"Candide" wrote in news:byCii.4018$wu5.206@trndny03:
my grandmother's mother was one of those... she put my grandmother in boned corsets at 6 & *also* tied her to a broom handle to "keep her back straight". once my grandmother fell while playing & because of the corset/broomhandle combo, couldn't get back up... this was in the early 1900s (1910s, i think) lee
Dear Lee,
It was my grandmother's intention, in putting my mother in stays, that her waistline wouldn't grow any larger--not to help her with heavy work. It didn't work. It was most likely our pregnancies that changed our family morphism. I stayed slim until my second child was born at the age of 40. I never regained my tiny waist.
Teri
It really amazes me how much we in the Western industrialised world, have "grown" over the years. Between better nutrition, much more meat and reduction in physical labour and all.
Still, the importance of period foundation garments cannot be ignored. One has only to examine period gowns from the 1800's up until the 1920's and then again the "New Look" of the 1950's. Every time some young lady bounces in carrying a circa 1950's dress, wedding or other formal gown, I usually tell them to just forget it unless they happen to be of the same bust and waist size. Even then, such garments were made to and fitted on boned foundations, and simply will not fit correctly without them. Even some couture gowns from the 1980's and such won't do either. Oh, you get the occasional girl who doesn't mind being trussed up, but even then after a few hours things are a different story. Multiply the discomfort level to include weather, humid, fabric, sleeve length and a few other factors as well.
Candide
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