Corsets: Tight Lacing!

Corsets: Tight Lacing!

.

American Victorian women loved their tiny waistlines and high fashion (and certainly, so did men). I’ve shared a few blog posts, already, about the ills of corsets, the campaigns of physicians and other dress reformers against health-destroying corsets. But billed as health-promoting as well as fashionable, corsets were deeply rooted in American Victorian society, and no one wanted to be the first with a thick waistline. Heaven forbid they “go natural” when waspish waistlines were the height of fashion.

.

.

Corsets: Tight Lacing, or Tightlacing:

.

Tightlacing (also called corset training) is the practice of wearing a tightly laced corset. It is done to achieve cosmetic modifications to the figure and posture.

.

~ Wikipedia

.

.

Kristin Holt | Corsets: Tight Lacing! (1879). "What makes her temper short and sharp? What causes her to fret and carp, And on the smallest ills to harp?-- Tight lacing!" The Des Moines Register, 1879

.

1879 Poetry about Corsets

.

American Victorians loved poetry. This poetic look at “What Beauty’s Lines in Her Destroy” blames everything that could go amiss with a woman’s appearance and health on blasted tight lacing. Published in The Des Moines Register on June 10, 1879, this poetry illustrates both the Victorian sense of humor and the growing awareness that corsets may well be at the root of a woman’s worst health challenges.

.

Kristin Holt | Corsets: Tight Lacing! Home and Women: poetry about tight lacing. Part 1 of 3.

1) The Des Moines Register of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 10, 1879.

Kristin Holt | Corsets: Tight Lacing! (1879). Home and Women: poetry about tight lacing. Part 2 of 3.

2) The Des Moines Register of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 10, 1879.

Kristin Holt | Corsets: Tight Lacing! (1879). Home and Women: poetry about tight lacing. Part 3 of 3.

3) The Des Moines Register of Des Moines, Iowa, on June 10, 1879.

.

.

Related Articles Corsets: Tight Lacing! (1879)

.

Kristin Holt | Keep Her From Crying Off (1880)

Kristin Holt | Corsets: Damaging Woman's Intelligence (1880)

Kristin Holt | Defect in Form: Evils of Tight Lacing (a.k.a. Corsets), 1897

Kristin Holt | Corsets in the Era: Yes, even Maternity Corsets

Kristin Holt | Lady Victorian's Secret

Kristin Holt | Victorian Ladies Underwear

Kristin Holt | How Did Victorian Stockings Stay Up?

Kristin Holt | Victorian Fashion New Colors

Kristin Holt | Victorian Ladies Wore Costumes ~ Every Day

Kristin Holt | Pencil Skirts, Victorian Style

Kristin Holt | Ladies Fashions: Huge Sleeves of the 1890s

Kristin Holt | Victorian America's Sense of Humor

Kristin Holt | For Sale: WIFE (Part 2)

Kristin Holt | Victorian Era: the American West

.

Updated March 2022
Copyright © 2017 Kristin Holt LC