I've had a lot of comments from readers and others about my shrinking waistline lately. As I've said before, I've been on the very effective stress diet for the past month or two. On the positive side, Ive been able to fit into all of my lovely dresses that were previously too small. Months ago, I set a goal for myself to lose 10 pounds and my reward would be an authentic steel boned corset.

 Before my love of vintage clothes set in, I was all about corsets. I read everything that I could find about the history of corset-wearing and how the ideal female form has changed throughout history. From historical corset construction to the invention of the modern bra, I was hooked. I even made a replica of the Queen Elizabeth Effigy corset, which had about a billion boning channels. Foundation garments have a major impact on fashion and beauty and that has always been a fascinating topic to me.

the original effigy corset


 For a long time, I've been curious to try wearing a corset on a daily basis so I learned how to measure my body for a corset, how to break it in and all of the proper care of a corset and a body while wearing one. Due to my large bust, I have frequent lower back pain and a corset would be the perfect thing to help my posture. I reached my 10 pound goal, just in time for Corset Story to contact me to review one of their lovely corsets.


 I'll be wearing and reviewing their white waist training underbust corset for (at least) the next 8 weeks. This week, I'm breaking it in a few hours every day and getting used to wearing it. This corset is serious business- 24 steel bones, durable fabric and laces in a practical creamy satin. I was really surprised at the heavy weight of it when I pulled it out of the mail box! I can already feel the difference in my posture and my back pain is non-existent when laced up. Wearing a corset is actually much more comfortable than I thought it would be!

Lacing up my corset

Every week, I will make a new post on my personal corset-wearing progress and experience as well as some history, corset wearing tips, safety and links to lovely tight-laced unmentionables.

Check out my Pinterest board "Laced Up Lovely" for more historical corset eye-candy.

Disclosure: Corset provided for review by Corset Story. Va-Voom Vintage is an affiliate of Corset Story