When I began tightlacing years ago I wanted to make sure that I got some good advice about how to do it first, so I spent a lot of time scouring the internet for information.  What I found then is what you find now just in greater volume – a mixture of fantasy and reality from sources that are sometimes dubious and sometimes very credible.  The biggest hurtle for a budding tightlacer is sifting through the muck of misinformation to find truthful advice.  

Basically, if you want to learn how to tightlace you need to listen to a radical tightlacer.   And by that I mean a person who has reduced their waist size by more than 30%.  The reason is that if a person has had the self discipline to reach this level of radical reduction at some point in their life then they will really understand the daily realities of true tightlacing, and as such they will be able to give you good advice if they choose to.  The 30% rule applies also because it is only at this level of reduction that complete repositioning of the internal organs takes place.  Without experiencing this a person will not have the ability to advise you truthfully about how you should go about doing the same.  There is after all a very big difference between real tightlacing and simply having the experience of wearing a corset. 
 

Some myths about tightlacing:
24/7 –  The biggest myth is that you have to lace 24 hours a day 7 days a week to be a tightlacer.  Few people could sustain this for so many reasons, many of which I will cover further on, but mostly it is just unnecessary.   Reducing is about dedication to the corset, diet, and being sensible.   The more you wear the corset the more you will shape, but there is a point of no return where wearing the corset beyond your limit of tolerance will give you no more result in reduction.  I developed the Cycle Method around this and taking breaks from lacing is really part of the lifestyle – regardless of whatever may be written by some to the contrary.   

Corset Belts –  A belt for shaping is a big part of fetish mythology but it is not at all healthy to try.  If you have achieved radical reduction and decide to substitute your well designed corset for a very tightly cinched belt around your waist the results will be unpleasant.  The body tolerates compression when it is graduated by the corset, which in addition to shaping the waist is also supporting the vital organs and compressing the lower digestive tract.  Simply cinching the waist tightly without support to the organs above and below the waist causes fluid to pool in the abdomen over hours and the digestive tract will become bloated, irritable, and crampy.  The body does not like this arrangement for very long and you certainly get no benefit of comfort from this substitute.  A corset belt is really for going around your corset as a nice accessory.  Wear it that way.

Instant Reduction – Another storytime fetish scene is the fantasy where a young woman or naughty husband is subjected to being laced into a very tiny waisted corset and drawn in to become instantly wasp waisted.   Surprisingly I get requests from people for completely fantastic shapes and reductions who have never worn a corset because of this myth, but of course it is just a fantasy.  The truth is that even with the strongest corset there are real biological and physiological barriers to reduction.  Some people are more malleable than others but no matter how soft and pliable you are a great many changes and adaptations have to occur in one's body to achieve any radical shaping.  It takes time.  Generally I will make a first corset with no more than 5 or 6 inches of reduction on the waist and it usually takes a few months for the customer to get the first corset closed.  Anything more than that is just not realistically feasible.

Cheap Tightlacing Corsets - This is an interesting one only because it is so common a question.  By definition any tightlacing corset is bespoke, and expertly hand crafted specifically for you by an experienced Corsetiere from the finest materials.  If you google 'corsets' you will get an absolute cornucopia of companies selling 'tight lacing' and 'custom' corsets but be wise.  A cheap tightlacing corset is like an inexpensive defense attorney.  In most cases you will get just what you pay for. 

Permanent Tightlacing – I wrote an article about this very widely contemplated subject, and the short story on permanent tightlacing is that there is no such thing.  The body is very malleable, and just as you can reduce your waist and shape over time, if you stop the practice and stay out of the corset your body gradually returns to its unaltered state.  The longer you tightlace the longer your body keeps the shape, but this persistence is really measured in hours or days, not years.  

Forced Tightlacing – Also a big part of mythology and perhaps the single greatest corset fetish.  But truthfully, in any real civilization this just does not happen.  Tightlacing cannot be forced on anyone, it is a complex array of self actuated disciplines and heightened self awareness.  Forced tightlacing is as realistic as forced yoga, and about as possible.  What is true is that locking corsets, tightlacing diaries, goal charts, and having a partner control the laces are all real facets of tightlacing relationships.  Corsetry and tightlacing are deeply intertwined in the BDSM lifestyle, and many tightlacing couples share the experience, with one being the tightlacer and the other the overseer.  But even so it is always an agreed relationship, and a partnership to a common goal.  

Smallest Waist Size – Another big myth.  I have written about this a lot as well, and I can only reiterate what I have said so many times – Waist Size Is Meaningless.  The measure of a tightlacer is not the measured inches but the shape and the amount of reduction.  A very small person with a natural underbust/waist/hip size of 22-20-26" who puts on a 17" corset is not the latest most achieved tightlacer, they are just a very small person in a lightly reducing corset.   It is a battle of numbers that so many play into but truthfully what attracts anyone to the corset is not the measurement but the shape, particularly of the hip shelf.  It is that awe inspiring curve scooping into the waistline and swooping out over the hip that drives one to ogle that classic corset shape.  So, forget about the inches – If you want to know how accomplished a tightlacer is just ask them to rest a drinking glass on their hip shelf.  
 

Some realities about tightlacing:
Hygiene – Another important article to read is this one about hygiene.  You have to get out of the corset every day and wash.  You have to change out your liner and take care of pinching and chafing when it occurs.  You have to moisturize.  Taking care of your skin is a really big part of tightlacing as a discipline.

Rest – I advise to never wear the corset when you are stressed or upset, and that this is an important component to keeping tightlacing as a positive self affirming practice.  When you feel that you have had enough for the day then take it off.  Take a break, and when you are ready to get back it do so.  You are in control.

Diet – Diet is another big part of tightlacing.  Plenty of fiber, low carbs, high nutrition, and plenty of protein are necessities.  Some myths of diet revolve around stomach-expanding foods and soda, but none of this is really true.  Contrary to myth your stomach cannot enlarge beyond what you put in it.  You will have to burp a lot more if you eat in the corset, getting rid of air pockets to accommodate food and drink, but remember that you can always take the corset off.  I recommend doing so for large meals and getting back in after a few hours when your food has passed into the small intestine.

Hydration – It is so easy to become dehydrated in the corset.  Keeping tabs on your water intake is very important, and keeping the water flowing is crucial.  A good 6-8 glasses of water a day is necessary.

Illness – When you are sick you need to take a break from tightlacing.  The corset is an impedance that is usually welcomed for any tightlacer, but it acts against you when you are not well and need to bolster your strengths, drink lots of fluids, and battle fever or pain.   

Exercise – Tightlacing or not you need to exercise.  I have written on this subject also, and I recommend to most everyone to get out of the corset to exercise.  Lacing while working out is possible, but it is hard core stuff and not for the inexperienced. 

Patience – The greatest virtue of all for a tightlacer is patience.  Time and the corset will do the rest.
 

Tightlacing is a real practice that is often sensationalized by fanciers who would dream it to be many things that it is not.  The important thing for you is to be able to tell the difference.  Use your common sense and do not blindly believe anything that you read.  Like George Carlin said, "Question everything".  But most of all - Enjoy Wearing Your Corset!

Designing a true tightlacing corset is hard work, and I often say to those who would choose to believe otherwise that a good experiment would be for them to just try making their own and get back to me on the results.  Probably only second to custom made shoes, a well fitted true tightlacing corset is the most difficult human garment to design and produce.  I have spent years refining my own processes of corset design and manufacture, constantly incorporating new materials, techniques, and refinements to the process that are sometimes broad, but often subtle and significant.  Designing and drafting a well fitted corset is one set of skills, fabric preparation is another, and of course sewing skills are needed that are beyond those you might use in the local sewing circle.  Challenging enough to make a good looking design, and many times more difficult to make it last for 3,000 hours or more of constant use without failure.  It is an arduous labor of love that produces results with every satisfied customer.

There are some functional realities to any daily tightlacing corset, and I have added a few rules of my own that create the distinctive appearance of my designs.  For example, all of my corsets are fully lined, which is necessary for comfortable daily wear, so I never place the stays on the inside as others often do for stylistic reasons.  Each corset also incorporates a heavy steel reinforced front closure, and a smooth lacing guard is in place that covers the inside of the lacing system in the back.  These features are standard in all my designs. 

When designing a corset for a customer there is much to consider.  All of the forces that the corset places on the body have to be calculated, and the contours are designed to place these evenly on the customer's unique structure.  I take into consideration their body type, the activities they do, their level of physical fitness, and general lifestyle.  I consider how their body shape will change over the course of months as they lace down, and the shifting of their proportions in all dimensions.  It is a mixture of art and science that takes many years to develop, and even so I am constantly learning and improving. 

My background in engineering has played a big part in how I approach corsetry, both in designing the corsets and in practicing the lifestyle.  For me, it is all one continuum of disciplines, and my design sensibilities are based foremost on my own tightlacing experience.  My biggest outside influence in design has always been the work of my long time partner, the late Amy Crowder.  I still try to incorporate many of her traditions in my own designs today, and although our work diverged years ago I do think that some of her numerous well proven innovations cannot be much improved upon by anyone.  She really was that good.  She and I believed in many of the same design philosophies, some of which I have outlined here, and it is this set of rules that dictates much of the overall look and shape of the corsets that any corset designer produces.

But even with all of this a corset is still a corset, and like the aforementioned shoe, there are some prerequisite realities to designing one that will fit and do its job well that are unavoidable.  Fetish play designs do not necessarily follow all of these rules, but my daily wear corsets tend to be either female or male underbust or male redresseur models.  As a rule I do not make female overbust models for daily wear due to the inevitable functionality issues they produce with fit, mobility, and hygiene.  I discovered long ago that a combination of underbust corset and separate bra allow the female torso to rotate and move with the most ease, and so this is the way that I do it.  I do not use fashion over form, and so anatomy plays the largest role in dictating my designs.  Due to all of these reasons the overall look of my corsets is probably much more consistent than with many other designers.  I am fine with that, as the result of all this is to assure that my corsets are the longest lasting, best fitting, and most comfortable to wear that you can get anywhere at any price.  Even so, I still try to put improvements in every corset I make.

The process of design in corsetry is the same as in all other realms of invention.  Repetition breeds improvement like evolution itself.  When you reinvent the wheel often enough there are always changes to the product, which are usually so small or subtle as to not be noticed by anyone but the designer.  In a hands-on profession like custom corsetry the process tends to yield gradual change over years, rather than the kind of great leap innovation that is prized by large conglomerates and corporations.   One always strives for the exception to that rule, but this is usually how it goes.  And with good reason...

I always use myself as the test subject for introducing any radically new design idea.  If it can withstand my own personal use for five or six months then it is going to be good enough for my clients.   If the concept fails on me, then depending on my own judgment it may get refined to success or scrapped.  But this behind the scenes process of brainstorming and testing is what brings about improvement in the overall product.  It is a process that is reflected throughout the design world.

One issue that any garment maker has to contend with is the ever changing quality and availability of the materials we depend upon.  The garment industry has been going through abrupt shifts over the past 20 years, mainly from US based textile mills to Asian companies.  Most people already know that, but what has also changed are the kinds of materials and fabrics that the industry produces.  These days stretch fabrics are all the rage and the classic high thread count cotton twills that have always been the staple of the Corsetiere are now increasingly scarce.  Traditional Coutil can now cost up to $75 a yard, so I have had to innovate to continue to produce a very high quality fabric corset at a reasonable cost.  Other materials that are used in the internal parts of the corset suffer the same fluctuations of availability and quality, and keeping on one's toes to stay ahead of the process is a very challenging part of being a custom corset maker. 

In addition to the demands of design and corset construction I also design and maintain my own website, which does take a considerable amount of time on its own.   I started writing HTML in 1995 and I still prefer using it today.  In a world where CSS, XML, MMS, and scripts abound, I still like a light and quick loading HTML page.  More work in site maintenance, and old fashioned, like the code your great-grandparents wrote centuries ago.  I also use a typewriter and a rotary phone, but that is just the way I am.

Anyway, like I said, it's not rocket science, but close.  I am always happy to answer any questions people have about corsetry, and if you do have questions you would like to have answered by me in my upcoming weekly Vlog then please email them to me.  I will be glad to hear from you.

I often get asked by people who are considering the tightlacing lifestyle for themselves just how permanent the reshaping from tightlacing is.  Many may hope that the physiological alterations can be permanent, that you could possibly wear a corset religiously for a period of time, then stop and keep your hourglass shape for life.  Sadly this is just not the case.   There are some interesting realities to long term tightlacing, and some disappointments as well.  I will do my best to outline these concisely without being too medical or statistical.

There is nothing truly permanent about a tightlacers body shape without a corset, but instead I will be using the word 'persistence', because this is the accurate description of what is happening in reality.  The physical effects of tightlacing can have varying degrees of persistence, but nothing approaching permanence, that is at least not for all but a few very exceptional and noted tightlacers in the world, and I will touch on that later on.  It is a complex equation that determines the persistence of shaping for tightlacers which consists of numerous factors, among them are the age, body type, and body mass index of the individual, as well as their dedication to a consistent diet, level of physical fitness, and the specific habits of their tightlacing regimen. 

The greatest factor for persistence is the amount of reduction from the natural starting waist size.  As a rule, radical reduction requires an established dedication of time and lifestyle that does create the greatest persistence of the body shape without the corset.   Daily dedicated tightlacers that achieve and maintain a reduction of 30% or more off their natural beginning waist size will be given a higher degree of persistence when out of the corset.   This is all part of what my Cycle Method is all about. 

The corset recontours and holds your shape, and when out of the corset there is a 'snap back' effect where the body will try to spring back to its unsupported starting position.  How much or little snap back that you get is dependent on all of these factors, but generally the more completely that you are waist trained and the longer you are in the corset, the less the snap back that will occur.

All but a few of the highest reduction tightlacers I have personally known, including myself, go through seasons in their tightlacing life.  There are really only a few notable exceptions to this in the history of corsetry, that being only the very highest reduction and most radically shaped lifetime daily tightlacers, all of whom maintained their religious dedication to the corset through a very specific relationship with a strong overseeing partner.  Those who self lace such as myself have no such commitments, and as such we are best described as being 'seasonal'.  Sometimes we are smaller waisted and prefer to stay in our corsets most of the time, other times we go through periods of relaxing the regimen, or even pausing for periods of weeks or months depending on the circumstances.   The seasons come and go as they do, and during times of greater dedication to the corset there is greater and greater persistence of the shape as this period goes on.  By the basic rule of high reduction you have to spend a lot more time in the corset and keep a much more consistent size for a much longer time, and this is what causes the persistence of shape.

What is really happening when your body keeps its shape?  When you are a daily dedicated tightlacer you relocate your internal organs, a process which I describe in the essay Divide and Conquer, and you reposition your floating ribs, which I describe in The Hard Part.  But the third major change is the resizing and recontouring of your abdominal musculature.  A tightlacer who maintains a good amount of physical activity while wearing the corset will not lose as much muscle mass in the mid section because they still use those muscles for lifting, walking, and every other physical motion.  The muscle wall will get leaner, but it will also get denser, and become smaller over time to meet the internal shape of the corset.  If you are in the corset every day for many months at a consistently small size, when you remove the corset you are then dependent on the 'biological corset', and that is your reformed abdominal wall.  The leaner you are, that is, with a BMI (body mass index) of between 18 and 22, and particularly if you are very fit, the reshaped abdominal musculature will hold your internal structure much more closely to the corset shape, meaning that the snap back effect is lessened, and you also can reenter the corset more easily to return to the corseted size. 

As an example of this, I began my tightlacing life with a natural waist size of 31".  After 6 years I had reduced my waist size inside of the corset to a constant 20", a reduction of 11" or 36% off my starting natural waist size.  During the period when my corseted size was 20" I had a natural waist size of 25" when out of the corset, even for days on end.  For this example my snap back effect was 5", less than half of my original starting waist size.  When life issues demanded a long pause to my tightlacing I spent many months out of the corset for days or up to a week at a time and returned to a natural waist size of 27".  During that period I would try to wear a 22" corset about three times a week for about 8 to 14 hours or so, and this I found was all that was needed to keep my organ positions and maintain the basic shape.  Returning to daily tightlacing I was able to get back to a comfortable 21" waist size after about a week. 

Without moderate occasional lacing for maintenance, that is if I were to just stop tightlacing altogether, then after several weeks the internal organs would begin to reposition to their unsupported locations and shapes.  If a long time tightlacer decides to retire from the practice it is natural during this process to have varying degrees of discomfort and digestive distress as the body reorganizes itself, and in my opinion it is not a good idea to allow this to happen if you intend on ever getting back into the corset.  Consistency is the key to healthy living, and small waisted or not your body likes consistency.  If you reposition your organs to tightlace then your body will prefer that you keep them there.  This is why if you take a break from daily tightlacing for any reason you should try to do what I did and spend at least some time every week in the corset to maintain the overall shape, even if this is just sleeping in the corset a few nights a week.  It really does work, and it really does help keep your digestion running smoothly.

Conversely to these examples, if your BMI is over 25, or if you never wear the corset more than 60 hours per week, or if your overall reduction is modest, then the amount of persistence you experience may be small, or negligible.  The reality remains that if you want your body to maintain a particular desired shape it is necessary to really enforce it.  If you like the idea of a small waist without a corset, as I sometimes do myself, then you have to train down to a much smaller size to have that natural nipped waist appear, and you must still maintain that shape with a corset to a great extent.  Many of the classic bombshell beauties of the mid 20th century, among them Bettie Page, Marilyn Monroe, and Gina Lollobrigida obtained and maintained their legendary hourglass shapes in this way.

If you do spend a lot of time out of your corset the effects of breathing, eating, exercising, and otherwise living on the unsupported body will force everything back to its natural shape and configuration over time.  Using your abdominal muscles, and particularly high stress exercises like sit ups and crunches, will pull your lower coastals back outward and expand your floating ribs once again.  If you have gone through the trials of recontouring and repositioning them and prefer the shape it gives you then it is an investment to consider if you are contemplating to retire from the corset for good. 

Which leads to the last part of this essay, and that has to do with the very long term effects of tightlacing.  If you have worn a corset daily (either consistently or seasonally) and maintained a fairly high waist reduction for a decade or more then you are part of a very small and exclusive club of very dedicated individuals.   These are the lifetime tightlacers, and if you become one of them then you will be, to the truest extent, dependent on the corset.  For most of us it is for the entirety of our lives.  After decades of constant lacing it becomes hard to retire from the corset.  Not impossible, but hard.  For most who dedicate their lives to corsetry it becomes an everlasting part of their existence.  Some of these dependencies are psychological, such as I have described in The Spiritual Aspects of Tightlacing, but others are purely biological.  As I mentioned earlier in the article the body loves consistency, and if for you the greatest constant in your life has been the loving embrace of the corset then it is unlikely that you will tolerate being without it for long.  The smallest waisted people in the annals of tightlacing never really retire from it.  Usually with age we all become much more casual about it, but seldom does a lifetimer ever really hang up their laces for good. 

My customers tend to be long time tightlacers.  They are the most dedicated of all fetishists, and a very special group of completely different individuals.  There is no one aspect that creates a tightlacer, we each have our own reasons and motivations for why we do it. For some it is an essential part of their relationship with their partner.  For others it is about the relationship they have with themselves.  The only thing that we all share is our love of the corset, and those that live out their lives laced lead the front of a very long lineage; the most prestigious club of lifetime tightlacers.  Every day I am honored to be making the corsets that they rely on and adore.  It is a responsibility and a privilege that I take very seriously, and I have dedicated my life to furthering, supporting, and educating the tightlacing world.  In ending this article I want to thank all of you who read my writings and give me feedback.  It is all I can hope for that we all do our best to live by truth and understanding, and I certainly will do what I can to encourage people to be skeptical, learn, experience life, and think for themselves.  So, enjoy wearing your corsets, and my thanks to all of you, my wonderful tightlacing friends.

I like to travel in my corset when I can, and I love to fly.   Years ago I began to ponder the dilemma of the new airport security measures on tightlacers and designed a true tightlacing corset that contained no steel so that it would presumably pass through airport metal detectors.  The idea was to allow the wearer to be discrete and avoid the security hassles if they wanted to wear a corset on the plane, but the newer security measures ended up precluding the garment. 

I found instead a pretty simple method for air travel that I have used to much success.  I make sure to wear a simple dress or pantsuit when I travel, and before entering the security line I just go to the rest room and remove the corset.  I get in line, put the corset in the x-ray with everything else, go through security, and on the other side I go to the rest room again and put the corset back on.  It is really the easiest solution with the least chance of any problems.  Unless of course you forget to go to the rest room and take off the corset, which did happen to me on one occasion.

It was one of those Kodak moments....  I was running late through the baggage check-in and had been in a long security line to get to the gate.  By the time I got to the front of the line I realized that I was still wearing my corset.  Oh crap.  Well, at that moment I thought ‘what the hell’ and just took off my 21" belt, pulled up my shirt, and unlaced the corset.  The spectacle brought every wide eye within sight directly upon me as I did so, but it did not stall my trip through security one second.  Everyone on duty wanted to talk to me, but I wasn’t hanging around for chit chat!  On the other side I performed the second half of the normally fail proof plan and put the corset back on in the rest room.  On the way out a woman who saw me at security asked about the corset, and I did decide to have a chat about it then. 

So if you remember to remove your corset before security, you should have no problems with airport travel.  Except for the high cost, constant gate changes, delays, lost luggage, and flight cancellations of course.  Happy traveling!

Tightlacing is a discipline that has many facets.  It alters the body in very obvious ways that are pleasing to the wearer and observers in creating classically feminine curves.  But what you would not expect from an inexperienced perspective is that when done as a daily practice the rituals of wearing a corset and tending to your own body create a new intimacy with one’s own self.  I have often called this the spiritual aspect of tightlacing, and it can have very positive emotional and psychological effects. 

I made my first corset when I was 23, and I wore corsets my entire adult life because I greatly enjoy the feeling of compression, but I had never attempted to wear them daily until my mid 30’s.   When I did begin tightlacing it was originally to fight the new threat of the otherwise inevitable and unavoidable family shape, the old ‘spare tire’.   By the time I was 35 my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage was coming to the forefront and there was just not enough Nordictrac in the world that could stop my body from putting all the fat that it would ever store right around my mid section.  I took my best corset that I had at that time and put it on every day for increasingly longer periods of time.  After a couple weeks of getting used to doing all that one does in a day while in the corset I became aware of other things.  I found that when I wore the corset I was calmer, and as the days went by I wanted to keep the corset on for longer periods.  When I was out of the corset I felt like a turtle out of it’s shell....  the corset had become a like armor, a part of me that I really did not want to be without.  Late in the day when I would relax in the corset I began to feel a new sense of wellbeing that is difficult to describe.  It feels like being nurtured perhaps, a feeling of solace, of belonging more wholly to one’s own self.  This experience is what I have come to define as the ‘spiritual aspect of tightlacing’. 

This spiritual aspect of tightlacing has lead to a good rule that I follow for myself that I recommend for others to follow as well, which is that I never wear the corset when I am upset, sad, or ill.  If you are feeling bad for any reason I suggest that you get out of the corset.  The reason being that it is important to never associate the experience of tightlacing with negative feelings or situations.  When you have to deal with the heavy stuff of life it is best to take a break from waist training and wait for the clouds to clear.

Also, it is very important to feel good about yourself, so please be proud to show off your new shape.  Many people who begin to tightlace find that although they love what they see in the mirror that they are afraid of what their friends, neighbors, or family may think about their wearing a corset.  It is true that this is a practice that is not well understood by those outside of the corset community, but fear not.  You have a new topic of conversation, and your tales of tightlacing will not only educate those around you, but you can feel better about yourself for your accomplishments by making it a part of who you are.

Most of all, enjoy the journey.  Remember that this is your path, and you are the captain of your own vessel.  Steer it well, and it will give you joy in return. 

People say that size matters, and if you're talking about corsets the words on nearly everyone's lips are "how small is her waist?" The truth is that waist size in corseting is so very deceptive that it is completely irrelevant. Why? The photo below taken of me at Laguna Beach in March of 2010 makes me seem quite small waisted, does it not? 

(Photo by Michael Keye)

The true story here is that just after this photo was taken a few young people approached and asked if I had "been on Oprah"...  I said "No, I have not been on Oprah".  They paused for a second and looked at each other, then one blurted out "Yes you were!"  I still stick to my claim that as of yet I have not been on Oprah, but Cathie Jung was.

Make your own best guess.... How small is my waist? Is it 18"? Maybe a close rival for Cathie Jung's 16" nipped waistline?  Were those young people on the beach just crazy from the heat?  Well, in this photo I am actually cinched down to about 21" measured around the outside of my clothes. What? That can't be right! Well, this is what I mean about waist size. The truth is that unless you are a professional tailor or seamstress you can't tell how small a 23", 16" or 30" waist is. So why does everyone care about the numbers?

I have seen many claims about some contemporary tightlacers and their reputed sizes, such as a celebrity achieving a 16" waist as example, but let us be mathematically clear and say that a 16" circle viewed edge-on is just 5" across, or about the size of a coffee tin. An average person can produce a 16" circle by touching the tips of their two thumbs and middle fingers together, like this.....

Now Cathie Jung at her absolute smallest could achieve that, but it took her a very long time to get that small with very substantial corsets, and any other claim to that level of reduction by anyone should be verified on camera with a measuring tape first.

The purpose of this essay is to explain why waist size is irrelevant, and to do so I have to emphasize that the entire allure of the corset to begin with is not the waist size but the pleasing proportion of waist to hip size. Therefore the best way to describe how 'small' a tightlacer is would be to define their shape as a ratio of waist to hip measurement. Historically the ideal is a ratio of 1:2, or having a waist size one half that of hip size. At the time of writing this my waist is about 23" and my hips 40",* giving me a pleasing 1:1.74 ratio. Cathie I would estimate has a ratio of at least 1:2.8 if not more, which gives her that very dramatic shape, but you could have an equally dramatic effect with a larger waist by having a similar ratio yourself. For example, a woman with a 20" waist and 56" hips would have the same shape, just as dramatic, and identical proportions. So let's just agree that size just does not matter. Beauty is all in the SHAPE. After all, as Francis Bacon had written, "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
 
 

* In July of 2008 I had an average waist measurement of 22", which was 23" around the outside of the corset.  After some weight loss and new corset shape I had reduced down to 19" by April of 2009 inside the corset, which gave me 20" outside.  In the summer of 2010 I had relaxed my lacing again to be more physically active, and have since varied my lacing between 21" and 22".
 

So you're fascinated with tightlacing and think that you want to give it a try. Great, but being responsible you would of course hit the internet and Google it first to find out the facts. You might even Wikipedia tightlacing to get the straight poop. But jeeze... what's all this? Drawings of organs, antique photos of livers, and reprinted 19th century medical texts and websites about the dangers of tightlacing are all over the place to turn your stomach before you even have a chance to compress it a little. Yes, you have discovered the world that corset fanciers have made for themselves; a Pandora's box of ancient articles and tomes of text written by modern day corset 'experts' telling you what you have to do, must do, and must never do, all based on their own encyclopedic knowledge of corsets, even though they themselves have never been tightlacers, and may have never even worn a real corset in their life.  Do yourself a favor and be a sceptic.  Don't believe everything that you read.... especially on the internet, and especially about tightlacing.

This is the reason I founded The Tightlacing Society as an organization with a completely restricted membership to be a forum for those who DO tightlace, and to relate both my own personal experience in the subject as well as those of individuals that share my lifestyle. Only people who have real world experience in this practice can tell you what it is really all about, and only a tightlacer can give you educated, good, and proper advice about corsets and tightlacing.  Ignore the Victorian tripe.  I am a modern tightlacer, and to be honest I really do not think there is much in my own experience for me to relate to the way people could have done it 130 years ago. My reasons for wearing a corset are different, and I live in a different age in a different way.  I do not wear a corset 24/7, and I would not recommend that anyone do so, although some do for their own reasons. I myself am not only a tightlacer with modest reduction, but I am also very active and physically fit. I know that a proper nutritional diet and exercise are necessary to life and health, and I am very health conscious. In my experience, modern tightlacers take health and nutrition very seriously, and are as a group more in touch with their bodies than most. Therefore I can say in my own experience that tightlacing can be very fulfilling and rewarding on many physical and psychological levels, and when done correctly and moderately is not at all unhealthy or dangerous.

"But what about the medical stuff? I mean, doctors know more than you do, right?"
Well, yes and no. A doctor is a human being just like you, and doctors have their own individual education, opinion, and prejudice. Again I can only relate my own experience here and I will say that in all my years as an active tightlacer I have always shared and discussed my experience with my doctors, all of them internists. I often wear my corset to my regular exams, and their first hand examinations of my anatomy have led them to feel that there could be nothing in my shape to create any medical conditions or problems, and my annual blood work has also shown that there is no impedance in organ function as a result of tightlacing.   But don't take my word for it..... The world's smallest waisted person's  husband is an orthopedic surgeon who has acted as her tightlacing overseer for over 25 years.

"But wearing a corset moves your organs all around... that just cannot be healthy, right?"
Reducing your waist size significantly, and by that I would mean by 5" or more if you are of normal body weight, does reposition your organs. After all, it all has to go somewhere, and if it is not in your waistline it has to go up or down. But a lot of things move your organs around, such as breathing, eating, sitting, exercising, being pregnant, or even being overweight. The truth is that your organs have to move around or you would not be able to move around. You'd be rigid as a board otherwise, so your body is capable of rearranging itself quite significantly over time, which is what tightlacing is all about. Just as your feet will mold their shapes to your preferred shape of shoe, so will your torso rearrange itself to fit the shape of your corset. This is why it is so important to have a tightlacing corset made by a corset maker that understands anatomy and can fit a corset to your specific shape and take into consideration all of the minute physical issues that are encountered in creating this new body shape for you. There is much for them to consider, and if your corset maker is not up to snuff then you will not be happy with what they give you. A properly made corset is very comfortable and supporting, and that is very necessary if you intend on wearing the garment for long periods of time.
 
 
 
 

My Three Simple Rules of Tightlacing
(July 2008)

There are just a few simple guidelines that I have established for advising those who wish to begin tightlacing or already wear a corset but want to reduce their size. They are:

1. Invest in a true heavy duty tightlacing corset. Forget Ebay or Amazon, you will not find them there. There are only a few people in the world that can still make you a real tightlacing corset and they are all completely custom made. A real tightlacing corset can be very expensive, but it is well worth the cost if you intend to wear it a lot or really reduce.

2. Take your time and listen to your body. It takes a very long time to get significant reduction, so do it slowly. You cannot just put on a corset and dramatically reduce your waist size. It takes time to get used to breathing in a corset, eating in a corset, and doing everyday things as well. To get significant reduction requires several corsets over many months and years, each with a slightly more dramatic shape than the last. After you get so accustomed to one you graduate to the next with a little more reduction in the waist and a little more radical contour. Over time this new shape can become more persistent as your body adjusts, very gradually, to the space it is given. In the beginning there can be discomfort as your body protests and it is important to regulate the time you spend wearing the corset. Repositioning the floating ribs at the bottom of your ribcage, for example, is a particularly trying part of the process, but this discomfort is temporary, and given your will to enforce the new shape your body will comply. The key here is to be sensible and moderate your reduction. Do it slowly, and the discomfort will be minimal, even nonexistent for some. Your body will thank you if you give it the time it needs to adjust to a new life in the corset.

3. Know your limits. Not everyone can be any shape. It depends a lot on your anatomy, your level of activity, your age, your skeletal structure, your body type, and of course your level of commitment. The key is to get to a shape that you find very pleasing and that feels right for you as well. After many years I realized that I was at the size I should be, and so I stopped reducing. You should do the same. Dream of course, but also be realistic. If your life becomes less fulfilling because of the corset, then it is time to take it off for a while. Remember that you are in charge, so do be responsible and know when it is time to ease up. 

 One common myth is that corseted women in the late 19th century were so much smaller waisted than modern tightlacers, which is not true. It is most likely that the smallest waisted women of all time are those of the latter 20th century and today, mainly due to the superior construction of modern tightlacing corsets and a greater understanding of diet and nutrition. The shape of corsets in the Victorian era were subject to the dictates of fashion rather than anatomy, and were for the most part also cheaply constructed and inferior by contemporary standards. I will make it clear that there were some magnificent corsets made at that time by a few great corset makers that catered to the very wealthy and privileged few, but the vast majority of corsets made and worn during this period were mass produced, inexpensive, and generically sized. These everyday corsets were by the nature of their construction often uncomfortable to wear and did not produce the dramatic shapes we think of from that time. Which leads back to the Victorian corset myth of size. It is believed by many to this day that women of the Victorian era were so tightly laced that unfortunate young women succumb to "death by corset", meeting their untimely fates from exploded stomachs, ruptured livers, and impaled by broken ribs. None of these stories really seem plausible, but the perception of danger was heightened by the notion of the extremely small sizes of the corsets. 

Photographic retouching was a very common and often necessary art in the 19th century. Many portrait photographers were also painters, and these skills were required to correct and enhance the portraits for the demands of their customers. Before photography, a portrait was subject to the artistic eye of the painter and the demands of the subject. Photography offered new realism to portraiture that was very often a bane to the vanity of those wishing a stunning portrait. In this regard there was no greater desire for the proper lady than to be seen as the smallest in waist that one could possibly be, Polaire being no exception.

The process was simple. First a photographic negative of the subject was taken on a glass plate. A particularly skilled retouch artist could alter this original negative by applying translucent inks. Another method involved creating a silver positive printed on paper from the original negative, then painting over the image with an oil based paint to make the corrections. Then a second photographic negative was taken of the altered print, and a second silver positive print made of that negative. 

Other photos.....

Below is another altered corset photo, probably from the 1930's. 
In this case the original print was simply cut out and rephotographed:

The photograph below shows this same woman in an unaltered image from the same series, you can see her actual shape (also please note the fantastic shoes she's wearing!):

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