A review on What Katie Did's Baby corset

I recently bought the Baby Corset from What Katie Did and as it inspired by the waspies of the New Look-look, I thought a little review here wouldn’t be amiss.

In case you have missed it, WKD is a UK-based company that makes lingerie, stockings and corsets inspired by the 40’s and 50’s. I have purchased clothes from them before and always been pleased with both customer service and the quality. I live in Sweden and it took 3 days for my package to arrive, which I think is excellent.

I have their Mae corset which is shorter than the Morticia, the length from waist to underarm is 4.75. I like it as it is well made and for its price easily the best off the rack corset I have ever purchased. However, I have a very short upper torso and it’s much too long for me. I can wear it for an evening, but it is bordering on uncomfortable. I have been toying with the idea of wearing corsets more regularly, but to do that, comfort is a must. The Baby corset is just 7 inches long altogether and as I have had the opportunity to try it in a store I felt confident that it would suit me.

Despite its tiny size, this is a real corset in heavyweight satin and cotton twill, it has a real busk and 12 bones both spiral steel and flat steel. It is also really curvy and meant to reduce the waist to 4-5 inches. I really think this is a great little corset, though definitely not for every body type.

Being so curvy I think fits a curvy figure better. For a woman with little natural difference between waist and hips it may be too big over the hips. I have an hourglass figure, so I found the fit great though. It is very short and I think one should bear that in mind. On me it is perfect, but one someone with a longer body there will be a noticeable gap between corset and bra. That in itself isn’t a problem, but if you have a lot to squish, then you may get a roll of fat in between corset and bra, which may not be what you are looking for. A longline bra would probably help to eliminate that, though.

A crappy picture, but you can see how curvy it is. Here it's just laced so it doesn't slide around on me, there is definitly room for lacing it more..

You also need to be aware that if you want to wear stockings you will need a separate girdle or very long garter straps as it is too short. This corset doesn’t restrict your tummy at all and the curvy cut also gives the ribcage some room, so it is actually very comfortable to wear, much more so than a long corset. I tight dress of skirt may pronounce the uncorseted tummy a bit too much) at least one me), but with wider skirts I think it will be wonderful.

I don’t find any of the potential problems I have listed to be any problems, though. It is a short corset that will give you a dramatic waist and if you aware of its shortness and that it in some ways behaves differently from a long one, well, and then I think it’s pretty much perfect.

So you want to wear a girdle?

Then you may want to read this post. There is no doubt that a proper foundation do a lot for the way clothes hang and vintage clothes are made for women who wore that. If you look at these two pictures, it’s the same dress (albeit the second one has added sleeves) and the same me in a dress after a 1950’s pattern. In the first picture I wear modern shapewear, in the second a corset and a fuller petticoat, but the same bra and body weight. I think you will agree with me that the fit is a lot better in the second one.

Girdles and corsets and the right shape, oh my

Let’s stay in the same time frame as in the post about fashionable figures, the early 20th century to the 1950’s, but remove the clothes and see what was worn underneath. The origins of corsets or stays are very hazy, the first known examples dates to around 1600, but those are already fully developed garments, two layers of fabric stiffened with reeds or whalebone. A piece of clothing designed to change the female body so it conforms to the ideals of the time. And ideals change- just during the first decades of the 20th century it went from super curvy, to super straight.