Dear Sir, – I have been in the trade for about forty years, and have seen a few monstrosities in my time, but never anything to equal “E. B.” of New York’s fifteen inches by six.
A fifteen-inch waist was quite common twenty years ago, and few people today can realise to what lengths women went to secure a tiny waist. My mother began reducing my figure from the tender age of twelve, so that by the time I was apprenticed to a celebrated West End house, I was more or less accustomed to it.
I rose to be leading assistant, and had to be able to demonstrate any corset by wearing it, and I may say that there was not a corset made by our factory that I could not make to meet at the waist, which proves how well trained my figure was.
Mothers bought their young daughters to us when they were twelve years old, or ever ten, so that we could train their figures by keeping them supplied with constantly smaller corsets. They were laced day and night.
Our fitting rooms, I regret to say, were often the stage for tearful scenes, particularly with the older girls who were nearing the limit of their reduction. Adamantine mothers insisted upon our getting their recalcitrant daughters in to the last half-inch, and faints were a frequent occurrence.
In conclusion, I suffered no evil results from tight-lacing, and still have an extremely small waist, but I still remember the price I had to pay during my training period, when every new corset (and they were frequent) got smaller and smaller, until I felt that I was really being crushed in two. For weeks at a time my waist was absolutely numbed, breathing was very laborious, and discomforts was ever present.
This largely disappeared within a year of reaching my limit. Hoping that you will continue to air this always fascinating subject in your bright little paper.
Yours faithfully,
“EXPERIENCED.”