Girdles, Corsets, and Underpinnings

[fleur]

Hey gok I am fine - nearly finished my skirt you will be pleased to hear!

And now I would like to pick your brains.

As I am wearing Katies Cleo corset (made to my specs) as outerwear, I was thinking of the rago open girdle with six suspender clips just to give me a smooth derriere all the way down.

do you think this is a good idea - I think I have found the rago for me.

 

[GOK]

Is this for the RAGO underbust girdle? I did read in the whatkatiedid sizing that you should hold your tummy in and have the tape measure real tight when measuring, when I do this I do come up as a 30 - now I dont know what to get!

Yes, the underbust. I measure 30" without holding it all in and the size 30 is perfect.

Rosie, I don't want to worry you, Sweetie but your bum is supposed to be larger than your waist! lol **runs away quickly!**

Fleur, congrats on finishing the skirt - do we get to see pics? As for the girdle, you could do a lot worse than the Rago one but if you really want super smoothness at a reasonable price, then Crepe Suzette is the way to go. PM or email me if you want the skinny on where to get them - I'm not sure it's prudent to post links here.



**really, really hopes that there are no men reading these threads - all our carefully constructed artifice will be shattered!**

 

[~landgirl~]

Yes, the underbust. I measure 30" without holding it all in and the size 30 is perfect.

Ok one last question about the underbust girdle and I WILL shut up about it lol.

Can I ask what your hip size is? It does say that the girdle is larger in the hip and more suited to a vintage figure.

 

[lindylady]

Ok, newbie question. I have a few girdles that I wear upon occasion. However, I'm considering wearing them more often if they provide effective waist training. Have any of you ladies seen results with girdles and corsets?

 

[GOK]

Ok one last question about the underbust girdle and I WILL shut up about it lol.

Can I ask what your hip size is? It does say that the girdle is larger in the hip and more suited to a vintage figure.

It's <ahem> 42" - darn, why won't the text go smaller?!

Ok, newbie question. I have a few girdles that I wear upon occasion. However, I'm considering wearing them more often if they provide effective waist training. Have any of you ladies seen results with girdles and corsets?

**dons expert hat**

A girdle will not train your waist. Only a corset will do that. Annalai is the person best qualified here that I know of to tell you about it as she has trained her waist rather impressively.

Speaking as a corseti?®re, I can advise you on what kind of corset you would need and tell you that it takes a lot of dedication. You will also need to have bespoke corsets, at least after your initial reduction. You should also be aware that if you are going to train your waist, you will have to either have clothes made for you or have bought ones altered. Two of my clients that waist-train have upon occasion actually commented that they wish they hadn't begun in the first place.

Some serious tightlacers wear their corsets for around 23 hours a day, seven days a week, only removing them to ablute. This of course, will give a very extreme reduction and I have to wonder about the state of the muscles and the body in general when not corseted. Again, Annalai is the person in the know!

The majority of my clients that train their waists, only do so for around ten hours a day, with a break at weekends. They achieve what I consider to be a far more pleasing aesthetic as it is obvious but not extreme.

Annalai - please, please don't take offence at my comments regarding extreme waist training. There is nothing directed personally at you or any other tightlacer - I'm merely expressing my opinion that I don't find extreme training aesthetically pleasing and that I am concerned for the overall health of extreme tightlacers.

Lindy, if you don't want to go down the corset road, then perhaps a cincher would be a better bet for you? Rago do a model (style 389) that is both cincher and open bottom girdle in one, which is great if like me, you are a little too generously proportioned in the hip area.

If you need any help or info, feel free to email or PM me and I'll be glad to assist.

 

[~landgirl~]

It's <ahem> 42" - darn, why won't the text go smaller?!

I just PM'd you!! I read that if you have more than a 10 inch difference then you should you up the next waist size. I feel like a bit of an odd size, if I get a 32 then will it be baggy on my 41 hip?

 

[GOK]

I just PM'd you!! I read that if you have more than a 10 inch difference then you should you up the next waist size. I feel like a bit of an odd size, if I get a 32 then will it be baggy on my 41 hip?

Well there's 12" difference between my waist and hips and the 30" fits me perfectly, whereas the 28" is definitely too small. So I'd say go for the 32" if that's what your waist is because they are stretchy. I very much doubt you'd have any bagginess around the hips. Tell you what, do you want to borrow my 30 to try it for fit before you go ahead an order?

 

[~landgirl~]

Well there's 12" difference between my waist and hips and the 30" fits me perfectly, whereas the 28" is definitely too small. So I'd say go for the 32" if that's what your waist is because they are stretchy. I very much doubt you'd have any bagginess around the hips. Tell you what, do you want to borrow my 30 to try it for fit before you go ahead an order?

Ha ha ha - Oh dear, I am going to be a real awkward annie now! LOL I just re-measured my waist (a little higher up this time) and it came out as a 31 comfortable and a 30 if I held it tight! But then I don't even know if I am measuring my waist now - I seem to have a bit of a length from my underbust to my belly button. Just above my belly button its a 32 but not sure if this is my waist - as I am including my belly. Oh bugger it! It would be good to try on but my boyfriends mum is pressing me for a size as she wants to order it ASAP (my christmas pressie from her)

Ok, think me needs a lesson on just where my waist is now!!

 

[TOTTIE]

I make corsets from time to time... but mostly 16th century ones. I have a lovely repro of an 18th century corset too - but haven't worn it recently.

Incidentally, I know most of you aren't talking about a particular period, but if you're after a 1930s or 40s shape (pre-new look) you shouldn't be looking to take your waist in much at all - from the Edwardian period through to the end of WWII, the emphasis was almost wholly on hip-reduction.

I tend to go for original girdles when wearing 30s frocks - in fact, many of my frocks don't fit on the hips without them

However, for a really slinky evening dress, I do find that girdles show through. My wedding dress was bias cut satin and even though I had a slip underneath, the stocking clips showed. Had to (gasp) go for tights (pantyhose) in the end. And it took me ages to find any without a front seam because that showed too! I think no underwear may be the way forward for *that* sort of frock.

 

[TOTTIE]

oh, and I meant to say Landgirl, a woman's waist is usually about 1 - 1.5 inches above her navel.
A man's waist, weirdly, is usually below the navel.

 

[~landgirl~]

if you're after a 1930s or 40s shape (pre-new look) you shouldn't be looking to take your waist in much at all - from the Edwardian period through to the end of WWII, the emphasis was almost wholly on hip-reduction.

Wow I really didn't know that! How on earth do you reduce your hip?

 

[GOK]

Wow I really didn't know that! How on earth do you reduce your hip?

You squish it with girdles or corsets! To find your waist, tie a ribbon or thread around your middle and allow it to settle comfortably. That's where your waist is. It should be the narrowest part of your torso. In your pics, 31 looks pretty close. Oh, and you are not an odd shape at all! I'll reply to your mail in a mo but right now I really need to get some lunch!

Tottie, I feel your pain vis a vis the slinky dress issue. However, I've always found that a couple of under layers of organza does the trick....although I have been known to be completely undie-less from the waist down on full length slinky frocks!

I'd love to see some pics of your stays - do you have any?

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I would really like a girdle, but I am worried about where the flab goes when it's all squished in!! I have a rago waist cincher which I don't actually ever wear as I find it makes me look like I have worse love handles than I do. I am worried about the girdle, what if I get one and it gives me a ring of bulgy flab around the bottom of it?

 

[GOK]

I would really like a girdle, but I am worried about where the flab goes when it's all squished in!! I have a rago waist cincher which I don't actually ever wear as I find it makes me look like I have worse love handles than I do. I am worried about the girdle, what if I get one and it gives me a ring of bulgy flab around the bottom of it?

Sweetie, trust me if anyone is going to get an attack of slab flab then it would be me...and I don't! I have no idea where it goes - it's magic! lol I concur about the cincher problem - the solution is to wear a longer line bra with it.

I just have this horrible feeling that sooner or later I am going to end up with a corselette so enormous that will make Bridget Jones' big pants look positively skimpy! :eusa_doh:

 

[~landgirl~]

I would really like a girdle, but I am worried about where the flab goes when it's all squished in!! I have a rago waist cincher which I don't actually ever wear as I find it makes me look like I have worse love handles than I do. I am worried about the girdle, what if I get one and it gives me a ring of bulgy flab around the bottom of it?

Do you mean you get the bulge over the top? I do too with my waist cincher. I think maybe because we are tall and have longer torsos, as when I saw Bernie Dexter advertising it, it went all the way up to her bra - but then she is so very tiny!

 

[GOK]

Do you mean you get the bulge over the top? I do too with my waist cincher. I think maybe because we are tall and have longer torsos, as when I saw Bernie Dexter advertising it, it went all the way up to her bra - but then she is so very tiny!

Hence ladies such as we needing longer line bras. Sometimes I think it must be quite lovely to be petite...but then I'd probably be as wide as I would be tall! At least being 5'10" means I can carry an extra stone or two!

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Do you mean you get the bulge over the top? I do too with my waist cincher. I think maybe because we are tall and have longer torsos, as when I saw Bernie Dexter advertising it, it went all the way up to her bra - but then she is so very tiny!

Well I have a catch 22 situation. If I wear it so that the three tight middle lines go directly into my waist I get this weird situation where in between the bottom line and the bottom of the cincher it goes all bulgey and when I bend to either side the boning kind of bows outwards. And i feel like there's bulge over the top too. So I found if I pull it down, the bits that are supposed to nip the waist in hold the love handles in instead but then i get a flat sloping bum that looks very odd in clothes!

 

[~landgirl~]

It sounds like it is too big to me. What size are you and what size did you get?

Also, you are suppose to pull it up so it sits under your bust (ideally) but, probably like me, this makes it end too soon. The cincher is only short in length.

If anyone wants a 32 inch waist cincher for FREE - Drop me a line as I just can't get along with it!

 

[artdecodame]

How fun! I've seen wool panties (the longer types that go to about mid-thigh) on a few online shops, and I know during the early 20's and before wool stockings were the norm. I wonder if you can still buy those, too...That is, those that reach thigh-high and not sock-like lengths.

EDIT: Ah HA, so I did find a few wool or angora blend types on sock-dreams.com.

 

[TOTTIE]

sorry GOK, I don't usually let anyone photograph me in my undies!

Incidentally, I do think that many of the problems people describe are solved in the original designs. I one of those long-line bras with no elastic, and the first time I wore it with a girdle it was SO uncomfortable - the bottom of the bra kept rolling up, and I was getting bulging etc. BUT then I realised that someone had cut off the little straps that should hang down from the bottom of the bra -- which then hook onto the girdle, keeping everything beautifully in place. There are these special flat hooks you can get... all a bit complicated.

And in fact if you are busty, it should deal with the problem of wearing backless dresses (though I haven't quite found the right bra for this yet) - because in the 30s and 40s they marketed bras that worked with halter necks etc that basically clipped onto the back of your girdle - holding the back of the bra down, and out of the way.