RetroXotique

Donna Floriella Deoporto Norvona de Sante Cruxes stood on the deck of the SS Pogona as it finished docking in Rio de Janeiro. She scanned the waiting crowd searching for a first glimpse of her husband to be. The year was 1881 and Floriella is a ‘Letter Bride’, the marriage had been arranged between the two families via agents, photographs and letters. Floriella was the fourth daughter of a title rich, but cash poor Portuguese noble family.  When she had come of age there was no money left to arrange a good marriage in Portugal and so her father had decided that a good match could be made to one of the ‘nouvo’ rich families in Brazil. The Pavella family was one of the richest in Brazil with massive estates, farms and mansions in Rio de Janeiro. 

As the gangplank came down, Floriella caught sight of her fiancée, stood back from the crowd beside a grand carriage, Floriella checked herself over once more, hat on straight, hair tidy, dress clean. Floriella was wearing her best travelling dress and beneath it new stays. Her stays were laced an extra inch less than normal down to 22” and she was feeling very neat. She took as deep as breath as the stays would allow and walked down the gangplank, through the crowd, to the carriage. Her fiancée and a splendidly woman peered over her still intent on the passengers’ de-embarking.

"Hello, are you, Ernesto Pavella  ?"

 Her fiancée was about answer when the imposingly dressed, woman with him said,

" Ah you must be the maid, where is your mistress ?"

" I beg your pardon, I am Floriella."

 The woman face blanched, she took out a photograph, looked at it, looked at Floriella and gasped,

" Bur, but… you are much slimmer and neater and more  … more ….. she stammered  and fell silent."

Ernesto was just as his photograph, medium height, a moustache Floriella’s gaze was broken by Ernesto taking her arm and saying,

"Floriella, my mother wants us to get home as soon as possible, so that you can rest. "

 With what seemed unseemly haste, Floriella was bundled into the coach, her bags loaded and they drove off, with curtains pulled down. At the Pavella mansion, after Floriella had been helped to change into her best day dress, which she had the maid lace an inch smaller to 21” thinking to make matters slightly better, she was shown downstairs to the drawing room where Senora Incita Pavella and Ernesto were waiting for her.

Senora Incita stood tall and erect by her son, and even without her elaborate high piled hairstyle was easily taller than Ernesto. She indicated a chair and Floriella sat down carefully mindful that she was not used to stays of this tightness and they dug in painfully as gingerly lowered herself down. Senora Incita chose a higher chair and without seeming to bend at the waist at all, lowered herself at the knee’s and perched on the edge of the chair, and began to speak.

"My child, I will be plain, you are not quite what we were expecting and as such I have cancelled the wedding party until we can get you outfitted in a befitting manner, so that the Pavella name will not be shamed. To that end, I have arranged that a small wedding ceremony will take place tomorrow and you and Ernesto will then go to our country estate where you will be prepared and outfitted in a manner that will reflect the position of the Pavella family in society. I will announce that you are unwell after your voyage and when you well enough prepared, we will have a full ceremony with invited guests on your return."

 At this, she rose and with small delicate steps, tip tapped across the tiled floor out of the room.

The next morning was completely taken up by a troop of corsetiere’s, shoemakers and dressmakers coming to measure her every piece of her body, and the afternoon by the small wedding ceremony conducted in the family chapel.

Well she thought, I am glad that I have only to be laced to a waspwaist of 17” that is bad enough. The ceremony proceeded, and then the reception which was a torture for Floriella sitting for hours in the tight stays and she was glad when she could retire to bed and relieve herself of their tightness.

 When she got upstairs though, Ernesto, Senora Incita and several maids were waiting in her bedroom, Senora Incita spoke,

 "As you might have gathered at your wedding, that although your figure is now a lot better, it is not at all good enough compared to your peers. Ernesto and I have decided that waist training will continue and become even stricter, so that you will become a credit to your husband and his family."

 At her signal, the maids came forward and stripped her down her underlinen, and Floriella rubbed her aching ribs with relief. One maid took down her elaborate hairstyle and platted her hair into a ponytail, she was then fitted with a full hood which fitted her whole head, chin and neck leaving only her face free. The hood was laced tightly at the back until it felt like her head was held in vice.

 She was then led over to the lacing bar and this time her wrists were strapped to the bar and her ankles were strapped to the floor and the bar was raised until she was stretched to the utmost.

Floriella moaned at the pain, but to no avail, Senora Incita said,

"Please be quiet girl this is what many girls in Brazilian high society have gone through this before you and you will please suffer it in good grace."

 Floriella gritted her teeth, and was quiet, a second rope was attached to a loop in the top of the hood and the stretching continued, stretching Floriella’s neck so that her neck bones cracked. A maid then stood on a stool and fitted her with a stiff 4” deep posture collar, the collar was laced tight under her jaw forcing her head up even further, and the tightness of the collar made her breathing ragged. 

 Were they trying to strangle her ?,  she thought. 

Floriella could only see the next stage in the mirror as her head was now held rigidly upright and she could not move her head even ½” in any direction. A maid picked what seemed to be half a corset, by the way it did not flex in her hands and how she held it was obvious rigidly boned. Floriella saw that it was flared out as the bottom of a corset but it then straightened for 2” and finished. This “corset” was fitted over her hips and the tightening began, the top edge digging deeply into the soft flesh under her ribs, indenting her waist so deep, that her bottom rib stood at right angles from the top. The pain on her ribs and waist grew until she was sure she would faint and then it stopped. Floriella hung gasping for breath.

 The maid then picked up the other piece which looked like the top half of a corset again ending a 2” vertical section, this was fitted around Floriella’s waist and ribs the with the vertical section overlaying the lower corset half, the lacing began and Floriella felt it forcing her lower ribs upwards while pushing the lower half down onto her hips. Senora Incita spoke,

"Lace her until she is near fainting" 

" And now for the stretcher, spoke Senora Incita"

Floriella watched as maid picked a metal device which that was two half cones with the tops removed joined by two threaded bolts. The maid approached Floriella and pushed the device on to her waist with lower half cone sitting on the corset over her now well defined hips and the top under her ribs, a similar device was positioned from the rear. The maids then used four bolts to fasten the two halves together.  

"Continue until the belt is three inches in depth, said Senora Incita"

 As the maids slowly turned, the upper corset belt slid up over the lower belt, Floriella let out a continuous moan and this time Senora Incita did not chastise her, as she was keeping a close eye on the depth of the growing stem at Floriella’s waist. At last Senora Incita signalled a stop and a maid then proceeded to take up the slack in laces at waist that found due to the stretching of Floriella’s waist. She then measured it and announced it was 17” round.

 "Good, this is a good start, now lets get her into bed and finish off," said Senora Incita.

 When Floriella was let down from lacing bar she staggered as her weight increased the compression on her waist. Breathing raggedly through her constricted windpipe and hard-pressed lungs, two maids helped her over to the bed. They lowered her down and then eased her back on the bed. Floriella felt her shoulders meet something hard. She could not see but she, soon found out, it was a brace attached to the wooden head board of the bed. Floriella then felt a pull on the loop on the top of her cap. A maid   had attached a hook, which was attached to a cable, which passed through a hole in the headboard and then over a pulley and down to a weight hanger. 

"Twenty pounds should be enough to start with, said Senora Incita."

 The maid loaded four five-pound weights onto the hanger and Floriella felt like her head was being pulled off. Once the maid had finished another maid tightened the side lacing on the rigid collar to take up the slackness caused by the stretching.

"And now for the foot braces", said Senora Incita

Another maid then fitted two wide cuffs to Floriella’s ankles and then which were attached two rectangular metal frames, the frames were brought down to the top of her feet and then straps tightened under her heels forcing here feet into a ballet en-pointe position. The maid then started to attach another cable to the ankle cuffs. The cable was passed over another pulley at the bottom of the bed and thirty pounds of weights added to another hanger. Florilla felt her back being stretched even more.

Senora Incita was now satisfied and she ushered the maids out of the bedroom and dimming the lights, and left saying

"Sleep well my dear." 

Floriella tried to sleep but the unrestricting pressure from the fearsome corset and the strain on her neck and legs made it nearly impossible, she tried to shuffle about to relieve the pain on her ribs, hips waist and neck, but she was rigid from breast to below her hips and neck and shoulders. The only part of her upper body she could move was her arms. She tried to get to the laces of her neck brace but the shoulder brace would not let her get her hands close enough. She reached under corset into her now deeply indented portion by her backbone, weaving her hands through the metal of the screw threads. However although she pulled and tugged at the end of the laces they had been knotted to tight and the exertion and trying to breath against the extreme rigidity caused her to faint clean away. 

The next morning, supervised by Senora Incita she was released from the training corset and the neck brace and quickly dressed in a long corset with a 2” stem, the corset had a fitted shoulder brace that dragged her shoulders back until her shoulder blades nearly met.  Wincingly tight boots with 4” heels and a new dress buttoned tightly to the stem waist and with a stiff 3” collar completed the outfit. 

When she was dressed she followed Senora Incita down to her day room, where she asked her to relent on this harsh regime. Her reply was sharp and filled with anger.

"Your letters and photograph deceived our family, after two years since the photograph; we expected that your figure would have improved not degenerated to that of a serving wench. Ernesto agrees with me that he and the Pavella family deserve only the best and Brazilian fashion requires that you agree to these measures to achieve a fashionable figure and posture."

The meeting was over,  Floriella then searched the house for Ernesto walking slowly with a perfectly erect figure from head to thigh and tip toeing carefully in the unfamiliar high heels. Stairs were a trial as the stiff collar, shoulder brace and inflexible corset did not allow her any view of the floor closer than about twelve feet away and each step had to be searched for using the pointed toe of her boots.

At last she found him and pleaded with him for some relief. Ernesto’s reply was similar to his mothers adding that he found a stem waist very attractive and wished Floriella to try her very best to achieve a long stem waist in the shortest possible period. 

That night Floriella’s bedtime regime was altered slightly, her hands were covered in padded mittens (to stop her interfering with the laces and the ankle weights were left off. The reason was that night Ernesto joined her and seemed to take an inordinate amount of interest in the stem waist whilst performing his marital duties.