Dear Sir,–I have noticed that one of your readers suggested that I should give details in your correspondence columns regarding methods of figure training by tight lacing.
While agreeing up to a point with your remarks concerning exercise and small waists, I have found that if the trunk muscles are exercised sufficiently to take the place of a corset, a thick waist is the result. Besides there are many who not having the inclination or the opportunity for this type of exercise, would much sooner enjoy the delights of a perfect fitting and well-laced corset.
I’m afraid that detailed instructions for figure training by corsets would fill a fair-sized volume, but I will try to put some “Golden Rules” for tight laces down briefly, in the hope that they may be some help.
(i). Have your corsets made to your measurements by a good maker, preferably one who has been in business long enough to understand your requirements. Your first corset should be made four to six inches smaller in the waist than your normal corset size; as high as possible in the back, but not so high in front as to make your bust too noticeable. The length below the waist does not matter, so long as you are comfortable–old-fashioned training corsets were quite short over the hips. The busk should have a broad strip of steel in a pocket behind it, which strengthens it, and prevents nipping. It should be removable. The bones on either side of the lace holes should be very strong as this helps to prevent the eyelets from being pulled out. Allow room for your bust and hips to expand as you lace in your waist. As for shape, a long tapered waist is much harder to achieve than a short sharply curved in one, but is more beautiful.
(ii). Get used to the feel of these corsets before tightening them.
(iii). Keep your waist carefully measured, and enter the size of your waist, bust and hips in your diary so that you can watch your progress. A good scheme is to make a guide tape, which you have marked off with coloured cotton every quarter inch. This is fitted with a buckle and worn over the corset, and you remove each piece of cotton as you pass it. Draw in half an inch a week, and don’t be tempted to exceed this, or your health will suffer and you will feel uncomfortable.
(iv). Sleep in stays. Very loose ones till you are quite used to it; then your ordinary ones with the broad extra busk removed, or special sleeping stays that are not so stiff.
(v). Wear close-fitting woven combinations or a vest under your stays. Folds or rucks in your under-clothing can be very painful under tight stays.
(vi). When putting on your stays, put your hand inside them before lacing up, and smooth all flesh upwards, above the waist line. This helps your inside to re-adjust itself without being crushed. For the same reason, lace upwards and not downwards.
(vii). If you have no one to help you to lace your stays, a strong hook in, say the door post, about the height of your waist will help, as you can hook the laces over it and use your hands for helping the laces to run through the eyelets or for pressing in your sides, Front lacing corsets are seldom successful for tight lacing.
(viii). Don’t lace in if you aren’t feeling fit. Take a rest. It will prevent you from doing yourself harm though it may make your reduction slower. Take exercise, walks, dancing, etc., while training your figure, and don’t eat hurriedly. Remember that the whole of your inside is having to adjust itself to new conditions and it will do it very well if you give it a chance, so don’t hurry or go to extremes. It is too rapid and extreme lacing that gets stays a bad name and makes the Editor say unkind things about them. Also don’t forget that a small slight girl can achieve results much more easily than a big girl.
This last “rule” is by far the most important of the lot, and amounts to nothing more or less than “Watch your health and keep fit”
Yours truly, MODERATION.