RetroXotique

Corset of the Countess Pavroska worn for the New Years Reception 1910.

She was 30 years old at that time , and the mother of three daughters, the oldest nine, the youngest 5 .

By the year 1910, fashion had relaxed the extreme lacing of the waist a little bit, instead had made the corsets very much longer below the waist and demanded that the hips be as tightly laced as possible.

   Even though it would have been in the height of  fashion for her, to have well-laced hips of ,say, 36   inches with a corresponding waist size of, say, 24 inches, the countess demanded not only well-laced hips - as required by fashion - but also insisted on her usual, very tightly laced waist. Since one of the guests of honour at the reception, certainly expected, was Prince Rupert, whom she adored, and since Rupert was known to admire the smallest waists the most, it seemed natural to the countess, to suffer just a bit more and  to have the smallest her corsets enabled her to suffer.

Her uncorseted figure at that time measured Bust 36 in., waist 22 inches, (and hips  38 inches. (Her waist measure seems unnaturally small for a lady of 5 ft 10 inches,  but then one must not forget that she had worn extremely tight­ly laced corsets since 1890, 20 years ago. It seems certain that since that time she was never out of very tightly laced corsets, except for very brief periods during her pregnancies.)

In August 1909 she ordered 2 identical corsets- as on the left. One for wear at the reception, the other to wear up till then. Since she insisted to have her hips laced in to not more than 34 inches - which was not too hard to achieve - but also in­sisted on her pre-children waist size   of 15 inches, the corset was extremely re­strictive, and she needed all the time she could have to become used to wearing them and to move around in them during the reception. They were extremely heavily boned included 2 heavy side-steels each side, not allowing her to sit down at all. But that was not necessary during the reception.  ,