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My mother (born in 1909) paid loads of money to be measured and fitted with Spirella corsets. When she was in her early 80s, and in pain awaiting a hip replacement, I persuaded her to stop wearing them. It was like asking her to go naked into Woolworths  |
My mother, also born 1909, wore a corset until about the late 1960s when she discovered the strongly elasticated "roll on" - and tights. One of my earliest memories of her is sitting on her bed, early in the morning, while she spent 5 minutes fastening the endless hooks and eyes of the corset. Had she been a large lady or had a particularly lazy life, well fair enough, but she was average height and quite slim all her life and, like most of us, when young she walked everywhere and kept a house without today's modern appliances.
There was another item of underwear that I have never understood, though I think I may have worn them when a toddler. The Libery Bodice. What, exactly, was it for?