The era of the S-shaped babes

“You bring the corsets, we’ll bring the cinches, no one wants a waist over nine inches,” so goes the lyrics in the song Haus of Holbein by a British musical.

It’s the new challenge on TikTok as enthusiasts, mostly made up of Generation Z, dance with corsets on. They pause on the part that says “no one wants a waist over nine inches” then suddenly tight-lace their corsets until they jerk breathlessly.

The high-tempo Eurodance beat, based on the six wives of King Henry VIII of England from 1509 to 1547, who divorced his sixth wife for having an unflattering figure, is suddenly a sensation on social media. The Haus of Holbein by a musical group known as “Six” satirises women’s beauty standards and the great length they were expected to go to look appealing.

Corsets, that have a history of more than 200 hundred years are experiencing a reawakening, partly due to popular culture and shows like the Bridgerton.  According to social shopping services such as Like To Know It and Lyst, searches for corsets have increased by more than 100 per cent since Netflix’s Bridgerton aired in December 2020. The drama based on a London aristocratic family in 1813, showcases the fashion of the era; ruffles, empire lines, elbow-length gloves and pearl-encrusted headbands. And binding it all together? Corsetry.  

Yes, corsetry has been a long way coming. The quest to attain the hour-glass body and other features perceived as the ideal feminine look, has been a constant across generations, and the place of corsets or body shapers that were vital centuries ago are re-emerging as the king of the wardrobe today.

Suffice to say there’s a massive interest for the shapewear in the fashion industry in Kenya as corsets form part of the fast-moving items in the lingerie shops in Nairobi.

The S-shaped babes

No wonder there’s a sudden surge in “S” shaped babes in the streets of Nairobi, flaunting a highly cinched tummy resulting in pronounced buttocks and a lifted bust, and donning outfits they ordinarily wouldn’t with unrestrained, stubborn waist fat.

Ms Nancy Kwamboka, the proprietor of Waist Trainers and Body Shapers shop at Imenti House, Nairobi, told the Nation that the product has been flying off the shelves for the eight years she has dealt in it.

 “I started off selling panties,” she narrated. “Then a client once asked whether I had the high-waist kind that hold the tummy in. I found one and delivered. She was so happy. She showed her friend, who also ordered one. That’s when I learnt of the huge demand for corsets and started importing them.”

As early as 2013, she would sell 10 or more pieces in a day, and it kept rising as orders came in from not only across the country, but also as far as Tanzania and Uganda.

For this success the High School teacher dropped the chalk and went full-swing into business.

Nation traced Kwamboka through her Instagram page, “Waist-Train-Today” and she accepted to take us through the various kinds of waist-trainers in her stock.

The best quality, she says, is the 25 steel boned latex costing Sh4,000. Then there’s the power belt meant for the gym at Sh2,500 and the louvered postnatal belt that she says is friendly on the bikini cut in case of a caesarian operation. It costs Sh1,000.

Then there’s the traditional, less flexible corset which is her least favourite.

“I wear corsets too and I have seen the benefits. After child-birth, it helped me reduce my tummy from 38 inches to 32 inches,” she asserted.

With women’s bodies changing easily after child-bearing, she says corsets are a welcome solution, rather than a source of shame.

From the moment we checked out her “Waist trainers and corsets” site on Facebook, we were bombarded with several advertisement regarding body shaping. They include; Trimsculp, Ladyluck, Cheapcart and Waisttrim, an indication of a brisk business.

The corsets used to extend from the bust line and stopping just above the pelvic bone. But today the firming garment exist in various designs; some covering the entire torso like swimming costumes and others stretching to firm the body from the shoulders to the thighs.  

The variety of designs, sizes and colours is driving up the sales in Nairobi’s lingerie shops.

Expert voice

But do these tummy-firming undergarment really burn the body fats around the waist, or is it offering an instant psychological reward away from the delayed gratification in the gymnasiums?

Dr Esther Dindi, a consultant physician and a proprietor of Doctor Fitness Kenya says besides the negative health effects that ill-fitting corsets cause, the garment has zero effects in burning body fats, and that the marketers using such catch lines are reaping from people’s desperation to attain body goals.

 The wellness expert likened the corsets to wearing a brassier.

 “The moment you remove it, everything is set free,” she remarked. “The same applies to waist trainers. It holds the tummy inside, but the moment it’s removed, the tummy is set free and there’s nothing that has changed, there’s no fat that you have lost.”

As she would tell the hundreds of clients undertaking lifestyle lessons at her fitness centre, body fat is not lost by squeezing, but the science and discipline of ridding calories; one either works out to burn it or consumes less (diet) to create a deficit so the energy already in the body is used up.

Dr Dindi explained that the extreme cases where corsets are seen to cause reduction of waist, happens by displacing things in the middle rib; pushing the ribs up and other organs downwards. It the process, organs like the kidneys are squeezed.  

“As a medical doctor in the fitness world, my focus is not just aesthetics. Preventing lifestyle diseases is the main goal, aesthetics is just an advantage. No waist training prevents diabetes, heart attack, hypertension or stroke without committing to a good lifestyle,” Dr Dindi says.

Another major medical concern is people using corsets during work-outs. The rigid garment meant to keep up upright posture, not only inhibits but also harm the core-muscles (at the tummy and back) involved in exercising. Chronic back aches result.

Societal pressure seems to be pushing women to look a certain way as men lead easier lives, the fitness expert observes.

“As much as it’s good to want to feel good, I feel like we’ve gotten so obsessed about our image. If we care so much about how we look to the point of harming ourselves, then I think it borders on psychological deficiency or poor self-esteem that in itself needs to be addressed by a psychotherapist or a counsellor,” she diagnosed.

 “I don’t see why someone would put themselves through the pain, stress and discomfort, restrict the lungs and at the end of the day end up having health complications,” she added noting that the wearers wrongly believe the sweat running down a tight corset is a sign of burnt fat, whereas scientifically, sweating is the body’s cooling mechanism.

Traditional corsets

Use of corsets to flatten the tummy after childbirth has replaced the traditional use of cloths or strip of leather which women would tie tightly around their tummy. Online medical journal Healthline notes that the age old practice called post-baby belly-binding, promotes healing of the uterus while pushing it back in place, although not in all circumstances.

“But while belly binding can be a useful tool, the best way to recover from severe diastasis recti (separation of muscles that meet at the midline of the stomach) is to see a physical therapist who specialises in postpartum recovery,” reads the peer-reviewed articles titles ‘How Belly Binding Can help with Recovery After Delivery’.

Dr Dindi, a specialist in the sector says ignorance lead many to use ordinary waist trainers to as postpartum belly binding instead of the ideal binders.

“The ideal ones are termed as postpartum belly wraps, postpartum binders, postpartum band or girdles,” she noted. “You need something that offers a gentle compression to ensure safe and quick healing especially for those who gave birth through a caesarian section. After that, I recommend that one can resumes ordinary fitness trainings.”

History of corsets

History has it that corsets are centuries old. By the 1500s when the Queen of France and the wife of King Henry II Catherine de’Medici, introduced the garment in France, it was already common in Greece, England and Italy.  

Catherine de’Medici is said to have influenced the French women to keep up with the trends of restricting the belly, even stopping those with “thick waists” from attending courts. 

Sarah Nicol of Leicestershire Museum Collection told the Absolute History programme that it was recommended that all women across the British empire wore the corsets in the 17th century.

“And you’d be regarded as a loose woman if you didn’t wear a corset,” Nicol says.

The popularity of this undergarment went up in the Victorian era which started in 1837. The reigning monarch, Queen Victoria herself, was fashion crazy and always conscious to keep the hour-glass body. With the tiny waist, the characteristic long, majestic gowns with a V-shaped waistline and ballooning gathers, sat well.

The popularity of the wasp waist was not only among the Victorian woman. Interestingly, some Frenchmen and English men wore corsets too to restrain their beer bellies or fit well in some attires especially in the mid-1800.

According to Karolina Zebrowska, a Polish writer, film maker and fashion history geek, corset were complicated tailored fashion that required the whole torso to receive the same amount of pressure that is commensurate to the size.

To create the restrictive structure, bones and tusks were tailored to a cloth. Metals would later replace them. The garment had laces that could be tied to the desired tightness.

Out of fashion

As its common for fashion trends to change frequently, corsets were out of fashion in certain times, for instance when Queen Victoria died in 1901. And in 1920, corsets were less popular due the popularity of free flowing dresses. This was at the height of feminists’ freedom movement.

There had been a campaign for change spearheaded by the Rational Dress Society established in 1881. The group protested against introduction of any fashion in dress that either reforms the figure, impedes the movement of the body or tends to injure health.

The women were also rooting for equal opportunities, unlike before when their roles were limited to tight-lacing bodices and warming the home as men went out to work.

According to Zebrowska, the morality of wearing of corsets had always been a subject of public debate.

“But it wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century when the development of medicine started a whole new anti-corset mania. Doctors argued that wearing corsets could lead to tuberculosis, cancer and even bad behaviour,” says the fashion analyst who does not believe the historical costume has any health hazards.

Some medical professional had started raising a range of possible dangers to wearing the tight clothing, including causing infertility, breathing problems, distorting the rib cage and harming body organs like lungs, liver and intestines.

In 1824, Lancet, the oldest medical journal indicated that tight-strapping created breathing problems that caused women to faint because air flow to the lungs was interfered with.

CJ Dickenson, a professor of medicine at the Wolfson institute of preventative medicine, said an extremely tight corset may result in endometriosis, by causing lesions in the uterine lining when constricted, and these lesions shed during menstruation.

“In severe circumstances, it causes bleeding,” he said.

For these reasons the famous French military leader in history, Napoleon Bonaparte, despised corsets and wanted to do away with them in 1989.

Sidebar

Famous women through history who popularised corsets

Queen Victoria

Corsets were the fashion statement of the 16^th century, creating the hour-glass figure that was the focus of the stylish feminine silhouette that reached a fashionable peak in the Victorian era with Queen Victoria herself embracing them.  

Cathie Jung’

American Cathie Jung' holds the Guinness World Record for the “Smallest Waist on a Living Person” through persistent corseting. Her 15-inch waist is comparable to a regular jar of mayonnaise; less than half the 35 inches’ average waist circumference given by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The corset enthusiast from Connecticut wears a corset 24 hours a day. Born in 1937, she started her enthusiasm for Victorian clothes at the age of 38.

Rihanna

Although she has a body to die for, RNB songstress Rihanna is known to don figure-fixer, sometimes as the main attire. In 2012, she wowed her fans with a studded View Overbust Corsets and skin-tight leather trousers. In preparation for her 2020 fashion show in Amazon, she shared a photo of herself on Instagram, wearing a Vinyl Cupless Corset that accentuated her curves.

The Kardashians

Kim Kardashian West has publicly revealed that the secret to her small waist was corseting. Kim even has her own cloth line dealing in waist trainers. She is not the only one in her family as her sister, Khloé and Kourtney too fasten their torsos with corsets.

Lily James of Disnyeland

In order to portray her role as Cinderella in Disneyland, Lily James needed a corset as the primary costume to fit well in her gorgeous dress. She had to undergo corset training, sometimes for days, and she said that she had to drink only soup for meals because anything else would get stuck.

Jessica Alba

American actress Jessica Alba wore corsets in order to help her get back in shape after childbirth. The Sin City actress shared that she spent three months corseting after having Honor and Haven in 2013. She said it was brutal but worth it.

Nana Awiti

In Kenya, television queen and wife of rapper King Kaka, Nana Awiti, is a corset enthusiast and has her curves to show for it. “Waist-training is okay. Even the best of the best like Beyonce wear them. It’s the end goal that matters, when you want a flat stomach,” she says on her Facebook page.

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