Editing Corset (section)

==Waist reduction==
{{Main|Tightlacing}}

Prior to the invention of the steel [[Eyelets|eyelet]] in 1827, the corset primarily served to smooth the lines of the torso and support the posture.<ref name=":0" /> Steel eyelets as well as steel boning and busks allowed wearers to lace their corsets significantly more tightly without damaging the garment, and created the wasp-waisted shape now associated with the corset.<ref name="Summers-2001" />{{Rp|page=13}} Nineteenth century writing on female beauty emphasized the importance of a small, round waist, an exaggeration of the difference between the male and female figure.<ref name="Steele2" /> The corset was the primary tool used to achieve this figure.

Dress historian David Kunzle estimates that the average corseted waist size of the 1880s was approximately {{Convert|21|in|cm}}, with an uncorseted waist size of about {{Convert|27|in|cm}}. He argues that extreme reduction - tightlacing - was largely the domain of middle to lower-middle-class women hoping to increase their station in life, although the amount of reduction that constituted "tightlacing" was never precisely defined.<ref name="Kunzle-2006" /> A corseted waist of {{Convert|19|in|cm}} was considered "standard" and one of {{Convert|13|in|cm}} "severe" but not unheard of.<ref name="Gau-1998" /><ref name="Klingerman-2006">{{Cite thesis |title=Binding femininity: an examination of the effects on tightlacing on the female pelvis |url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4731&context=gradschool_theses |publisher=Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College |date=2006-04-03 |degree=Master of Arts |doi=10.31390/gradschool_theses.3732 |language=en |first=Katherine |last=Klingerman|doi-access=free }}</ref> Beauty writer Arnold Cooley complained that that while natural waist sizes were generally around 28 to 29 inches, most women did not allow themselves to exceed 24 inches, and that sizes of 22-20 inches were seen in "deluded victims of fashion and vanity."<ref name="Steele2" /> Statistics from 1888 indicate that the average waist size had decreased over the past 25 years, attributed to tightlacing itself as well as the lowered respiration and food intake permitted by corset usage.<ref name="Summers-2001" />{{Rp|pages=248–249}} 

Modern wearers are unlikely to achieve the same degree of reduction that was recorded in historical usage. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, corset training was usually begun during adolescence or even before.<ref name="Steele2" />{{Rp|page=72}} The slimmest waist sizes on record should be contextualized with the fact that they were seen in teenage girls, and were likely to have been reserved for special occasions such as dances.<ref name="WA-1895">{{Cite news |date=2 November 1895 |title=Figure Training at a Fashionable Boarding School |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4547020 |access-date=22 April 2024 |work=[[The West Australian]] |pages=10}}</ref><ref name="Gau-1998" /><ref name="Steele2" />

Until 1998, the [[Guinness Book of World Records]] listed [[Ethel Granger]] as having the smallest waist on record at {{convert|13|in|cm}}.<ref>Vogue cover model shocks with 33cm waist MADONNA magazine from August 31st, 2011</ref> After 1998, the category changed to "smallest waist on a living person". [[Cathie Jung]] took the title with a waist measuring {{convert|15|in|cm}}. Other women, such as [[Polaire (Emilie Marie Bouchaud)|Polaire]], also have achieved such reductions: {{convert|16|in|cm}} in her case. [[Empress Sisi]] of Austria was known to have a very slender waist at 16 inches.

<gallery widths="140" heights="200">
File:Empress Elisabeth of Austria Sept. 2006 001.jpg|[[Empress Elisabeth of Austria]], nicknamed Sisi, was known for her waist measuring 16 inches
File:Polaire, French actress.jpg|[[Polaire]], a French actress known for her waist of 16 inches
</gallery>