How to Lace your Corset, Madam

I came across a lovely picture from the Spirella magazine of 1957, that attempts to demonstrate the ease of adjusting a back-lacing corset. I have never found it that easy ! The best solutions are to use the Camp method of lacing, to be in the fortunate position of having a maid to perform the task, or alternatively an agreeable husband. However, even your most ardent admirer will, I'm afraid, tire over time. The practical solution is the front-lacing corset, and it does have the advantage that the secrets of your figure are not revealed through the taught fabric of one's skirt when bending over (the visibility of underwear).

Always a contortionist's trick, Spirella attempted to convince their clientele otherwise in 1957. (Click on the middle picture)

Perhaps this page should have been entitled "How, not to lace your corsets" as the following examples clearly demonstrate!

The long-lasting tradition of lacing one's corsets with a knee or a foot in the back is not to be recommended since so many corset wearers have bad backs. Even the "Carry On" films fall into this trap as a grunting Amelia Bayntun is laced into her corset by Joan Sims playing the part of Esme Crowfoot 'Corsetiere'. The sound track, "Hold it, hold it, that's right" is spoken by Miss Sims against the director's added sound-track of straining material, and poor Miss Bayntun's grunts!

   

 

These pictures all have it wrong. Nobody was ever laced in this fashion, but the legend persists. Most of the older pictures were made in stereo pairs, and come from the 'What the Butler saw' genre.

At least the gentlemen (right and below) show admirable commitment. Look at those bulging muscles!

 

   

    

The two girls at the lower left, although in very posed photographs, illustrate a little slice of social history. The girl on the left looks streetwise, I hate to say it, but the street might even be her place of work. She knows how to lace up her corsets and probably is  highly skilled at removing them as well. The vacant lovely in the middle belongs to an entirely more genteel set. She holds her laces with a "where's my maid?" or "where's Mummy?" expression on her face for she has never had to dress herself before and does not intend to start knotting her own laces now! Note, however, one thing in common with both ladies, and a risk for all corset wearers and that is the prodigious length of lacing that must ultimately be concealed, least it trail behind one embarrassingly!

 

The girl on the right above is definitely not 'somebody to bring home to see mother!' The level concentration and the tongue reveal how difficult back-laced corsets can be although Spirella's matron at the top of the page would suggest otherwise.

 

As an interesting aside here, I remember a corsetiere who told me of a customer's corsets that had been returned for repair. Corsets are rather intimate and do get soiled and therefore must be laundered prior to return. Although this lady's corsets had been cleaned, there was permanent discoloration outside the corset on the back laces at the bottom. The cause for this stumped my friend until the old lady explained that those were the marks left by her husband's boot when he tightened the laces!!

 

At last we start to get it right although the corset seems to be something of a mystery! The two Spirella maidens (1920 -  left) are certainly trying to do something to each others foundations, but neither the ladies, nor the photographer seem to know what! The lady below seems hardly better informed, but perhaps the saleslady gave her a clue. The girls on the right have it worked out. Do it yourself or get a maid to help.

 

 

If you an actress, all the grimaces in the world are fairly well wasted if the victim appears to be unaware of your efforts!

 

 

Is a maid, one's mother or, even better, an ardent swain, the answer to this problem. More realistically, a long-suffering husband will be pressed into service. But whoever is the lacer, please observe a few basic rules:-

 

Don't place the knee in the victim's back, not unless you wish to exacerbate any back problem that the wearer might have, and set yourself up for similar problems.

 

Unlike the two examples above, don't pull the laces away from the eyelets. The friction will overcome your attempts to tighten the laces. As S.H. Camp and the Jenyns family knew, from their excellent fan-lacing corsets, the tension should be applied along the laces.

 

Even in the risqué world of cheesecake (left from the 1990's and 1950's), they still get it wrong!

The last word about lacing one's corsets should perhaps come from Spirella who, in 1950 (left) said "Don't", but in 1960 (right - Spirella publicity in June 1960) had forgotten the basic principles and once again we see the knee in action.

         

Spirella in fantasy (left) and reality (right)

The solution?

 The corsetieres that I know have almost exclusively sold front-laced corsets, so the answer is not to buy a back-laced one!