KORAFLORA

In my first blog post, I would like to give you, the readers, a taste of what this silly girl is all about. 

So naturally I will start with archaic vintage undergarments.

     We say to the shapely woman of today with her tiny waist and ample hips/bossom "you have a great body for vintage". This is pure luck. One must take into account the fact that between the dark ages and early 1960's, (with the exception of those pioneers of lady-rebellion from the 1920's) the glamourous corsetry, sexy garter belts, and other whimsical vintage under pinnings we so glorify today actually served a mundane purpose. A woman of these decades did not merely throw a frock on over her bra, panties and slip and step out the door, flaunting her "great vintage figure". She was carefully cinched, hosed, and reshaped within an inch of her life before employing a second party to zip her altered figure into carefully tailored garments. These were the days before lycra, push up bras, and streamlined shapers. The days when a woman had to dismiss comfort in favor of conformity. 

    

      Observe the mechanical wonder that is a girdle of the mid 20th century. It's heavy, it's cumbersome, it contains heavy duty metal and strong laces. It is no costume. It is an engineering feat. This wasn't something a woman strapped on in the evening just to entertain her husband. This was something she spent her life in. Of course it's sexy. It's sexy today because it's novel, and makes us feel like an illustrated pin up girl. But back then, we were socially conservative. It was sexy because it was scandalous. It remained hidden. To the men, it was alluring because it may as well have been an extension of her naked body. We won't even begin to talk about the archaic underpinnings of the century previous!

     So the next time you're in the vintage store beating yourself up over your "weird" body, and blaming everything from your mother's "no hips" gene to that caramel latte you had at breakfast, remember that the ladies of yesteryear

had every bit of the same issues that you do. Fortunately for us, the shapers of today are far more forgiving. Our foremothers would have killed for a pair of Spanks! Almost NO ONE has a perfect "vintage figure". Don't feel ashamed

that you have to cinch a little to compete with that vintage dress because the woman who owned it 60 years ago did too. You just have the advantage of more agreeable foundation garments. You lucky girl, you!