Maud of Wales; queen of Norway; 18 inches (45 cm)
Ethel Granger; 13 inches (33 cm)

History

Criticism

Notable adherents

See also

References

Further reading