Granger 27
- This article is a Biography
- Chapter 27 - Corsets, old and new
I will now leave the angle of body decoration, by boring holes in various places, to return once more to that aspect, which placed Ethel into a position of uniqueness, which entitled her to enter the Guinness Book of Records, where she is mentioned even today.
After all, anyone, prepared to suffer a little pain, could quite easily encircle their ears with pierced in jewels round the edge, although it requires a little nerve we found to display such decoration. Even the septum, the nostrils, cheeks and lips are not unique, for one can find these decorations on the faces of all primitive woman, in various places, all over the world. Perfectly true, one seldom, if ever, finds another pair of ears decorated like Ethel's amongst white women, or pierced septum, lips or nostrils, although why not, I cannot understand, for, having seen many beautiful and attractive women from India, so decorated, I think the resulting mutil ­ation of the nostrils, so that a dainty jewel can be worn therein, is something which could be a great asset, for it adds sparkle to a beautiful face, drawing attention to it, and certainly not a disfigurement.
However, the reduction of the waist line, is quite another thing, for this cannot be produced to order as quickly. It must be, as I have already explained, produced gradually, by iron determination, in Ethel's case mine, and also a willingness on the part of the subject, in this case, Ethel, to endure and participate in the training, with the certainty of the suffering, which to some extent, is inevitable, until she is so inured to it and the restrictions which tight corsets must impose, until it actually becomes elevated to feelings of ecstatic pleasure. So we have found that it is the waist that always attracts attention and comment, while the other things are noted, observed and accepted by the majority of observers, as just something out of the ordinary. In fact with a waist such as Ethel's on display, she can get away with anything; for they think that anyone crazy enough to allow her waist to be so restricted and distorted into a very unnatural shape, can be expected to be crazy enough for anything.
Of course there are a limited number, who like myself, consider this type of facial and body decoration most attractive, and these will give ejaculations of delight when they see such forms of adornment being worn. What ever you do, I find there an some people in this wide world that think the same as you do, ready to contradict those who raise their eyebrows in horror. It takes all sorts to make the world, and one man's meat is poison to another.
At the beginning of the war, we had been forced to change from Mrs Kayne to Overett and he made a couple of pairs, before we had, due to rationing, and the dearth of good materials, to get by, as best we could, using up the old corsets, mending, repairing and doing our best to retain some semblance of that beautiful figure, with a stout leather belt which was made to lace up in the front with leather laces. I really dreaded putting the tape measure round Ethel's waist by the time corsets and clothes came off the ration, so we could reorder something new. I would think that her waist was probably about 16 inches over the corset.
The first pair of post-war corsets from Overett was therefore ordered with a waist of 15 inches, and it required quite a lot of tugging and persuasion on my part before they were closed, and even then Ethel rebelled vigorously. But as I have said, with jealousy egging her on, she began to realise that if she wanted me for what I was worth, she should play ball too by conforming to my wishes. After that we had not much trouble, so the l5 inch pair, after a trip to London to see him, for alterations for the fit, were soon easily laced in, with strict discipline, so she was wearing them fully closed and working in them, just as well and as hard as before, for we now had more garden than before. We had given up the allotment, but we now had the ½ acre near our house. We even began to keep bees and due to what I discovered was an allergy on my part against the stings, she became the beekeeper. After all, she had face the piercing needle so many times, that a little bee sting was nothing, nor did it affect her.
The next pair we had, were ordered with a 14 inch waist, and although they could not made with some of the finer materials of pre-war, which had gone, never to return, until the day, thank goodness, when Nylon, which during the war had come into use as the wonder material, came into general use. This first appeared to us as Nylon stockings, for which women fought relentlessly to obtain, being then almost ladder-proof and very long lasting. When we were up in London, we discovered a shop where we could get one pair, which with reasonable use would last for two months or more. Often Ethel or I would slip out from our meeting to get a pair. Of course Nylon cloth, when it did come into use, was ideal for corsets, as it stood the intensive strain so much better and for so much longer, but mostly it was plain black, peach or white with spots or flowers.
Ethel quite easily got down into the 14 inch waisted corsets, now egging me on to pull her in as tightly as possible which proved that, although her figure had slipped a bit, it was not lost completely, nor had all her long training been wasted. We visited Overett again, before we had this pair made to our satisfaction. By now we did not mind if we showed off her waist, or not, but usually we did not bother, even with light dresses, they were usually worn with a loose fitting belt, although her costumes were fitted in as before, with a tight waist band and laced on belt.
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