Dear Sir,–the cause of all the bother in the corset world is that people won’t corset themselves sensibly. A corset is a necessity to any well-dressed woman, but it is a terribly abused article, and only a minority of women wears sensible corsets.
Take the present fashion in corsets. Did Nature ever intend that a woman’s hips should be the same as her waist? Yet we have the fashionable corset binding the hips tightly in that attempt. We must recognize that woman has a definite waist. A few years ago corset designers regarded the waist as the only necessary measurement and as a result point, waists nearly reached vanishing point – the disproportion being acute.
At another period within living memory the bust came in for attention, and corsets were worn which forced the busts upward and outward giving women the appearance of a pouter pigeon.
And yet it is an undeniable fact that if the average woman, instead of wearing these atrocities, could be persuaded to wear corsets and which fit accurately bust, waist and hips, keeping each in its proper relation to the other, and especially if they wore tailored and fitting dresses or habits, there would be far less outcry against corsets. In short, corsets would take their right place as a charming and indispensable part of a woman’s ensemble.
The proof of the above lies in the fact that women wear these corsets no longer than the fashion-mongers advertise them. But the woman whose corsets are made a glove fit to her figure has no need to worry about her figure, for it is as Nature intended it to be – allowing, of course, for the influence of civilization.
As a comment on the above, I remember the remark of a huge Irish navvy. It was during the period when women wore long sheath-like corsets and dresses to correspond. A young lady, corseted to the limit and dressed to kill, passed the Irishman, who remarked to his mate, “See that girl, Mick! Shure. I’ve pulled bigger splints out of me thumb!”