Hard Laced Ch 01

Krystian arrived in England as a baby with his family in 1946, from Uzghorod, Ukraine, and his parents changed his name to Christian within a month.

Christian and Jeanette first met in 1963 when she was about 19 and he was a year younger. She was an art student and he a trainee laboratory technician. She joked with him about his central European accent and his old-fashioned name. At first he thought she was weirdly artistic and she thought him boringly scientific. Then they had their "moment" with its five-second glance and some months of romance and passion. They parted, she to teacher training and he to an unexpected place at one of Britain's new universities. They met again ten years later, both on the verge of their respective divorces. It was so easy for the "moment" to return and it did. Within three months they were living together.

Jeanette had always been quite short; about 5ft 3in but cuddly. The negative feature was her waist which measured about 32 inches when they met again. Christian soon learned that Jeanette's bra size was British 34B, so that she was almost parallel in the top half of her body and her hips measured only 35 inches. Unusually for the times, she wore a girdle and stockings most of the time or else a panty girdle with tights, as the British called them. Pantyhose elsewhere in the world. Her foundation clothes always provided firm control and had zips and bones. Partly, Jeanette's liking for firm control came from her consciousness of her thick waist but also she seemed to get pleasure from the effect it had on her movements and shape. When they got to know each other for the second time, she was worried that her underwear would frighten him off. After all, the 1970s were much more liberated that had been the 1960s. It was a different era altogether from the 1950s, when they were both growing up. In fact, Christian loved the feel of Jeanette's figure in its tight skin of elastic, satin, bones and zips. They would sit or lie together for hours whilst he moved his hand over her body, feeling at the tightness and the suspenders if she had on a pair of stockings. She would writhe and murmur as he touched her where it gave her special pleasure. He knew from an early time that Jeanette would try out with him every possible pleasure, which they would share.

After they had been together for about six months, she came home with a copy of Forum, a new contacts and advice magazine on sexual matters. She bought it from curiosity rather than for a specific article. It contained advertisements, including one for Vollers corsets and they sent off for the catalogue. In the meantime, while they were waiting for it to arrive, he had noticed another advert about corsetry and sent off for a booklet. Christian recalls that it cost £1. This booklet arrived first and it proved to be a collection of photocopied pages from London Life magazine in the 1920s. It included stories and letters about tight lacing in the early 20th Century. Christian found it stimulating and sexually exciting even though he knew nothing about bondage and restraint at that time. Jeanette also read it through avidly and compared its words with the pictures in the Vollers catalogue when it arrived. She decided, not him, that she wanted to try the feeling of tight corseting and they sent off a cheque and order form. It cost £25, which was about a week's living expenses for them in those days.

When the corset arrived, Jeanette looked at it for a few days, running her hands over the white satin and the metal parts. It was medium length, about 4 inches above and below her waist. It had been ordered to 24 inches waist size and she was nervous about fitting it on herself. One evening, she undressed and Christian fitted the corset round Jeanette's waist and fastened the studs on the front busk. Then he laced her slowly from top to waist and then bottom to waist until she said it was tight. When she looked in the long mirror, the effect was amazing. Instead of her straight up-an-down figure, she had a pronounced waist. She asked him to measure it and the tape showed 28 inches over the corset; they thought a full four inches less than her natural waist. Christian was overwhelmed with excitement and wanted to make love with her there and then. She was excited and breathless, running her hands over her body, especially the new waist and hips. He could tell from her eyes and lips that she also was sexually roused. He touched and felt her and gripped her waist in his hands. He felt around the tops of her legs and she was wet. Without almost any words being spoken, they moved to the bed and she lay enjoying whatever happened. She could not and did not move very much but all their lovemaking technique came into play and she arrived a big orgasm. Needless to say, so did he. They talked afterwards about the effect of the corset and decided that they would explore it a lot more. That was the beginning of a five year discovery for both of them.

The Vollers corset lasted about three months. Gradually she asked for it to be laced tighter each time she wore it, which was most evenings and weekends. Sometimes, she would wear it from Friday evening until early Monday morning and they would enjoy themselves with the sensations and restrictions. In addition, she was continuing to wear firm girdles and panty girdles, sometimes more than one at a time. So much did she like the constriction and control that she would wear three girdles and two pairs of stockings at once. She was sometimes unable to bend to fix her own suspenders or put on her shoes, so Christian did them for her. She loved that degree of restriction.

After the three months had gone by, the corset was fully tightened at the waist but it had stretched and was beginning to come apart at the seams. At its tightest, Jeanette's waist measured 26 inches and some of the bones were visible through the stitching at the seams. They knew that another Vollers corset would not satisfy her wish to be held much more firmly. It had been a good buy for their initiation but she started to search for a custom maker of corsets. She found Gardners of Islington, London and sent off for a catalogue. When it came, it was just a pink sheet with black and white photographs or drawings of perhaps six different styles. The prices were higher that Vollers but the words used on the sheet seemed to describe something altogether more robust and controlling. They ordered a style called Petite Taille. It took about a month to be delivered and it was delightful. It was made in white satin again, back lacing, waist 23 inches, six suspenders. It fitted about four inches above the waist and eight inches below so that it was obviously going to curve out over her hips. For the first time, they saw fluted panels over the hips because the size difference was so great. At 23 inches, her waist would be about 12 inches less than her hips. They looked at the new corset together for hours before trying it on her. They looked at the bones and the busk and the lacing holes. They saw the strength of the fabric with its lining of stiff cotton, and strong binding of the top and bottom edges. The first wearing was a revelation to them both.

First, Jeanette rubbed talc all over herself and put on one of her usual silk chemise, which came down to just about hip height and held her bosom in a shaped top. Then he undid the laces as far as they would go and fitted it around her until the busk studs were at about the right position. It was very stiff and that seemed to add to the smallness of the size. Christian managed to fit the top stud into its clasp and then tried to fasten the others. The stiffness and smallness made it really difficult to pull into place. It didn't want to curve over her hips because it was new and stiff. Jeanette helped him with the busk and eventually they had it fastened on all six studs and a bottom hook. Even fully open it looked small and constricting. Then he started to lace her in. Jeanette always wanted to be laced first from the top to her waist. She said it settled the corset into her waist and hips better than starting from the bottom. So he laced her slowly and the top edge closed completely, fitting her chest perfectly under her breasts. The waist was open by what seemed like a mile. Then he laced from the bottom until that edge was closed and the eyelets made a great oval opening along her spine. He said, "Shall we rest for a bit?" But she said, "No; keep lacing until I tell you." So he did.

For nearly half an hour he slowly tightened the laces until her waist was well held and still the corset was open at the back by some inches. She asked him to stop for a minute and he could tell that she was adjusting inside to the new shape. She massaged her waist and abdomen whilst he moved her a little to put on her stockings and fasten the suspenders. Soon she was moving around the room and bending about to show that she had far more freedom, and she asked him to start again with the laces. Christian found that they tightened even more easily at this second attempt and within a few minutes had closed the corset to within about one inch. Jeanette looked amazing and knew it, and paraded herself in front of the long mirror. She kept running her hands up and down her torso and especially over her hips. They formed a sort of stage either side of her constricted waist. She placed her palms on the "stages" and pushed down. Her face suddenly relaxed. She had discovered a movement, which would become one of her and their standard actions during the waist reduction programme. They called it "staging" - pushing her upper body upwards from her waist and so getting some relaxation of the pressure at her waist. Later, it was to be a major aspect of the lacing regime, with regular staging sessions and eventually a tensioning device to produce an even stronger effect.

After two hours of lacing and relaxing, Jeanette said, "That's it for now" and Christian tied off the laces and measured her waist. It was 25½ inches over the corset, which he took to mean about 24½ inches on her skin. She looked wonderful and kept feeling at herself: up and down her torso and over her hips. There was a reduction of 7 inches or more from her normal waist and the effect was really stimulating. She stepped into some high heel mules and walked about the room and then out into the rest of the house. Even the way she moved was new and exciting for him to watch. They went to lie down and for the first time Christian made love to a really tight-laced woman. She was hardly able to move and all the pressure of the corset resisted his movement in and out of her. She was wet and flushed and her breathing was laboured. There was so little room inside her. Jeanette shuddered at his ejaculation and began to play with herself. She came in about 30 seconds and almost passed out with the tension and the breathing difficulty. She lay there panting and flushed all over the upper part of her body, her eyes wide open and her hands clutching at her waist and ribs. It was far and away the most exciting experience of his life – and hers.

After that, they agreed that they would start at a serious programme of waist reduction with a view to producing two effects. First, a permanent reduction in Jeanette's relaxed waist size and secondly a corseted waist as small as her frame would allow. Within a month, the 22 inch corset was closed and she wore it every evening and through the night, and all through the weekends. When it was being washed, she would wear three girdles to keep the pressure upon her waist and ribs. Jeanette was a true enthusiast. Their sex was fabulous and she learned to come with many different stimulations. They drew up a sort of agreement so that she put herself into his hands for the training and he committed himself to her absolutely, come what may, during the time it took to achieve her objectives. Christian was not to go with other women or leave her ever alone and lonely, and certainly not to let her be uncomfortable or in pain. They celebrated the agreement with a weekend holiday in Edinburgh and made up orders for new corsets from Gardners.

A few weeks later, the new corsets started to arrive through the post. The first was black brocade, quite long and waist size 20 inches. It reached up to Jeanette's bra-line and down to the widest part of her hips; total length about 14 inches. By the time it arrived, the old 22 inch corset was getting quite worn and soiled even though she washed it every week or so. And it had stretched a little beyond the 22 inches it which it had started. The new black one they named Number One and put her into it the very first day it came. She was already comfortable at about 22 inches by then and the extra reduction seemed would be easy but they were wrong. It is not only the waist that needs reducing: the ribs and the hip flesh needs to adjust as well. The stiffness of a new corset also adds to its feeling of tightness and on the first day she could bear it fastened only to about the same 22 inches as before. It took about a month for Jeanette to feel comfortable with any reduction below 22 inches and by then Number Two and Number Three had been delivered. Number Two was a short waist corset, only 4 inches above and below her waist and 18 inches in the waist, with no suspenders. It caused her tummy to bulge out across the top of her legs and she thought it ugly. Christian thought it was wonderful, especially when she wore a flared skirt. He would lie next to Jeanette for hours with Number Two, kissing and playing with her tummy. Eventually she got to like the feel of the rounded flesh and it shrank away in time, as she dieted and exercises and her body grew accustomed to the corsetry. Number Three was like the first corset they had ordered, the Petite Taille. It was also 18 inches in the waist but this time had eight suspenders. It became her favourite style and over the next few years they ordered a number of them. Because of their sizes and the rigidity of the feeling they gave to Jeanette, they stopped talking about waist reduction or figure training; they talked about hard lacing, being hard laced, going for harder lacing and so on. When she was laced up tight, Jeanette's torso was hard and her waist was as solid as a piece of wood. The words "hard laced" described her situation very well and she liked to use them. Sometimes during their lovemaking, she would say to herself, "Hard laced, hard laced, hard laced" as a sort of mantra. It excited her. And him of course.

Those three corsets kept Jeanette going in the training for over a year and by Christmas 1975 she was wearing the 18 inch corsets every evening and all the time from Friday evening to Monday morning. The rest of the time she wore firm control girdles or else the short Number Two laced out to about 20 inches under her ordinary clothes. When she did wear a corset during a normal day, she would wear a firm corselette over the top; she liked the Triumph Style K which she altered herself to make it waist fit better to her corseted shape. Even so, the purpose of the corselette was to "hide" her waist and it was always slack about the waist, under her clothes. The entire exercise of dressing and planning her wardrobe became a serious part of their life together. They would buy more lingerie and the occasional corset off-the-peg (though they were never very good quality in strength or workmanship) to keep their interest in the training process.

They learned a number of special lessons during that year. First that sex can become more and more wonderful for a couple who work on pleasing each other with "toys," positions, stories, plans, sensations. Secondly, that corseting below 20 inches suddenly becomes easier once her torso adjusted to the new shapes for her ribs and hips. Jeanette's natural waist settled to about 25 inches when uncorseted and did not change very much regardless of how she ate or exercised. But corseted, her waist became very much more pliable once she was perfectly comfortable in the 20-inch corset tightly laced. The 18-inch corsets came together more comfortably than the 20 inch had done even though it took just as long. Christian measured her body from time to time and she kept a diary of measurements. Her ribs had changed shape so that the bottom two on either side pushed further into her waist as the months went by. At the end of two years training both ribs curved inwards out of sight, so to speak; certainly beyond the feel of his fingers. Similarly, Jeanette's hips became more prominent and had less flesh or fat covering the hip bones themselves. When uncorseted, he could feel her pelvic bones more clearly than previously. Jeanette liked it, especially since she seemed not to accumulate flesh or fat elsewhere.

During the end of the two years, Christian made a stretching device to help Jeanette in the "staging" exercise. She had always pressed down on her hips during the lacing of the corset. He plugged the main joist in the ceiling of their bedroom and installed a screw socket. Into it they could screw a pulley-block from which he arranged a set of padded webbing loops which fitted comfortably under Jeanette's armpits. The cords were decorative fabric ropes and the whole arrangement looked attractive. She could pull on the outer cord and exert a three-times upward force through the block. In fact, when just standing under it, she could raise herself off the floor. When being laced, she could lengthen her torso by an inch or two as her waist got smaller and smaller. They used the "staging machine" for making love by swinging Jeanette off her feet with him holding her waist from behind as well as the front. From behind, Christian would hold her ankles and pull her backwards, with her knees bent. She liked that as one of her favourite positions because she could touch herself. From the front, he would hold under her knees and part her legs so that she sat on him in mid-air.

During 1976, they ordered two 16-inch versions of the Petite Taille and started seriously to fit her into it. She exercised and swam a lot, and dieted to reduce the volume of fat on her body. Her breasts were still British size 34 and had developed to C cup. Her hips were 36 inches at the widest part. Her waist was usually half the measurement of her hips. She looked terrific and Christian was so proud to walk out with her, even if her figure was not on display, because he knew what she had undergone to achieve her shape. By summer 1977, Jeanette was wearing the 18-inch corsets for 23 hours each day and the 16-inch ones gradually laced down over weekends and for special occasions. She had left work by then because he had obtained a number of promotions and their life was quite comfortable. Their sex life was still amazing and she was even more enthusiastic than him about new sensations and "games." She was talking about an even smaller waist and regularly wore latex pants with "inserts" and when they went out shopping sometimes. Christian remembers one particular occasion when she wore "inserts" back and front and came to orgasm in the supermarket whilst clutching onto the trolley. Jeanette just stood there with her eyes wide open and her jaw clenched while she shuddered all over her body. He still don't know if anyone else realised what was happening but a few people gave her long glances, rather as they would if someone were having a slight seizure or "fit". When they got into the car, a few minutes later, she had to reach under her clothes and take out both "inserts." Christian was excited by the whole episode but grateful that it was winter time and dark enough not to be easily visible through the car windows.

The corseting had a major effect upon Jeanette's body and its functions. She ate small meals very frequently, perhaps every two hours, just a mouthful at a time. She liked tasty morsels rather than big platefuls. It was necessary for her to take in a fair amount of fibre every day so she started and finished the day with muesli or a potato or wholemeal bread. Her intestine function was greatly affected by the degree of tight lacing. Sometimes her transit time was very short, only an hour or two, if she had been hard laced for a whole day. Her intestine was so stretched out through her waist that her muscle function cleared food as quickly as possible to reduce the bulk under the corset. She said that she could feel food moving through her bowel: actually feel the waves in her intestine and the resistance of the food as it passed through the narrowest part of her waist. Occasionally, Jeanette became constipated and those were the worst times in her hard lacing regime. She had real discomfort and they would sometimes release her completely from the corset. On the worst occasions she had colonic irrigation at a local health clinic, and enjoyed that experience very much. She talked about it for days afterwards and they experimented with an enema kit. She liked the feeling of being full one minute and then emptied the next. She loved the sensation of having the fluid forced out of her by the pressure on her waist. Christian was worried that the internal pressure may be damaging but she showed no after-effects except to be very excited!