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I’m sure most of us have seen or fallen down the rabbit hole of waist trainers and/or corsets before. But not as deeply as you could’ve.
The history of the corset is more nuanced than most people advertise it to be.
After doing a deep dive into corsets, there is surprisingly lots of misinformation spread about them online. It’s even present in some of the media we watch.
Aside from misinformation, I’m sure we’ve all also wondered if the process of waist training even works. Well, have a read at everything I found
Brief historical overview
Corsets are seen as “dangerous torture devices” throughout history but it couldn’t be further from the truth. These were common articles of clothing many women would use in their daily lives. To symbolize social status and respectability. Corsets were used for many different things including posture correction, offer back/hip/bust support, and even pregnancy bump support (maternity corsets). They were not used for solely one purpose, and were even offered to children (stays) to ensure good posture.
Even men would wear corsets for posture reasons and to correct their silhouettes as well. To minimize that fuckass “beer belly” look.
During the second half of the 19th century, many men in the medical field would start to criticize the corset and blame it for health issues ranging from hysteria, heart damage, to even claiming it could cause tuberculosis. The fashion field was one of the major ways women could express themselves during this era. So a popular theory is that as a result of many men opposing their freedom, they ridiculed the corset and fabricated many supposed “effects” of wearing corsets. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aman.13882 (a huge in depth deep dive)
Waist trainers vs corsets
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but waist trainers and corsets are not the same thing. Yes they both offer a process known as waist training, but they aren’t the same. Waist trainers are more flexible usually made with latex/spandex, and are used during workouts. They offer short term slimming, and are adjustable(can confirm from my experience). Corsets on the other hand use steel boning and are tighter/ less comfortable. So please don’t pose this stupid question I see all the time “muh I want a waist trainer” “do waist trainers work?” When corsets are the obvious better pick for cinching the waist.
MYTHBUSTING TIME!!!!!!
There are many myths like this due to the amount of skewed media and historical misinformation. There’s no historical evidence of this even happening. The corset does to a certain extent reshape/compress your lower ribs, but not break them. The risk of this actually happening is very low, as the ribcage can withstand 60-742 pounds mind you. This myth surfaced from lost translations of historical texts claiming the ribs of the corset itself were “broken” (referencing the ribbing/boning inside a corset. Not the actual persons ribs). Direct impact to the ribs is the most common cause of cracking one, so gradually cinching yourself with a corset slowly (in the usual practice) couldn’t logically do that. Our ribs are flexible. Another important note is that even in tight lacing (an important subject I will get into later) there’s no record of broken ribs.
In an article observing the skeletons of Victorian women, it was found that “long term use of the garments caused changes in the women’s skeletons”. Including curvature of the lower ribs. But this didn’t even affect their life expectancy in any way. It sounds alarming to some to hear that muhhh it DEFORMED their skeletons! Your lower ribs are more malleable and just barely inhibit your lungs. You will not fucking die if they have a curvature to them.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristi...ts-deformed-the-skeletons-of-victorian-women/
A corset that is well fit, should not impact your breathing at all. Of course it’s normal to feel a bit winded when you first wear one due to the compression on your lower ribs, but those barely inhibit your lungs. It would take an unrealistic amount of tightening for someone to faint.
Of course it shifts your organs like wearing something tight fitted, organs are meant to shift. Corsets will shift your soft tissues. But there is little evidence that organ damage has ever happened.
https://www.mtv.com.lb/amp/details/521188
Tightlacing
This is the controversial practice of wearing corsets over time, increasing the tightness and lowering sizes bit by bit. This is the ideal method. To put it into perspective, it’s kind of like wearing a retainer for your teeth. It requires constant daily use. The science behind it is simple, it’s just constantly compressing your inner organ/fluids so at some point they cba to try and push out in their normal manner anymore.
The precautions to take while tight lacing are simple, only move down sizes once the corset isn’t a snug fit anymore when you close it. Don’t rush with moving down sizes. If your corset is very uncomfortable/restricting your oxygen by any means you are doing something wrong. Seasoning/breaking are terms for when you first buy a corset and it’s adjusting to the shape your body for a two week period. Start off tying your corset loosely over the course of the two weeks, this will help it mold into your body shape more and afterwards you can start tightening. Seasoning is optional but I feel like it’s logical for comfort reasons. Unless you have a custom made corset to fit your measurements, I feel like this is common sense.
Let’s take a look at Cathie Jung, the woman with the smallest waist in the world at 15 inches. (She died last year in August at AGE 88)
What do you think she achieved this by?
She became addicted to wearing corsets and first wore one when she was 18 years old. She began waist training from that point on for 24 hours a day. She waist trained very slowly and gradually since it took her ten years to shrink down from 26-15 inches, which is why she claims to be in no pain.
And surprise surprise, HER OWN HUSBAND IS A PHYSICIAN. He claims it caused no harm and even benefitted her by supporting her spine. TAKE THAT ANTI CORSET COPERS
You’d probably assume she’d be in pain every day, but there’s really no evidence she was. She almost lived until 90 YEARS OLD doing this shit.
Aside from her, the average person who plans on waist training does NOT plan on taking it that far and slimming down to 15 inches. The average female waist size lies somewhere in 30s. So you are significantly smaller than average if you are somewhere around 24. A waist in between 20-22 inches is considered the unthinkable.
Where to buy?
There’s many different kinds of corsets and they’ve definitely varied since the Victorian era. Most modern corsets now are more comfortable and use steelboning. Whalebone was the structural material they used back then. I’ve been fishing through the tightlacing subreddit community and they are super picky about the brands they buy from. Getting a custom made corset is largely recommended and Etsy happens to be full of corset sellers. (Cathie Jung herself would get hers custom made) be aware that a lacing gap of 2-3 inches is the ideal way to wear corsets. Corsets are designed to be about 3-6 inches smaller than your natural waistband.
Here are a couple places I found:
https://restyle.pl/eng_m__CLOTHING_CORSETS-418.html
https://corsettery.com/collections/...MrJ0rcCaDKuK-1fTftn_2iy2raarO3MgvEe8a1O_Dda95
How far are you willing to go for the snatch? Especially when the hourglass is the key to female body aesthetics.
@ecoli @Molotongo @rickydickydoodahgrimes @Glamour @TonyDr @emeraldpill @BigDihDiddy @Starlet
The history of the corset is more nuanced than most people advertise it to be.
After doing a deep dive into corsets, there is surprisingly lots of misinformation spread about them online. It’s even present in some of the media we watch.
Aside from misinformation, I’m sure we’ve all also wondered if the process of waist training even works. Well, have a read at everything I found
Brief historical overview
Corsets are seen as “dangerous torture devices” throughout history but it couldn’t be further from the truth. These were common articles of clothing many women would use in their daily lives. To symbolize social status and respectability. Corsets were used for many different things including posture correction, offer back/hip/bust support, and even pregnancy bump support (maternity corsets). They were not used for solely one purpose, and were even offered to children (stays) to ensure good posture.
Even men would wear corsets for posture reasons and to correct their silhouettes as well. To minimize that fuckass “beer belly” look.
During the second half of the 19th century, many men in the medical field would start to criticize the corset and blame it for health issues ranging from hysteria, heart damage, to even claiming it could cause tuberculosis. The fashion field was one of the major ways women could express themselves during this era. So a popular theory is that as a result of many men opposing their freedom, they ridiculed the corset and fabricated many supposed “effects” of wearing corsets. https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aman.13882 (a huge in depth deep dive)
But whether or not that was their true motive, they sure as hell came up with many over exaggerated claims, that have still followed us today. As well as anti-corset propaganda.
Waist trainers vs corsets
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but waist trainers and corsets are not the same thing. Yes they both offer a process known as waist training, but they aren’t the same. Waist trainers are more flexible usually made with latex/spandex, and are used during workouts. They offer short term slimming, and are adjustable(can confirm from my experience). Corsets on the other hand use steel boning and are tighter/ less comfortable. So please don’t pose this stupid question I see all the time “muh I want a waist trainer” “do waist trainers work?” When corsets are the obvious better pick for cinching the waist.
MYTHBUSTING TIME!!!!!!
“It cracks your bones!”
There are many myths like this due to the amount of skewed media and historical misinformation. There’s no historical evidence of this even happening. The corset does to a certain extent reshape/compress your lower ribs, but not break them. The risk of this actually happening is very low, as the ribcage can withstand 60-742 pounds mind you. This myth surfaced from lost translations of historical texts claiming the ribs of the corset itself were “broken” (referencing the ribbing/boning inside a corset. Not the actual persons ribs). Direct impact to the ribs is the most common cause of cracking one, so gradually cinching yourself with a corset slowly (in the usual practice) couldn’t logically do that. Our ribs are flexible. Another important note is that even in tight lacing (an important subject I will get into later) there’s no record of broken ribs.
In an article observing the skeletons of Victorian women, it was found that “long term use of the garments caused changes in the women’s skeletons”. Including curvature of the lower ribs. But this didn’t even affect their life expectancy in any way. It sounds alarming to some to hear that muhhh it DEFORMED their skeletons! Your lower ribs are more malleable and just barely inhibit your lungs. You will not fucking die if they have a curvature to them.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristi...ts-deformed-the-skeletons-of-victorian-women/
Some of these ladies were even suspected to be tightlacing. Yet none of their lifespans were affected.
“It restricts oxygen!”
A corset that is well fit, should not impact your breathing at all. Of course it’s normal to feel a bit winded when you first wear one due to the compression on your lower ribs, but those barely inhibit your lungs. It would take an unrealistic amount of tightening for someone to faint.
“it causes organ damage.” “corset liver!”
Of course it shifts your organs like wearing something tight fitted, organs are meant to shift. Corsets will shift your soft tissues. But there is little evidence that organ damage has ever happened.
https://www.mtv.com.lb/amp/details/521188
-technical curator of a museum with thousands of victorian pathological specimens btw.
Tightlacing
This is the controversial practice of wearing corsets over time, increasing the tightness and lowering sizes bit by bit. This is the ideal method. To put it into perspective, it’s kind of like wearing a retainer for your teeth. It requires constant daily use. The science behind it is simple, it’s just constantly compressing your inner organ/fluids so at some point they cba to try and push out in their normal manner anymore.
The precautions to take while tight lacing are simple, only move down sizes once the corset isn’t a snug fit anymore when you close it. Don’t rush with moving down sizes. If your corset is very uncomfortable/restricting your oxygen by any means you are doing something wrong. Seasoning/breaking are terms for when you first buy a corset and it’s adjusting to the shape your body for a two week period. Start off tying your corset loosely over the course of the two weeks, this will help it mold into your body shape more and afterwards you can start tightening. Seasoning is optional but I feel like it’s logical for comfort reasons. Unless you have a custom made corset to fit your measurements, I feel like this is common sense.
Let’s take a look at Cathie Jung, the woman with the smallest waist in the world at 15 inches. (She died last year in August at AGE 88)
What do you think she achieved this by?
She became addicted to wearing corsets and first wore one when she was 18 years old. She began waist training from that point on for 24 hours a day. She waist trained very slowly and gradually since it took her ten years to shrink down from 26-15 inches, which is why she claims to be in no pain.
And surprise surprise, HER OWN HUSBAND IS A PHYSICIAN. He claims it caused no harm and even benefitted her by supporting her spine. TAKE THAT ANTI CORSET COPERS
You’d probably assume she’d be in pain every day, but there’s really no evidence she was. She almost lived until 90 YEARS OLD doing this shit.
Aside from her, the average person who plans on waist training does NOT plan on taking it that far and slimming down to 15 inches. The average female waist size lies somewhere in 30s. So you are significantly smaller than average if you are somewhere around 24. A waist in between 20-22 inches is considered the unthinkable.
Where to buy?
There’s many different kinds of corsets and they’ve definitely varied since the Victorian era. Most modern corsets now are more comfortable and use steelboning. Whalebone was the structural material they used back then. I’ve been fishing through the tightlacing subreddit community and they are super picky about the brands they buy from. Getting a custom made corset is largely recommended and Etsy happens to be full of corset sellers. (Cathie Jung herself would get hers custom made) be aware that a lacing gap of 2-3 inches is the ideal way to wear corsets. Corsets are designed to be about 3-6 inches smaller than your natural waistband.
Here are a couple places I found:
https://restyle.pl/eng_m__CLOTHING_CORSETS-418.html
https://corsettery.com/collections/...MrJ0rcCaDKuK-1fTftn_2iy2raarO3MgvEe8a1O_Dda95
How far are you willing to go for the snatch? Especially when the hourglass is the key to female body aesthetics.
@ecoli @Molotongo @rickydickydoodahgrimes @Glamour @TonyDr @emeraldpill @BigDihDiddy @Starlet
