Dear Sir, – In the present controversy in your periodical on wasp waists, I notice that, of the opponents of tight lacing, only one has actually given a fair trial and had to abandon it. Let us get rid of all this talk about the health suffering when the figure is laced. Even medical men … Continue reading A Defence of the Wasp Waist
Dear Mr. Editor, – Following my avocation in a tobacco kiosk, recently, I heard a gentleman remark to another that the chief attraction used to be the neat-waisted ladies who supplied their needs, and who he deplored, were now no more to be seen. The remark set me thinking, with the result that I determined … Continue reading Smart Dress Smartens Up Business
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 … Continue reading A Corsetiere On Corsets
To the Editor, LONDON LIFE. DEAR SIR, Yes, if they are proportionate, but not when, as one sees so often, there is strong evidence of tight-lacing that, in my opinion, gives an ugly look to the figure at once. Anyone who has really studied the question must know that no man can really admire in … Continue reading Do Men Admire Wasp Waists?
Dear Sir, – “Tight Lacers” views aroused the ire of so many readers that I am sure you will, with your well-known courtesy, allow me to say a word in her favour. I fully agree with “Tight Lacer” and “Primrose Long” that a girl who is gradually laced in from an early age, experiences little … Continue reading Healthy Although Laced
Dear sir, – I knew a young lady some years ago, who was an extreme tight-lacer. She was twenty-six years old when I first became acquainted with her, and she had been very tightly laced since she was ten years old. To create a severe figure, she cultivated a “pipe” waist, the stem of which … Continue reading The “Stove-Pipe” Waist
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