Tuesday Topic, with Christine Rutter

VICTORIAN ladies passed out because of them. And legend has it the same ladies resorted to deliberately breaking their ribs to get into them.

We're talking corsets. And the most uncomfortable of all undergarments ever created is back with a painful vengeance in the name of fashion.

The waist-strangling get-ups may bring tears to your eyes and prevent you from coughing or indulging in the merest of snacks but they are big business for women desperate to slim their girth.

Fashion has always demanded an ideal silhouette and modern women are no longer content to achieve it through diet and exercise.

They are following their ancestors who shaped their figures by means of tightly laced undergarments stiffened with whalebone or steel. Women are so obsessed with binding their bodies with this waist-training gadget that some have reduced their waist size by nearly half.

Janet Conroy, owner of Decades, Lord Street West, Blackburn, said: "Demand for corsets has rocketed in a year because designers are reviving them. They can cost around £70."

Janet claimed most use them for party-wear but the serious wearers spend months whittling their waists down to ridiculously small sizes. She claimed corsets are visually breathtaking but declined to wear one herself.

"My ribs are too big," was her first excuse before she finally admitted. "People who wear them always say they are comfortable through gritted teeth."

Debbie Partington may have difficulty driving her car in her corset but she refuses to ditch the stomach-squeezing article.

"I really love the shape they give you. They get rid of all your lumps and bumps and they straighten your back," said 26-year-old Debbie.

But she cringes when recalling her first experience. "It was painful but you get used to it.

"I do have one that still hurts a lot, especially if I try to drive."

And she says her ribs have been sore on occasions when she has worn the corset for too long.

She originally put the squeeze on her waist because she was unable to fit into the antique clothing she adored.

The former Blackburn College arts student, who has been lacing up for the last five years, said: "I love antique clothing but women were smaller then. "I found I needed a corset just to get into them! It was difficult fastening them at the start but I've got the knack now."

Debbie has now squeezed down her waist from 26in to a staggering 18in.

"I couldn't stand to wear them any tighter," she confessed.

The teeniest of corsets, a century old, is on show at Past and Present in Blackburn.

"I just can't believe how tiny it is. It must be a size 6.

"It just shows how body size has changed over the last century," said Julie Ryder, owner of Past and Present.

She added: "Many have asked to try it on but they wouldn't get in it."

Dance student Lisa Hunt felt as though she was splitting herself in half when she tried on her first corset.

"I kept saying "Ow! I can't breath!'. It hurt but it was a bearable kind of pain and I got an incredible rush from it.

"It pulls everything in. You look really good in it. I felt slimmer when I took it off," said Lisa, 20, of Ruthin Close, Blackburn.

But she admitted: "I couldn't wear one every day. They would be too restricting." Michelle McDonald, 22, of Blackburn, said: "I have always loved corsets.

"They are restrictive but they really squeeze you in. I would buy one if I could afford it!"

Despite the clamour for corsets, this revived fashion trend could be dangerous.

Dr Stephen Morton, director of public health for the East Lancashire Health Authority, said corset wearing brought with it a whole host of serious health risks.

Dr Morton warned: "You can't put a government warning on them but taken to extremes corsets can crush and damage the inner organs.

"Women in the olden days used to pass out because the corsets restricted blood from moving up from the legs to the heart."

He said other risks include a bruised or bleeding liver, perforation of the bowel and upset breathing by pressure on the diaphragm.

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