Vintage Lingerie: The Underbust Girdle

What happens if you want the shaping powers of our Glamour Corselette but don’t fit into our cup sizes? Or perhaps you’re after more of a bullet bra shape, or even something to wear with a strapless or halter neck dress? Come and get acquainted with our Glamour Underbust Girdle.

If you're new to retro style hosiery, or hosiery of any kind, then the terminology can be confusing - but help is at hand!

Check out our guide to hosiery and all will be revealed.

Recently, I've been talking a little bit about our shapewear, in particular, our Glamour Merry Widow, and Corselette, which have inbuilt bras. And I know some of you out there will be feeling a little bit frustrated and thinking, "Well, you don't do my bra size. What am I supposed to do?" And yes, it's difficult. We don't do every bra size, and we're never going to be able to do every bra size. But what you can do is you can piece some of our lingerie with a bra that you already own. When cups get bigger, the manufacturing and design of bras just gets very, very difficult. And to get an amazing

fit, it really needs a specialist company with a lot of financial backing (as well as a big customer base), to make something that fits and supports you properly.

So while we can do as many sizes as we can, and, for example, some of our suspender belts and stockings go up to a UK 26, that's a relatively easy thing to fit. But with bras, it's a completely different ball game and it needs a huge amount of experience and investment and we're not quite there yet. So if you don't fit into our current bra sizes, but you want a vintage look and feel and support, then we have our underbust girdle.

Our Underbust Girdle is designed to sit just underneath your bra, so you can wear your favourite bra with it. And it supports from your underbust right down to beneath your bottom. So basically, it does the job of a corselette, but allows you to wear your favourite bra with it. And of course, you can team this with either the Glamour Bra that it goes with, or you can mix and match with a Maitresse Bullet Bra, if you want more of a fifties pointed shape.

The satins and power-meshes we use for our lingerie, are custom dyed to match and are the same peach and black throughout, so you can get a perfect match with our Glamour Underbust Girdle. It'll also mix perfectly with our Harlow range, our Retro range, our Maitresse range. Even our coloured lingerie will either have the same peach elastics used here, or the same black elastics used in our black range. So you really can mix and match between our ranges to create your own unique look. Also, you have to remember that back in the forties and fifties, matching lingerie sets

sets were actually quite rare. You tended to buy separate pieces and they didn't actually match. That's quite a modern invention. So by mixing and matching, you're kind of being more authentically vintage as well.

Our Underbust Girdle has six attached suspenders that don't come off. If you take them off, the girdle will roll up, so you actually need the suspenders to keep the garment in place. It does have a front opening. If you're a fan of What Katie Did, you'll know I'm a big fan of front openings because I want a shape where it's hard enough to get into already, without having to worry about trying to do it behind your back. It also has two spiral steel-bones at the front as well to stop the girdle rolling down.

An underbust girdle has an advantage over just a waist-high girdle in the fact that you don't get that little bit of flub or muffin top above your waist. Plus it’s really is good for giving a smooth line from your bust to your hip under tight wiggle dresses and pencil skirts.