Waists and Corsets.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 107, 20 June 1885, Page 5

Waists and Corsets.

A UDT correspondent writes : -Pinched, waists, far from; becoming rarer by reasOri of t;hestricture£ Reentry bestowed on toghV ' laoing by lectures ifrconneotiori with " The National HealthSooiety '* and other persons, interested inthe WeUbeing of our sex, seem 1 to me to, be more than ever,' Regerit-strei&t will |any afternoon turnish countless iUusfcra&ojiS of the prevaland'd' of the folly whioh alarmi$B ; tell women 'must result in a brcakdowri'of 'health, and, worse still, carry its consequences into future as affecting the .health?, and lives of unborn generations. AlLinvain are the warnings uttered to many, for one half the sex turns a deal ear to the charmer, charm he or she never so wiselyt I .made^ Borne notes the other day from ah, authentic source concerning the standard number of inches that girth the respective J waist of certain acknowledged modelsj of feminine loveliness, beginning with the •'Venus of Milo." Compared with more than one model of correct masculine development, the waist of the i woman was found to be largor than that of the man by one or more inches. I suppose \ my lady readers will hardly crodit this, but it is an authenticated . fact nevertheless. Inexcusable as pinching is in the case of women, and deplorable for the reasons I have assigned, one condemns and pities the foolish oreatures who resort to it at one and the same time j but we have nothing but well-merited oontempt for the dandy who tries to reduce the natural size of his waiat by encasing it in "lasting," satin, silk, enclosing steols and whalebones. I am told that more men wear stays in these degenerate days than the public is aware of, and the information came from a German, who is a wholesale manufacturer of corsets, Going to give an order for a pair of corsets for myself, I noticed some very handsome black satin corsets, beautifully embroidered, which were lying on the work table. " They are rather a large size," I remarked, and then was told the stays were intended for a gentleman, who ordered a new pair about every two months or so, — pink, blue, red, and even whito satin corsets in turn, the wearer being exceedingly exigent as to fit and condition, and casting his corsets aside so soon as the gloss wore off the satin. Two and three guineas per pair was the price charged for them. The German I refer to as a maker of corsets is aided by several female assistants. The dexterity of the man in working the sewing machine and putting in whalebones, cord, and steel was really astonishing ; and ho explained that he always used whalebone in the construction of tbo corsets he manufactured. Few of us are, I think, at all aware of the value of this article of commerce. The German corset-maker said he had whalebono in his warehouse at this time representing £3,000. The great value of suitable corsets as a support to the physically weak, and to improve those who are unfortunately misshapen, is not disputed. Deformed persons more especially women, are always morbidly sensitive in respect to their defects, and the skill of anatomical corset-makers is often requisitoned, and wisely, to remedy these malformations so far as may be. I have known several deformed women of my acquaintance and some children who derived the greatest possible advantage I both in appearance and health from the adoption of corsets made specially to suit individual cases. Opposite a certain anatomical corset maker's lines of carriages stand every afternoon. Thia firm eend3 accomplished assistants to attend ladies in their own homes, but the principal tells mo she never does so except when her services are required by a member of the Royal Family.