The title picture was taken only three years after Richard Gordon's book was published and the sight would be familiar to many corsetieres, doctors, and long-suffering husbands. I am not for a second suggesting that this lady is actually bald and toothless, however, a fact of life in the 1950's was that the majority of adults needed dentures from their 30's. Varicose veins also were extremely common and untreated surgically, thus an immovable anchor was required to hold the powerful elastic stockings of the day. That anchor would need to be a corset or a firm girdle at the very least. For many women, the corset might have held in the burgeoning abdomen, but its primary function was to support the stockings. Nevertheless, the effect of the foundations on the women in question is rather pronounced, and her matronly bosom has been raised by at least six inches!

Far from criticising the corsetiere as was the case in the Victorian days of tight-lacing, doctors were often quoted as praising their efforts. In a passage from the Spirella magazine of November 1931 comes the following testimonial:-

"It's no fun growing old" 

My mother use to lament this fact. No youngster would even understand what she was talking about, but as we approach and pass Middle Age, these words start to possess an awfully familiar ring.

The following letters illustrate the trials and tribulations of growing old.

The older woman is prey to many ailments, not the least embarrassing of which is sporadic size changes due to water retention. Alstons, famous manufacturer of rubber corsetry, which was surprisingly popular in Europe in the 1960’s (and in Latin America today), marketed a corset with two front panels: a thin one, and a wider one to accommodate weight fluctuations or simply the desires of comfort. One of my Mother-in-law’s bridge friends was prone to these fluctuations. My husband recounts meeting this lady on numerous occasions as a child. Large by any standards, her clothes were always a close fit. On one visit, obviously during a water retention episode, he recalls that her blue silk (rayon ?) suit was so tight that it appeared to have been sprayed onto her body. Every hook and eye of her brassiere and the bones of her corsets were embossed on the shiny material. A brooch had been fastened across the top of the jacket to stop it parting, and discreetly hidden safety pins backed up the straining buttons. In such a condition she wheezed constantly and her arms jutted stiffly from her body almost rigid in the confines of the taut silk. Even the heavy perfume that she wore failed to disguise a vague almost pungent odour which my husband remembers to this day. Indeed, growing old gracefully, is not easy.

Osteoporosis is another scourge of the elderly. My corsetiere tells me of several clients, whose first act of the day is to don their corsets, and their last act before retiring to take them off again. An old family friend was such a person. This lady was outstanding in her appearance. Although in her 70’s, she possessed a slim and elegant figure. Her clothes were her extravagance, old-fashioned, yet tasteful and expensive confections of patterned chiffons and silks. Her hair was like a spun silver web and her stocking seams ruler straight down to her court shoes. Only the complete rigidity of her torso indicated that she was corseted from shoulders to thigh. She made no secret of the fact, and would jokingly say to younger women how Spencer had looked after her figure tapping her unyielding stomach. Her corsets, as one might suppose, were, within the constraints of their functionality, as beautifully, yet conservatively cut as her clothes. The corsetiere’s dream-come-true is the lace overlaid corset, which is extremely expensive, being in effect, two corsets. This lady had two corsets in white overlaid pink satin, and two more in black overlaid purple. The sturdy buckles, straps and bones, almost enhanced the appearance of her stays rather than detracting from it. Presumably these creations were thrown away after she died, as has been the fate of so many ‘collector’s items’. So many elderly women put a ludicrous value on effectively worthless heirlooms, photographs and nick-nacks picked up from so-called antique shops. If only they knew that they might be wearing their most valuable assets!  

Getting Dressed

(Before we begin this section, please let me inform you that the garments below are not my regular wear, simply items that an elderly lady might have worn in the 1950's - 1960's).

After 26 very happy years with my husband, there is one thing that really irritates me (and most other women). Picture the scene; we are going to a formal dinner. We need to leave the house by 7.30. I start preparing the myriad of feminine details that a lady requires, not just hours before the event, but days before in discussion with friends and appointments at the hairdresser. My husband will turn up, 20 minutes before we need to leave. Leap in and out of the shower in a time that it would take me to decide on which shampoo to use, and put on underpants, socks and dinner suit within five minutes. "OK Darling; let's go".  Of course, he will then pick up the keys of his tiny sports car, rather than some transport that will accommodate a mature women, complete with expensive dress, expensive, and not necessarily flexible underwear, and a tall hair-do; at HIS request I might add!! 

"I'm sorry, my Dear. How thoughtless of me" he says as he reluctantly relinquishes the keys of the tiny car for the old Rover that will at least allow a lady to enter and exit gracefully.

to get from                                              THIS                                                          to                THIS   is neither quick nor easy!

The The underwear shown in the picture, which incidentally weighs in at an amazing 1200 gr., (over 2 1/2 pounds) and that's without a slip (petticoat), has a total of 18 hooks-and-eyes, three sets of lacing, a zip, eight buckles and (thankfully) only four suspenders. In reality, six suspenders would have been required and, indeed, were even recommended in the instructions on how to don the support stockings. These 'Elbeo' masterpieces are described as regular, however, they are stronger than most modern shapers.

The excerpts above are an experiences completely alien to the youth of today. Bunty's niece came close to the experience when her stockings very nearly pulled her girdle down. Ideally, brassiere, corset and stockings are well-fitted and act in concert to support the wearer, the tensional forces being distributed over the wear's torso and legs with the concentration of forces occurring exactly where it is needed. Occasionally, particularly in the elderly, weight fluctuations can alter the distribution of these tensions since the cost of new garments is prohibitive. A corsetiere once noted that a client's stockings were stretching the straps of her brassiere, so loose had her corset become. Properly fitted, foundations are the perfect support. Bunty's niece commented that they formed an exo-skeleton, not a word I had ever associated with corsetry, but actually not inapproprite.

How often at weddings, and even more so at funerals, do the elderly appear in ill-fitting clothes, fashionable possibly two decades before. I particularly remember one old biddy, an acquaintance of my mother, whose wrinkled face and flaccid neck questing curiously from the collar of her jacket, looked uncommonly like a turtle. Her head was quite animated, yet any movement in her torso was hidden by her suit and skirt that must have been two sizes too large for her.

In my regular contacts with the elderly, I have noticed how badly out of shape so many old women have become. Typically, they are hunched, their (remaining) bosom hidden in the stooped concavity of their chests, with their stomachs protruding like footballs. What happened to the ram-rod straight harridan of yesterday? Was she simply a figment of our imagination? No: These women come from a generation that were not used to corsets; they were born too late, but they never benefited from the ‘fitness craze’ of the last three decades. They are ‘in betweens’. Bunty and I refer to these shapeless women as the 'lost generation' or 'human question marks' on account of their posture. Far from forcing their daughters into uncompromising foundation garments, the opposite was true. Born between about 1920 and 1940, the daughters persuaded their Mothers to ‘burn their bras’ without offering an acceptable alternative. The results of this postural disaster crowd the Old Peoples’ Homes of today. Our Grandmothers knew the benefits of a corset, our daughters appreciate the benefits of exercise, but a woman cannot retain her shape without either.  

If you enjoy mathematics (which I loathe, although I must say my mental arithmetic is quicker than most check-out girls' cash registers), my husband's graph will appeal. Once he had laboriously explained it to me, it does answer a number of questions about 'who wore what, when'.

"Growing Old Gracefully" 

"I was expecting someone about sixty with tinted hair, an enamelled face, tight corsets, like a sort of toughened up Queen Victoria" quoted the girl in John Wyndam's book, 'The Trouble with Lichen' (1960).

Growing old gracefully, comes easily to some, but not to others. Vanity pays a heavy price in later years, and the aging actress may be one of the hardest hit in this respect.

detail by a reporter who visited her at home. Her face was almost immobile from make-up; her wig perched atop her head equally motionless. She could barely totter so tightly was she corseted and clothed. She never sat during the interview, but simply leant against a piano, cunningly placed so that her movements never required more than a few steps.

Margaret Dumont, on the other hand, wore the corsets appropriate to her age and peer group. She was genuinely 'classy', and suffered the outrageous antics of the Marx Brothers with every emotion from stoicism to hysterics. She was ungraciously called 'Old Ironsides' by way of reference to her corsets. The attitude of the Marx Brothers towards Margaret illustrates a not-untypical irreverence for the elderly, combined with a genuine respect. Harpo, in particular, used to hide her wig, and on more than one occasion, the furious actress would chase Harpo, towel around her head, as fast as her corsets would allow. Reduced to tears, the Brothers would re-group and apologise profusely. The stunts would resume soon afterwards. It's a fascinating glimpse into the world of youthful exuberance, elderly restraint and the Mother-figure.

The elderly, and particularly, the elderly in the public eye, have resorted to all manner of deceptions to convince their admirers that nothing has changed. The list of artificial appliances is almost endless, and in some cases highly inventive. Books have even been written on the topic that covers nose moulds, latex stockings and some ingenious solutions to ‘that’ problem. After all, an elderly and tightly corseted woman cannot sit at a formal dinner for five hours without the call of nature becoming completely unbearable.

Marlene Dietrich was described in her biography as possessing an extraordinary girdle that covered most of her torso and legs. It was used when she wore very tight trousers during public and rare stage appearances. I remember seeing her on television in a tight blue satin trouser outfit. She still danced well, however, the outfit had the strange appearance of being inflated, so smooth was the surface without any lines showing whatsoever.

"Married to your Corsets" 

When the baby boy, who would become Kapitan-Leutnant Walter Schwieger, was born, his mother looked at the infant and famously said “How nice. Now take it away”. Within a day, her once-elegant figure was returned to its pre-pregnancy glory courtesy of the corsets she had worn half a year before. This feat would neither have been easy, nor comfortable, but with her attitude towards the birth and plenty of strong maids to dress her, it was quite achievable.

This act would ensure that Frau Schwieger would never actually regain her true figure without aid. She, like all her peers, were as firmly married to their corsets as they were to their husbands. This lady would have been born around 1865, however, reliance on corsets was common until the end of the First World War. This meant that even as late as the 1980’s there were numerous elderly women who literally could not live uncorsetted, largely due to the post-pregnancy desire to appear as if nothing had happened as quickly as possible.

A female inmate of Singapore’s notorious Changi prison during the Second World War was absolutely distressed, not by the treatment of her jailers, or the loss of freedom, but by the loss of her corsets without which she was excessively uncomfortable. Eventually, she bartered a horde of cigarettes for another lady’s corset.  

 

In Edith Thronton McLeod's excellent book 'Beauty After Forty', she speaks simply and eloquently about how to look your best. Poor Miss McLeod would shudder at the female life forms that one encounters on the streets of Britain today.   Certainly no great lover of boned corsets herself, she is, however, adamant about torso control and well-fitted foundations. She illustrates her book quite charmingly with the adjacent pictures.   My husband was amused by the picture on the right. "It's sad when grow old and so confused that you wear you corsets over your dress!" Really.   What we see on the right is an extreme example of the advertisements showing a lady wearing a girdle over her knickers. It's simply for modesty.