Waist Cincher - The "New Look"

The "New Look"

Dior's "New Look" brought the waist cincher to popularity around 1947. In his autobiography, Dior wrote: "I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts". The hand-span waists so beloved by Dior were achieved by foundations garments, of which the most popular was the waist cincher. Called the "waspie" or "guepiere", it became the quintessential undergarment of the "New Look". Boned and back-laced, it differed from the Victorian corset of decades past primarily in its length, usually only 6 to 7 inches. Fashion magazines of the time stressed that it was "super-light weight" and containing "feather boning". Such garments were worn tightly cinched at the waist, usually over a girdle. The combination was described by Anne Forgarty, an American dress designer who popularized the "New Look" in the US "To maintain your figure at its flattering best, depend on foundation garments to control and distribute; a cinch or tight belt to restrain."