RetroXotique

Mr Ledman came in to the office and started to go through his incoming letters, Priscilla thought maybe he might know. "Mr Ledman do you know who Scarlett O’Hara was ? ", Mr Ledman looked a bit startled at the question, but rallied and said "Well if I remember correctly from the film she was a southern belle in Gone with the Wind which was set in American Civil War ", Priscilla thought for second and then asked "Did she by chance have a small waist", Mr Ledman then looked totally perplexed but answered "Well again as far as I remember this time from the book she had an 18" waist which was the smallest in three counties !", this seemed to satisfy Priscilla and he walked into his office.

That lunchtime she tried several shoe shops, explaining that she needed some high heeled stiletto shoes for a fancy dress party, all the shops assistants said they didn’t have any, as they went out fashion years back, one of the assistant said the only place she had seen them advertised lately was in the back of the Sunday papers. She tried several clothes shops looking for anything that resembled a low cut blouse or a tight satin pencil skirt with no success. In one shop an assistant was very helpful and told her that the only places she might find anything like that was a second hand shop. She then went into a lingerie shop and asked for a push up padded bra, the assistants looked at her twice and asked what size she was and Priscilla replied "32C" and seeing their faces quickly added "It’s for a fancy dress party, ‘Tarts and Tramps’", the assistants then smiled and one of them said "We will see what we can find you". They brought a bra out for Priscilla to try on which was totally unlike any bra she had ever seen before. It had bones and wires all around the bottom of the cups which made them rigid and lots of padding in the bottom and the sides, the cups themselves, what there was of them, looked like they would only cover just about up to her nipples, the assistant took to a changing room and helped her to try it on. "Right" she said "You will want to get the most effect, so you must wear the bra tight and tighten the shoulder straps up as much as possible" in so saying she hauled each shoulder strap tight and Priscilla’s breast came together and up then out until they looked like the prow of a ship in front of her and to Priscilla they looked three time the size they were previously with more of breast and cleavage showing than she could have believed possible. "There" said the assistant "that should produce the right effect for your fancy dress party ". Priscilla was not so sure, but the assistant seemed very pleased with the effect of the bra, and looked expectant for the sale as she took the bra off, "Shall I wrap it up madam ? ", Priscilla thinking of what ‘Alex’ had said in the locker room thought "Well it has to be done ", and nodded yes and then paid for the bra after the assistant had wrapped it. Priscilla then asked, "Do you sell corsets", the assistant answered "No, Madame only girdles, what kind of corset are looking for ", Priscilla replied "Well I think I need one like Scarlett O’Hara used to wear ?", the assistant thought for a minute and then said "The only place I can think you might find something like that is the costume hire shop on Branstone St.", on the way out Priscilla noticed some fishnet stocking and took them back to the counter, the assistant then "Does madam require a garter belt or maybe as its for fancy dress, a pair of garters", Priscilla was then confused but eventually said "Garters I think ", the assistant added two garters to the parcel and Priscilla paid for them and left the shop quickly as she was now late for work. 

Work was quiet and so she clocked out early and again searched the shops for a blouse and she found a skirt but it was only knee length and she thought her knees looked terrible also it fitted her normal waist and so would just hang from her when she was wearing a corset, she did have some luck though, she found a white nylon lacy low cut frilly blouse that seemed to fit the bill but it was very lose around her breasts and waist. This meant she would have to have it altered, but who by, Priscilla’s sewing was terrible. Who could she ask to do it ?, she then thought she would send it to her grandmother who was very good at sewing, if she must admit a bit scatterbrained. This gave her another idea, she would get granny to make her up a skirt as well, she paid for the blouse and went looking for a material shop. She soon found one and asked to see some black satin, an assistant brought out a roll and Priscilla thought it looked just right but when she felt it was very thin and fragile, and if she was going to wear skin tight it would probably split, she then asked the assistant if they had any extra strong lining fabric, the assistant said yes and brought some tough manmade fabric that she said was exceedingly strong and would only tear under great strain. Ideal thought Priscilla and purchased enough of both materials to make up a skirt.. 

When she got back to the bedsit, she then thought again about the shoes and remembering what the shoe shop assistant had said sat down and began to look through the Sunday papers which she had not yet thrown away, in the second paper she found an advert :- 

Electra Fashions 

Erotic Clothes and Lingerie 

High Heeled Shoes and Boots 

She quickly wrote down the number and ran down the stairs to phone in the entrance hall where their was a payphone, she inserted some coins and rang the number and after a few rings a bored male voice answered, "Electra Fashions, can I help you", "Yes" said Priscilla "I’m looking for some high heeled black stilettos" , "How high and what size asked the bored man ", thinking back to the overheard conversation Priscilla replied "5-6" I think, Oh! and size 8", the man said "Hold on, just checking", a few seconds later he came back on the line "Were all out 5 and 6" size 8", Priscilla thought a second and then said

  "do you have anything else in black with a high heel", "Hold on" said the man "just checking", this time he was away a lot longer and Priscilla had to put in more money, when he cam back he said "The only thing we’ve got in black is a 7" in ballet toe with a stiletto heel, but I’ve been told to tell that they are extremely difficult to walk in", Priscilla thought again for a few seconds and remembering that ‘Alex’ had said that high heels were difficult to walk in , but were OK with practice and also she thought that that their couldn’t be much difference between 6 and 7", she asked "What’s the delivery time, "If we dispatch tonight, you should receive them tomorrow" said the bored man. "Thetas all right" thought Priscilla, "If I start practicing tomorrow, I should have plenty of time to become proficient in walking in them before the ‘Tramps and Tarts’ night". She then asked price and the man replied "£60 plus postage and packing". Priscilla gasped, but she did not have much option and consoled herself that she would be able to use them on other occasions. She told the man her credit card number and address and he rang off. 

Priscilla went up stairs feeling pleased with herself, the costume was really coming together now, she cooked herself some dinner, washed and tided up and sat down to consider her next job, "Oh yes, she thought, I must take the measurements for the skirt and the blouse, so I can post it to granny tomorrow. She found a tape measure and measured her waist, 28", then she thought that is no good, I will be wearing a corset which should be 18", no she thought that's a bit ambitious lets say 20", she then put on her new bra and measured around her bosom and was amazed again at the amount of flesh she now carried in front of her, also she found that with the padding and the uplift she was now 44", "Well that should produce the right effect, all right" she thought . She tried on the blouse and then pinned it at the side so that her cleavage was showing, the same as girl in the poster, it looked rather a lot to Priscilla, but she reminded herself that she must make the effort and not be squeamish. She then removed the blouse and pinned the side down to 20" at the waist, As she held it up she thought to herself "Well that should be tight enough". Now to the skirt, she looked at the poster again thought "My knees are terrible, I think "I’ll measure for well below the knee", She took the tape measure and measured around her hips, thighs, knees and calves, Then she wondered how much to add on to figures so that she would be able to walk, she picked up the poster and pinned it to the side of the mirror, stood back, looked at the ‘Tarts’ tight skirts and thought back to ‘Alex’s’ statement "I’ve got a really tight black satin pencil skirt which fits me like a second skin" and decided that, its got to be tight and so she added nothing for the hips even though at 40" she would have liked to ‘disguise’ them a little with some surplus cloth, 2" around the thighs and 4" around the knees and calves. She then drew a diagram for the skirt and the blouse, with a note to her granny explaining what she wanted , what they were for , emphasising that the design and the measurements were right and should on no account be altered, she also added that could she please have the finished articles back by the middle to the end of next week. She parceled up the pinned blouse and the material, addressed the parcel, stuck on some stamps and then went to bed.

She had to type a lot letters that afternoon and had to work until just gone 5pm, she caught a bus to Branstone St. and saw the costume shop which was called Rigbys Fancy Dress Hire and proclaimed to be largest in South East England, when she got to the door she saw that the opening hours were 9’ till 5pm except for Fridays when they opened until 7pm. She decide to come back on Friday after work.

When she reached her bedsit, she looked for a parcel on the entrance hall table and could find nothing for her. 

The next day at work was very busy and she had no time to go shopping and after work she returned to the bedsit and there was a parcel waiting for her, "It must be the shoes" she thought. She picked up the parcel and took it upstairs. She unwrapped the parcel and pulled the most amazing pair of high heeled shoes she had ever seen. The heel were needle thin with small tip and seemed to go forever, because the heel was so high, the foot part of the shoe was nearly vertical and went straight down, past some high lacing to the toe which about an inch of contact area with the floor which made them look like ballet shoes with a heel, also the distance between the toe and the heel as on 2 1/2 to 3", Priscilla could not believe her eyes and thought to herself "I can see why they call these ballet toe shoes, but if ‘Alex’ and her friend can wear high heels, so can I !". She then decided to try them on. She took off her low heeled work shoes and slipped her feet as normal in to the new shoes and found that the only way she get them on was to bend her ankle so that her foot was in line with her leg. She got them both on and laced them up tightly, as she felt she needed all the support she could get. Eventually they were both fitted to her satisfaction and sitting on her bed she raised one foot and then the other and thought 

"How I am supposed to stand in these, let alone walk". At last she thought "I will have to start somewhere, Here goes" 

and she stood up as she would normally in her low heeled shoes and found herself immediately thrust forward and falling with no ankle control until she came to a stop against the dressing table. Priscilla then dropped to her knees and found it difficult to get back up again as the shoes held her feet so straight, she could not get her feet underneath for support, eventually she crawled back to the bed and dragged herself up to a sitting position so that she could get her "toes" back underneath her. 

Priscilla breathed a sigh of relief "‘She was not joking (Alex) when she said that high heels were difficult to walk in" she thought "But don’t panic Priscilla, practice is all I need and it’s 9 days before the night, that must be plenty of time.". 

She tried to stand up again this time using the bed head for support, when she could just about stand but her knees were bent and her ankles were wobbling from side to side. She sat down again quickly and decided that they needed to be laced tighter to give her more support, she pulled on the laces until they were painfully tight. And then with a deep breath she tried to stand again, that was better, her ankles were not as wobbly and slowly hanging onto the bedhead she straightened her knees, she felt her calf muscles pulling in protest and hers toes were pushed further down in the shoe against the tight lacing, but eventually she stood straight and found her head touching the lampshade and then she looked around and found herself feeling very tall. She stood their wobbling for a minute and when she thought she had it under control, she tried to take her first step. She lifted her foot and moved forward and quickly put it down again and grasped the bedhead tighter as the wobbling on her stationary ankle, increased massively and she nearly fell down. She tried this manoeuvre several more times and eventually she could move one foot and transfer her weight backwards and forwards with some semblance of control as long as she balanced herself against the bedhead. By this time the strain of keeping her feet vertical was beginning to really hurt her calves and the ballet toes of the shoes were pinching her toes terribly, she sat down , unlaced the shoes and massaged her calves and her toes and decided to have half an hours rest and make herself some tea.

After her tea she returned to sit on the bed and picked up the shoes and examined them with slight trepidation. "Well looking at them wont get me anywhere" she thought and she put the shoes back on and stood up slowly again. She continued ‘practising ‘in the shoes with determination, half an hour on and half an hour off. By 11 O’clock she could just about manage to walk the 3ft from the bed to the dressing table turn and return to the bed, admittedly she could only manage 1-2" steps and she had to use the wall for support there and back, the turns had been performed very slowly, moving one shoe round 45 degrees and then bringing the other shoe to join it, as if she were a child on stilts, but she felt she was getting somewhere. 

At last she took the shoes off and bathed her feet and calves in a bowl of hot water which in last hour had become a torture. As she sat with her feet in the water, she wondered how women put up with wearing high heels, when they caused so much pain, she came to the conclusion that they couldn’t possibly hurt as much as this all the time and it must be just because they were new to her and that she had tried such high ones straight away without building up an inch at a time. "Oh well" she thought "with more practice the pain would probably ease".

The next day in her lunch hour, she went into department store and eventually plucked up enough courage to approach the least forbidding older assistant who introduced herself as Anne, she explained her problem and saying that she had very little makeup experience and she wanted to give a good impression at the ‘Tramps and Tarts’ night at the tennis club, Anne seemed quite interested and offered to do her make up, if she came round to her house early on the Saturday evening, she would also, she said have a good attempt at putting Priscilla’s hair up in a ‘tarty. fashion, Priscilla then mentioned the bigggg.... fake eyelashes and Anne laughed and said "I haven’t worn them since the 70’s but, I have still got a couple of pairs, so we should be OK. Priscilla took Anne’s full name, address and telephone number and promised to confirm nearer the time.

The next day was Friday and straight after work she, she caught the bus to Branstone St. and the costume shop, the shop was open and their was a queue of customers picking up their costumes for the weekend. Eventually Priscilla got to the counter with queue growing behind her. The harassed man behind the counter, said "Hello, name and order please", Priscilla replied "I’m sorry I haven’t got an order", the man sighed a little and then asked "Yes Madame, what kind of costume do you require", Priscilla replied "I’m looking for a corset like the one Scarlett O’Hara would have worn", the man then said "That would be Victorian 1860’s, low cut and what waist do you require" Priscilla said "20 inches", the man looked at bit surprised at this and was probably going to explain why, but glancing over Priscilla’s shoulder at the growing queue, he quickly went over to a card index and searched it rapidly, he came back to Priscilla and said "The only 20" inch we have in stock is an 1880’s corset which is slightly longer than an 1860’s, do you want it ?" 

Priscilla thought quickly but did not really know if the length mattered and the man was fidgeting in front of her, obviously wanting to get on with serving the still growing queue behind her, so she answered "Yes, Please", the man walked quickly into back of the shop and came back with long cloth bag , which he placed on the counter, the bag with landed with a thunk, sounding as though it were heavy and solid. The man looked at the tag, and looked up the corset in a card index, he raised his eyebrows a bit and said to Priscilla "It’s seems this is old stock, the hire is only £1 / day and £20 deposit, is that OK", "Yes" said Priscilla "At that price I’ll take it now" and paid in advance for 10 days hire. She picked up the cloth bag and was surprised how solid and rigid the corset inside the bag was and also how heavy it was.
 
She caught the two buses back to her bedsit, all the time with the corset in the bag resting in her lap, but she did not want to get it out in public, she decided to wait until she reached her bedsit. She entered her room, closed the door, sat at the table and took the corset out of its cloth bag, "My God" she thought "It’s unbelievable" the corset it self was white and slightly faded and about 30" long, wrapped around it, were yards and yards of laces and underneath the laces she could feel the stiff ‘bones’, which were set very closely together in the material. She looked it again and quickly put it back in the bag "I’ll save that for tomorrow" she thought , as she put the corset back in the bag she heard some paper crunching, she felt down inside the bag and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. Priscilla unfolded it and began to read , it said :- .

Rigbys Fancy Dress Hire - Advice for Wearing a Corset

1) For comfort we advise that a new corset wearer should initially wear corset up to 
    4" in size less than her measured girth. Over a period of time when the corset 
     is comfortable the waist reduction can be increased.

2) Always wear a slip of silk or nylon to under the corset to prevent the corset from 
    chafing and binding on the skin when it is tightened.

3) Fitting and lacing the corset :-

     a) Loosen the back laces fully and open the front busk and if the corset is long 
         with lacing below the busk make sure the bow is tight.

     b) Clasp the corset around the body or step into it and adjust the height until 
          with internal waist tape at the same height as your natural waist.

     c) Fasten the front busk.

     d) Ask a helper to start pulling slowly on the central loops, if a helper is not 
         available hook the laces over a door handle or similar and lean forward to 
         tighten the laces.

     e)  As the lacing is tightened pull the slack through the eyes starting at the top and 
          bottom towards the middle of the corset. 

      f) Rest frequently to allow the body to adjust to the corset.

      g) When the required waist measurement is reached tie off the laces.

Priscilla read the notes with interest and thought "Well that all seems straightforward, but I cant try it on tonight as I haven’t got a slip. I’ll buy one tomorrow and try it on tomorrow night". She slipped the note back into the cloth bag with the corset and put the bag to one side. 

She then went downstairs and phoned her mother and caught up on the news from home, eventually she asked her mother "Did granny receive a parcel from me" her mother replied "Yes, she has started on the skirt already and has not stopped talking about it since, she keeps on saying that she cannot see how you will ever get it to fit round the waist, even with a corset and that it so tight that you will never walk in it. What shall I tell her", Priscilla replied "Tell her that all the other girls are wearing corsets, some even smaller than mine and that the skirt is supposed to be skin tight and thats the way I want it !" Priscilla knew her claims were a bit of an exaggeration, but she wanted to show her mother and family that she was coping OK away from and that she could look after herself. Her mother said "Well if thetas what you want, I’ll tell her, granny thinks it will be ready at the end of the weekend and we will post it of to you on Monday". They passed the time for another few minutes and then rang off.

Priscilla went up stairs and got out the ‘shoes’, she placed them on the table and prepared herself a sandwich and stared at the shoes while she was eating, the long heels glinting in the light. After she had finished her sandwich, she stood up and said aloud to the shoes "Right I’m not going to let you beat me" and with that she started to put them on but remembering the pain her toes last night, she placed some tissue paper at the bottom of each shoes toe as padding, she then put on the shoes and laced them tight, "Tighter than last night " she thought ", the more support the better". She stood up slowly, remembering the fall of the night before, straightened up and controlled the wobble in her ankles. She then repeated the exercise of the previous night, walking to and fro the 3ft between the bed and the dressing table turning and returning to the bed, the wobble in her ankles soon reduced considerably but she still needed the wall for support and it was slow progress a she could still only manage 1-2" steps as when she tried to increase her stride the violent wobble returned. She continued doggedly as the night before with half an hour on and half an hour off. She stopped at 10.30pm as her feet were beginning to really hurt her, with cramps in her toes and shooting pains in her calves. But as she sat bathing her feet and massaging the pain out of her calves, she thought that she had improved as she could now walk or maybe totter would be a better word, between the bed and the dressing table mostly, only using the wall for support when she turned, the turns were still as slow but seemed a bit smoother.