girdlezone.org

I sometimes feel here like a car buff who gores to a car website to check on reactions to a new Toyota, only to find s/he's in a vintage site! I'm not sure if that is or was the purpose of Girdles and More, but I still enjoy it, and in fact you can get plenty of feedback on modern shapewear elswehere. But I suppose it's a pity that the shapewar revival of the last few years has gone largely unheeded here.

Anyhow, I still seem to get various apparel brochures, etc in the post, which feature some girdles, and I was interested in one "best seller", a pantie girdle which not only "controls the tummy", but also provides, "lifting and support to the buttocks". Interesting, isn't it? I thought girdles were supposed to hold the buttocks down.

Going way back to when the OBG was the norm, it was certainly the case that the girdle was required to minimise the bottom by flattening the buttocks. For women who believed their behinds were too big (a very common belief then and now) the crucial characteristic of their girdles was an ability to provide a firm, reducing effect at the back. When pantie girdles began to take over, worn over tights and under increasingly short skirts, my fiancee was initially disappointed with them. Though sold as firm control (and they were quite tight) they did not have either extra layers of powernet or a downstretch panel at the back. She even tried wearing two girdles but it wasn't really the solution. The truth was that fashion seemed to have moved towards favouring a "pert" bottom and I saw adverts for pantie girdles that emphasised their ability to "lift and separate" the buttocks in a similar way to how bras worked on breasts. That might have been fine for the new generation of mini-skirt wearing young things but for slightly more mature young women in their mid to late twenties, who had been brought up to have their rears minimised it was no good. Eventually my fiancée, by then my wife, tracked down some very good, firm control pantie girdles with quite a large downstretch back panel that worked almost as well as her old OBGs. She had good legs and could wear a mini-skirt but, until she found the right style of pantie girdle, always felt that her bottom pushed the skirts out too far at the back and affected the line of the skirt hem at the back. She was much happier in her short skirts and dresses once she had her bottom "properly" held in again.

Therer is a whole "cult" of this in the Hispanic world. Almost every shapeware thing they put out has features to"levanta cola" which literaly means "raise the ass."

Google "Fajas Levanta Gluteos" and you will see some extreme examples of this, some actually have a cut-out for the glutemus maximus to stick through. One wonders what laws of physics apply to apply the counter force on the tummy panels. Was Newton wrong?

The whole subject of Latin American corsetry is rather fascinating. The center of the industry is in Colombia, Brasil and Mexico. When I worked in Mexico City in the early 1990's, when girdles were "dead" in the USA, there were still many shop producing them and even a "girdle" district. [Mexico City is organized so that industries are clustered. One street will have nothing but VW bug repairs - the classic Bug was the main taxi when I worked there. Another street will have 5-6 blocks of wedding gowns and the side streets will have ancillary shops for veils, artificial flowers, bridesmaids dress. In the corset district, typically there would be an open air shop with a window display leading to something akin to a 19th century bank tellers cage where a clerk would fulfill your request but not invite you into the store. In the 4 stories above would be workshops where the garments would be made. I managed to get into one of these and got a tour. It was decidedly 3rd world sweatshop conditions.
In Colombia they even have lines of latex waist trimmers for little girls and early teens. go to http://www.fajasunica.com click on catalogo de productos, then "latex traditional" and then scroll down to the botton to "mini fajas para ninas y jovencitas."

Interesting that the lead illustration for 'latex traditional' appears to be a man, though I can't find any direct reference to garments for men.

And I agree that there is little real basis for the 'girdles aren't the same now' school. The differences in modern girdles are mainly because:

1. clothing styles have changed.

2. Materials & manufacturing techniques have improved out of sight, &

3. Women are much less willing to put up with discomfort than their grandmothers.

Bunyip

I think it is strictly an "ethnic" thing. I've seen ads for panties with padding in them to make your hips or derriere appear larger...I have never heard a White woman say "Gee, I wish my hips (or ass) was bigger

But there must be a market for anything???

Well, Susan, the brochure is a UK one, and the models all look "White British" as our census form goes!

In fact, my problem has never been so much with my butt as with my tum, and I wear a girdle to hold the latter in.

Anyhow, the girdle must be popular since it's at a very good price, and billed as a "Best Seller", so, wild impulsive thing that I am, I've ordered one. I'll let you kow how I get on.

Hi Seagull,
My girdle, one of my favorite 18-Hour High Waist Playtex OBG's , sure feels like it's holding me up, right now, as usual .

Sure yours isn't on back to front, or upside down, or whatever ( ( BIG GRIN ) .

Paddy

Hidden Views wrote:

Yes, I agree with you, but like the "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around"... If women return to wearing shapewear and no one finds them sexy ...

_________________
-hiddenviews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/girdles/

I believe that women dress to more impress other women than a man. Once it was OK to let it all hang out girdles were abandoned. This also explains the move to bare legs. The bare leg look was then reinforced by retailers showing dresses with bare leg models. Now that some celeberties are wearing shapewear it appears the let it all hang out look is out. Women are now looking for a more put together look but going back to 60's girdles is not going to happen. Paddy is lucky to be living where 60's girdles like the 18 hour are still sold. They have been gone from the US since the late 90's. Rago and Custom Maid are not easy to come by without access to the Internet. So Spanx will rule for now