File:TheFamilyDoctorNov2 1889page146.png

146

containing articles of paramount interest to a feminine mind, dainty articles of under attire were displayed on chairs and tables, whilst numerous" dummies " displayed examples of the corsetière's art of all shapes and sizes. Our meditations were, however, cut short by the entrance of Madame E-- herself, whose elegant figure was in itself a speaking advertisement of her ability to-shall we say?-improve upon nature.

Passing over the preliminaries, we were soon in the thick of the burning subject. Madame was very ready to give information, and although speaking with hardly any trace of accent, her flow of words immediately betrayed her as a Frenchwoman.

"Certainly," said she, in answer to our question, "the waist is smaller than it has been for years, and will be smaller still. When my customers begin tight lacing they seldom give it up until they have reached an elegant slenderness. "

" Yes; I have a great many American clients. As a rule. I don't fancy they lace tightly till they come to Europe and see the slender figures here. They are generally slight, seldom given to "embonpoint", and one can work wonders in a very little time with a slight figure."

" Do you make the very small sizes often? "

"I make a good many pairs in a year nineteen, eighteen, and seventeen inches-perhaps twenty or thirty pairs of sixteen and fifteen inches, very few smaller. Once now and again a pair like these (pointing to a pair of blue satin corsets which we had admired), and then never for an English lady. That pair was made for an Austrian Comtesse-ma foi, she had a figure superb, magnificent! I have never seen its equal. The Austrians know how to lace."

" You don't mean to say any woman ever wore a corset like that, Madame? Whatever size is the waist? "

"Truly, Madame, but I do! I have made her six pairs altogether, three when she was in London, and three have been sent to her since in Vienna. They are very small-one English foot round the waist-but they enlarge, stretch you call it, in wear at least one inch, although they have side steels, and are made so strong round the waist. Ma joi! the Comtesse had a figure if you like. Do I think small waists are ever likely to die out P Well, fashion changes, but not the love of a small middle. My Planche, and other costume books, show me small waists for centuries; as small, smaller, than we often see now, and never was it so easy and comfortable for a lady to obtain une belle taille un fine taille as now."

Madame glanced at her handiwork with a look of conscious pride, and readily gave us permission to make a sketch.

"Yes, I do think there is a good deal of corset wearing at night," she said in reply to our query, U mostly among young ladies. I make night corsets for several young ladies at school, but of course it is only the very tight lacers which do this. I fancy the practice is growing, though."

Our conversation was interrupted here by the entrance of one of Madame E--'s assistants who announced a particular client, and our interview terminated. Madame expressing voluble regrets at having to cut the conversation short so abruptly.

At the other four places at which we called we were able to learn nothing new, but in every case the opinion seemed to be that waists were smaller, and that tight lacing was undoubtedly on the increase. At two places we saw corsets of fourteen inches, and were told also that there was a steadily increasing sale for the smaller sizes.

Apparently the Rational Dress Society has much yet to accomplish.

O. H. from O. H. Image:TheFamilyDoctorNov2_1889page145.png

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Jamaica has 95 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Honduras has a general copyright term of 75 years, but it does implement the rule of the shorter term. Copyright may extend on works created by French who died for France in World War II (more information), Russians who served in the Eastern Front of World War II (known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia) and posthumously rehabilitated victims of Soviet repressions (more information). This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. {{PD-Art}} template without license parameter: please specify why the underlying work is public domain in both the source country and the United States (Usage: {{PD-Art|1=|deathyear=''year of author's death''|country=''source country''}}, where parameter 1= can be PD-old-auto, PD-old-auto-expired, PD-old-auto-1996, PD-old-100 or similar. See Commons:Multi-license copyright tags for more information.)