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| Keywords: TheFamilyDoctorNov2 1889page145.png THE FAMILY DOCTOR AND PEOPLE'S MEDICAL ADVISER No 244 SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2 1889 PRICE ONE PENNY INTERESTING TO LADIES DOES TIGHT LACING EXIST INTERVIEWS WITH WEST END CORSET MAKERS -- WHAT THEY THINK AND SAY -- YES CERTAINLY -- A TAPER FIGURE -- AMERICAN WOMEN -- THE AUSTRIANS KNOW HOW TO LACE I SHALL be pleased Madam to give you any information I can if you will kindly not mention our firm as you understand the principals would not like it nor our customers I know two or three of the funny ones would be fancying I had told you heaps of things that I probably shan't With these preliminaries we plunged into the subject which someone recently stated to be one of national importance Our first interview was with the leading assistant of a firm not a hundred miles from Regent-street whose slender figure and healthy looks must prove a good advertisement for the much-abused article which was lying around us in all shapes colours and sizes Yes undoubtedly tight lacing is on the increase During the summer the loose blouse bodices rather hid the fact but if our order-book and my experience of nine years is to be trusted waists will be smaller than ever this season Of course a lot of nonsense has been talked and the correspondence in two papers one a Society one all of which I have read has as far as I can see only led to smaller stays What would you think the average waist in the upper and rich middle classes Well I think for the upper class twenty-one to twenty-two inches and for the rich middle-class perhaps a little less No not smaller You know that is very small for the average; the natural waist would average 27-28 inches so you see all or rather most women pinch more or less Oh no I'm not offended My own waist is not quite seventeen and I've laced a good deal smaller than that I will call Miss J-- one of our assistants before you go ; you shall see her's Do I think lacing hurtful What a funny question to ask me; but I will answer honestly No not moderate lacing I don't think there are many ladies and certainly no young ones except the very stout or very delicate who could not keep their waists at Eighteen or nineteen inches without trouble Of course lacing to thirteen or fourteen inches is a different matter altogether Excuse me Do you mean to say that such sizes as those are possible Oh dear yes We have three young ladies two are at school at Brompton who have their corsets made with thirteen·inch waist measure and I suppose we have eight or ten more than half rich manufacturers' wives or daughters who confine themselves to fourteen inches They begin young in fact it is now quite usual for little girls of ten or eleven to wear real stiffly-boned corsets like their elders in miniature This pair is for the Hon Mrs D--'s little girl; she is twelve They are just as carefully made-look at the stitching-as her mother's They are nineteen inches in the waist They were of satin beautifully made very stiffly whaleboned and except as to size as my informant said just like a grown woman's corset There have continued my informant been a great many letters published concerning tight lacing in schools Where there are a lot of young ladies there is sure to be a little twitching of stay-laces and 'of course where one begins there are sure to be some who follow I think the statements have been very much exaggerated We have a very large clientelle especially amongst what are called 'finishing schools ' and I only know three or four where very tight·lacing is anything like general and only one where the young ladies of course with their parents' consent and wish are encouraged in it and that school is out Brompton-way We don't as a rule keep anything under seventeen inches in stock and as we make principally to order we only keep the best French and Viennese styles ready-made The corset you noticed in the window- he green satin one-is fifteen inches and a sample of our own making For a full figure I will call Miss J-- Miss J-- soon made her appearance and proved to be a tall nice-looking young lady rather but by no means excessively pale and almost the first thing we noticed was her figure which either in Queen Anne's time-when if we can believe the prints and diarist waists were often constricted to thirteen inches by the fashionable beauties of the day-- or in the Victorian era would serve for a model of slenderness and elegance according to fashionable tastes Although measuring but fourteen inches there was a suppleness about her waist that added much to her grace of figure Oh no madame she remarked in reply to my query now I am used to it I really like tight lacing Of course I was very uncomfortable and stooping about much is impossible even now without very considerable discomfort but our business doesn't require it I have been here in London five years now and have worn my waist at its' present 'size three years and my health is as good as ever You' don't think even very tight lacing injurious then No certainly not as far as my experience goes Half the ill-health that is attributed to it--consumption colds and such things--are I am certain more from the wearing of insufficient underclothing than tightly-laced corsets What do you say Miss S-- Miss S-- agreed Of course with a waist as small as mine one cannot wear a heap of thick underthings they must fit well; and then you can wear quite sufficient and have no need to go about like some of our smallest-waisted clients with next door to nothing on under their dresses Miss S -- informed us that the smallest pair of corsets they had made lately were fourteen inches and that there was undoubtedly a large and increasing sale of the sizes from sixteen inches up to nineteen inches We took another look round; inspected some of the different anti newest shapes by means of which we women seek to charm an admiring glance at Miss J ---'s slenderness as she returned to the mysteries of the inner room and then after thanking Miss S -- for her kindness started further west to interview Madame E-- upon the engrossing subject Luckily madame was in and would see the lady in a few minutes The room was evidently one of Madame E--'s show rooms and contained plenty to pass the time away Besides numberless boxes VOL X Image TheFamilyDoctorNov2_1889page146 png PD-Art Tightlacing The Family Doctor Fashion in 1889 Women in corsets Line art of women in corset Artworks missing infobox template | ||||
