page_title: Corset
section_title: Waist reduction
hierarchical_section_title: Corset / Waist reduction
caption_attribution_description: Imatges de l'exposició permanent "La Ciutat Viscuda". Realitzades per Andrés Marín Jarque a partir de 2011, any d'inauguració de l'exposició.
context_page_description: A corset is a garment worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape, traditionally a smaller waist or larger bottom, for aesthetic or medical purposes, or support the breasts. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for many years an integral part of women's wardrobes.
  Since the late 20th century, the fashion industry has borrowed the term "corset" to refer to tops which, to varying degrees, mimic the look of traditional corsets without acting as them. While these modern corsets and corset tops often feature lacing or boning, and generally imitate an historical style of corsets, they have very little, if any, effect on the shape of the wearer's body. Genuine corsets are usually made by a corsetmaker and are frequently fitted to the individual wearer.
context_section_description: By wearing a tightly-laced corset for extended periods, known as tightlacing or waist training, men and women can learn to tolerate extreme waist constriction and eventually reduce their natural waist size. Although petite women are often able to get down to a smaller waist in absolute numbers, women with more fat are typically able to reduce their waists by a larger percentage. Although many different sizes were used, the smallest sizes that were popularly used were 16, 17 and 18 inches. Some women were so tightly laced that they could breathe only with the top part of their lungs. This caused the bottom part of their lungs to fill with mucus. Symptoms of this include a slight but persistent cough, as well as heavy breathing, causing a heaving appearance of the bosom. Until 1998, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Ethel Granger as having the smallest waist on record at 13 inches (33 cm). After 1998, the category changed to "smallest waist on a living person". Cathie Jung took the title with a waist measuring 15 inches (38 cm). Other women, such as Polaire, also have achieved such reductions (16 inches (41 cm) in her case). However, these are extreme cases. Corsets were and are still usually designed for support, with freedom of body movement an important consideration in their design.
caption: Effect of Corset in human body. Image by Valencian Museum of Ethnology.
exif: {"Image Software": "Google", "Image ExifOffset": "46", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "896", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768"}