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 taut 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)
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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!
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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. |
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At least calling in a gentleman to assist results in quite admirable commitment. Look at those bulging muscles and the expressions of strain, yet the ladies appear quite unmoved by the experience. Only the uniformed gentleman on the right appears poker-faced. Discipline is a wonderful thing!
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Let us see if the film industry understands the basic principles.
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If you are an actress, all the grimaces in the world are fairly well waisted if the victim appears to be unaware of your efforts as the men found out above. |
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Is a maid, one's mother (immortalised in the excellent film 'Titanic') or, even better, an ardent swain, the answer to this problem. Only Rose's mother seems to understand the basic principles. James Cameron, the director, is awfully good at getting these details correct. (Interestingly, the scene was originally shot with Rose lacing her Mother, however, it was agreed that the mother lacing Rose was far more appropriate to the plot). More realistically, a long-suffering husband will be pressed into service.
| Hanging onto the four-poster bedpost features in the classic film "Gone with the wind" (where Hattie MacDaniels is encouraged to lace Vivien Leigh - above right). Even Rose held onto something on the Titanic. Of course, there is no need to hang on if the laces are pulled properly, that is sideways. Perhaps it was the risk of fainting as one's internal organs are compressed into a space the size of a grapefruit that forced the maidens to hold on. Returning to the first example in this series where Joan Sims exhorts her client to "hold it, hold it;" was this a throw-back to the bed-post days? |
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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 girl below on the right really is getting nowhere. The corset may even be upside-down! The girls on the right have it worked out. Do it yourself or get a maid to help.
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Even the Muppets get it wrong as Ms. Piggy's corset is nearly pulled off her back. |
The last word about lacing one's corsets should perhaps come from Spirella who, in 1950 (right) said "Don't", but in 1960 (left - 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 in the decades since the 1960's, so the answer is not to buy a back-laced one!