Waist Cincher or Waspie

Eternal Spirits Waspie

The waist cincher, which is often termed the ‘Waspie’ is a belt type garment which is worn around the waist to decrease, or give the illusion of decreasing, the size of the waist.

 

Modern waist cinchers or waspies since the 1980s are often styled as wide, laced belts with elastic fabric and soft plastic stiffeners.

During the 1950s, following Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’,  the terms waist cincher, waspie and guêpière were variations or synonyms of girdle and corselette.  The ribbon corset is a term for a corset made from ribbon rather than fabric.

Dior’s New Look gave the waist cincher enormous popularity in the late 1940s. Dior wrote: “I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enoumous spreading skirts”.  The slim waists favoured by Dior were achieved by foundations garments such as the supremely popular waist cincher. This waist cincher was popularly called the ‘waspie’ or ‘guepiere’ and was ‘the’ undergarment of the New Look. These waspies were boned and were much shorter than the former Victorian corsets. The fashion press of the time said of waspies that they were ‘super-light weight’ and had ‘feather boning’ and were normally worn tightly cinched at the waist and usually over a girdle.

Waspies are a very popular introduction to the world of corsetry for many people and tend to be less restrictive and more flexible in their uses than full corsets. One of the most popular brands is the superbly crafted Eternal Spirits corset brand.