Fashion + Beauty

I will admit that I am a geek. Most of my secondary education has focused on the literature of the late Medieval period in Europe, especially of Britain. For me, studying history involves living history, and I think of places like Williamsburg and Plimoth Plantation with the same wistfullness as others think of the Bahamas.

I also attend Renaissance Festivals, and not as an excuse to wear sparkly pink fairy wings. They are an academic pursuit for me. Accordingly, I have often worn, and currently own, full dress according to the fashion and ethics of the time period, including a Medieval-style corset (which differs greatly from a Victorian corset, the whale-boned, rib-cracking kind we usually think of).

After you unlace a corset and strap yourself back into a modern bra, you feel immediately that your breasts are being hung from your chest in a sling, rather than uplifted and supported. The firm, solid support of a wooden busk (a two-inch wide plank that is the main feature of one type of corest) not only gives you incredible cleavage, but takes much of the weight of your chest and redistributes it to your entire core while slimming your waist and improving your posture.

Many days, on my way to the office, I encase my not-quite-goal-weight body in a contemporary girdle, either a model by Spanx or one of its competitors, and a bra from Vicky's. And as I do so, I find myself aching for the simplicity and support of one of my corsets. The truth is that no amount of Spandex is going to totally eliminate my muffin-top, which still billows out from the top of last-season's jeans, though more smoothly beneath the Spanx, and no Miraclebra is going to lighten the load of a pair of DD's.

I miss my corset, and for that matter the rest of the outfit. There is something profoundly feminine about the unashamed display of nice cleavage, that A-line skirt that creates the illusion of a perfect hourglass figure, and the freddom of knowing that what the treadmill hasn't gotten to yet, your underwear is sure to look after.