Portugal 2004

Q. Dear Cathie,
I really enjoy your website. I love your corsets and clothing. I am a 54 year old woman and I got my first corset on 3 May. Its a front lacer made by Wasp Creations. I have a disability so it would be impossible for me to lace a corset in back. I love it. I wear it day and night. I even sleep in it. My uncorseted waist is 32 inches. With the corset my waist is 30 inches. I am taking things slowly. I find that if the corset is laced too tightly I am loosening it up very quickly. So I lace it to be snug but comfortable.
I think that you are beautiful and look so much younger than your age.
Best wishes

Cathie:  You are on the right track for success--custom made corsets and a reasonable/tolerable reduction. Do keep in touch.

Q. Dear Cathie Although I don’t write in as often as I would like, this is not to suggest that I don’t visit your wonderful website on a more regular basis. Let’s face it; you are the personification of what a corset can do for a shapely figure. Of course I suspect you were always pretty shapely? How long have you been lacing? I mean - was it for a special event? Or something you or your husband were attracted to?
In response to a previous inquiry, you were kind enough to share your bust size 40 - bra size 32DD and hip size - 39. From what I remember you mentioned that your bra size is a reflection of your narrow rib cage? Is that because of tight lacing or were you always that small - 32?
Again in an early E-mail exchange, you mentioned silver collar was locking and wear it normally when your hair is down so lock is not visible? Looking back at pictures, I guess I thought the silver collar was not that wide - less visible allowing you to wear it on many more situations? Does that mean you have more than 1 locking silver collar?
In closing, don’t stop whatever you are doing! You are an inspiration!Best Regards

Cathie:  Actually I wore a custom made corset under my wedding gown nearly forty-five years ago and then wore a corset (off the "peg" variety) under party dresses or gowns which I made for special occasions. Once my kids were grown and out of the nest we had corsets custom made and that was the start of the 24/7. That was more than twenty years ago now.
I only have one locking silver neck piece but do have other silver necklaces which don't look like collars--I tend to wear silver, not gold!! Fortunate for the budget!!
We are basically interested in the Victorian image (silhouette) created by the corset. There was a lot of influence from the movies and musicals from the fifties as well as the NEW Look a bit later. Fortunately it's quite a fashion statement worldwide now.
Cathie

Q. Hi Cathie!  I have enjoyed your web site ... keep up the great work.  I was wondering if stemwaist corsets are much harder to wear. I have my pet wearing an hourglass corset for a few years and she seems to tolerate the reduction well now.
Is a stem waist corset much harder to wear? I would like to see if she can wear a stem waist with a length of 1" or so?
Thanks for your help

Cathie:  I personally don't find an extreme stem waist attractive. However, all my corsets have a heavy tape or band at the waist and it is an inch wide--just adds strength to the corset--Therefore I would conclude that a stem of one inch would be easy to accommodate to.
Cathie