#ethcing

Tight Lacing, 1777.  The lady's maid has wound her mistress's stay-laces around a poker and is pulling with all her might, one foot braced against her skirt, which has been extended by a "cork rump."

Was it necessary for a woman to hold onto something while being laced up? In the eighteenth century, yes, it would have been helpful: the corset lace "was put in starting at the bottom, and was zigzagged through the staggered holes to the top where it was tied off", explain Peter and Ann Mactaggart, who are authorities on the subject. "When such stays were tightened the wearer was liable to be pulled off balance if she did not hold on to something. This arose partly because she was at the other end of a 'tug of war' and partly because when one short section was pulled up after another, the pull was likely to have been first from one side and then from the other." By the nineteenth century, corsets were constructed differently: there were more holes, "the holes were placed opposite to one another, [and] the lace was put in so as to form a series of crossings," with the result that the corset could be "tightened without any oscilation in the pull... because the pull could be applied to both sides of the opening at the same time." By the nineteenth century, there was "no reason, except perhaps tradition, for her to hold onto anything."