To the Editor, “London Life.” Dear Sir, – I beg to send you the following, culled from a journal called “Ladies’ Fashions,” which was published for a short period in 1886. In the “Replies to Readers’ Queries” pages the fashion Editress discoursed on all manners relating to dress, and I chose the letter to “Mrs … Continue reading Flapper’s Fashions Forty Years Ago
To the editor, “London Life.” Dear Sir, – Will you kindly allow me to contribute to your forthcoming “Fashion Number”? I am convinced that those readers who crave for a return to Victorian fashions do not realise what such a change would mean. Imagine the modern healthy girl, suddenly transformed into the pale, wasp-waisted, crinolined, … Continue reading What Girls Endured to be Modish
Dear Sir- I was sorry to see that your correspondent “M.L.” was so much criticised for describing how she reduced her waist to please her husband, I considered her letter most interesting, and would like to tell her that after seeing a Pageant some years ago, where many period dresses were on view, my husband … Continue reading Tight-Laced and Healthy
An article which shows the remote antiquity of this almost exclusively feminine aid to beauty. The custom of wearing corsets is much older than civilisation. In proof of this statement it may be mentioned that in old settlements of Neolithic man, now Brandon in Norfolk, where chipped flint arrow and spear heads, and beautifully polished … Continue reading Strange History of the Corset
I see some of your readers are waxing wrath once more on the subject of tight-lacing. “Natural Figure” asks men to draw in a belt tight round their waists for an hour and see how they like it.This is not tight-lacing. Others write describing what they have suffered. May they not be the exceptions which … Continue reading What is Tight-Lacing?
Stand up straight as letter l,Toes turned out and head held high,Shoulders back, and you will see,How much admired you will be. Never dress with undue haste,Choose your robes with care and taste,Ask your mirror every day,If you’re nice in every way. Your cheeks may rival rose and milk,Your voice may be soft as silk,In … Continue reading Advice to Young Ladies
Dear Sir, – Discussing the question of figure training with a friend the other day, she mentioned that she had been made to undergo a course of training to achieve her figure. She was averse to the idea, but her mother who was something of a martinet, and who advocated and practised tight-lacing insisted on … Continue reading Modern Figure Training
Now, Mother regularly takesIn “London Life” each week and makesA study of your reader’s viewsI have to mind my P’s and Q’s;For with high heels, tight gloved and staysShe vows she’ll tame my Tomboy ways She’s squeezed me into high-legged boots,A size too small, that pinch like brutesThey’ve “tooth-pick” toes, and button rightUp to my … Continue reading Baby Frocks!
Dear Sir, – As a firm believer in natural development, may I register my vote against “tight-lacing.” When nature created the divine form of woman, it certainly made no provision for the artificial deformation of that form, which was the result of tight-lacing, in pursuit of the then “fashionable figure.” “Action and reaction are equal … Continue reading Is Tight-Lacing Opposed to Nature’s Laws?
Dear Sir, – I have been a regular reader of “L.L.” for some time now, and the correspondence page becomes more and more interesting as each week goes by. There have appeared a lot of views from time to time in these pages concerning the wearing of corsets, and I should like to add my … Continue reading How to Wear Corsets