RANSVESTIA

ever, I began to wonder about the big difference between men's and women's clothes: why did women seem to enjoy their clothes so much? I wasn't old enough to realize that many were simply following the dic- tates of fashion to please their men. Or were they?

One day, when I had laced my mother as tight as I thought necessary, I tied a half granny knot at her back and as usual passed the left-over laces around each side of her waist. She usually took these laces and wound them around her waist again before tying the ends in a bow which was then secured under the flat steel hook on one of the strong front spoon-billed stays of her corset. But today she passed the laces back to me, saying,

"Dear, you didn't lace me half tight enough!"

"Mother," I said, "I'm quite sure your dress will fit over you, and I thought you would be more comfortable if you didn't have to be laced any tighter."

"Oh no, no, no!" she exclaimed. "Please lace me up as tight as you can. That's what corsets are for, silly, and the tighter they are the better they feel! Every woman of style likes to be laced just as tight as possible.”

I took the laces and tightened her already tight waist, leaving the top and bottom as they were. But again she complained, saying, “No, dear, lace me tight all the way from top to bottom. I need the support high in back and front or I'll slump, and I need them tight at the bottom so they will stay in place. Besides, they feel better that way. So go ahead and lace me as tight as you can.'

I did as she asked, and finally satisfied I could lace her no tighter, she took the left-over laces and secured them, saying, "Oh, that feels much better!"

Next, after her padded brassiere was tightened around her and hooked at the bottom to one of the metal clasps on the front stays of her corset, I laced her into her corset cover, which was a boned garment for the purpose of reinforcing her corsets. "A good corset cover protects the corsets and makes them last longer," I had heard my mother's friends agree when they were discussing their clothes one day. Now she was ready for her dress.