Tightlacing: the practice of wearing sturdy, tight corsets to temporarily change the wearer’s figure. Otherwise known as corset training and waist training, can prove useful. Many women do it, some want a tiny waist, and others want that greatly desired hourglass shaped body. Tightlacing can be done in the wearer’s home or gradually with professional help.

These corsets are generally made of a flexible material such as cloth or leather and stiffened by inserting boning (generally steel or whalebone) into the channels of the cloth or leather. Plastic can sometimes be used for a more lightweight corset. Other boning materials used are ivory, wood and cane. Typically, corsets are held together in the back with lacing. Women are usually laced by their maids.

Wearing corsets all the time can prove adequate. It gives the wearer great posture, helps them lose weight by making it difficult to eat as much, while giving them their choice of body shape. It can also alter the breast line by raising them and shaping them and flattening the stomach. Many tightlacers try to get their waists as small as possible, where others stop once they reach their desired measurements.

Tightlacing can be quite dangerous if not done properly and progressively. Some short term problems include shortness of breath and faintness, indigestion, and chafing of the skin. These short term effects are achieved by lacing too tight, too fast. More longterm effects is that the corset can push the wearer’s lower ribs inward, thus internal organs are pushed closer together, away from their original positions. The volume of the lungs is taken away which causes shallow breathing from the top of the lungs. It is also possible to fracture some of the ribs.

A steady, tedious and uncomfortable process, is it worth it in the end? For that to- die-for figure? Women, you be the judge!

 

 

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