‘There was one blushing damsel, just budding sixteen, whose waist by a corset ne’er encircled had been, but whose mother insisted that on such a night one should find a place there, and the lacing be tight.’ (How She Felt In Her First Corset, 1887)

Tight lacing often was frowned upon in the Victorian and Edwardian era. I’ve compiled articles from 1800 until the 1920s which regard tight lacing as a danger to health. According to the historical primary sources, tight lacing produced diseases from cancer to consumption (tuberculosis) to abortion and even death.

Lacing a corset too tightly – especially in childhood – is certainly harmful to the health. That being said, I think myths have been propagated as truth. On the one hand, because less was known about the causes of illness than today. On the other hand, they wanted to sell their product, for example “health corsets”.

There’s a cynical saying in 1846 that ‘tight lacing is a public benefit; for it kills off the foolish girls, and leaves the wise ones for good wives and mothers’ (Munn et al., 1846).

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