| Dear Sir,
My experience in the
matter of corsetting may be of some interest to your readers. Nearly six
years ago I replied to a advertisement for a "personal maid, tall
and naturally slim," After I was engaged, my employers intimated
that she also supplied my wardrobe, as she required her own maid to be
dressed smartly.
Asked
my waist size, I replied it was twenty-two inches. "Over your
corsets?" I said that I was slender and had not bothered about
corsetting, but would wear corsets if required. My employer then said
she would place me in the hands of a good corsetiere who would trim my
figure properly. For the first month I was put into a pair of twenty-one
inch corsets, just to, as the corsetiere said, habituate me to
their use.
After that period, I was introduced to my first small-waisted
corset, quite a short affair, which, while quite easy both above and
below my waist, reduced that measurement to nineteen inches.
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During the next four months my waist
was reduced to seventeen inches. All this time I was wearing
different and quite short corsets. Then one day my employer,
with whom I was on excellent terms said it was time to complete
my training. On my next visit to the corsetiere I was supplied
with corsets which kept my waist to seventeen inches, but these
were much higher and longer, and when they were laced in I found
I had a real hour-glass waist - a perfect taper from underneath
my arms.
Although a little uncomfortable in their grip at first, this
soon wore off, and it was a pleasure to have those corsets on.
My waist was then reduced another inch, to sixteen inches, which
greatly improved my figure. This completed my training, and now
I was to have my reward. My next corset was of black satin
beautifully trimmed. With this I was taken to a dressmaker and
carefully measured for my new dress and underwear. |
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Shortly afterwards they came, and I
dressed for the first time in my new dress all in black. Black satin
corsets, black silk pettis, cami and knicks and all other undies,
stockings and garters, blavk four-inch heeled shoes, and over all a
black silk figure-fitting dress which flared out below my hips and
rustled whenever I moved. I have worn this uniform ever since, and am
very proud of my waist, which is seventeen inches over my dress.
With
best wishes
W. M.
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