Girdles are designed to flatten your tummy and smooth your hips and derierre eliminating any lumps and bumps so your clothing drapes beautifully giving it that 1950s polished look (or in modern fashion, a couture finish). While they will tame your curves a little, their main job is to provide a smooth foundation for your outerwear.

They come in especially useful if you wear vintage clothing. Fashions from the 1950s are now 70 years old and those seams and stitches are getting old!

When you try on a dress or skirt it might fit perfectly in the changing room, but when you’re going about your day to day life, bending, sitting and eating, or simply the time of the month, your body will change. Wearing a girdle will give you just that little bit of leeway to prevent excess strain on those vintage seams.

The lightest control girdles are known as ‘girdlettes’ or ‘roll ons’.

They were very popular in the late 1950s and 1960s as shapewear became more lightweight. Our girdlettes give an extremely smooth line under clothing and are very comfortable to wear. They make a great alternative to a suspender belt as the line they give is slightly smoother, while the light control ensures you don’t feel like you’re wearing super tight shapewear.

Our classic open bottom girdles (or obg) are the type of girdles most people would have worn in the 1950s. Made from strong powermesh they smooth your curves and finish a little lower than our Girdlettes, just below your bottom.

In the 1950s it was still common to find girdles that incorporated spiral steel boning to help flatten the tummy and prevent rolling along with hook and eye opening to allow the wearer a tighter fit than the traditional pull on style.

Our Glamour Underbust Girdle is our firmest control girdle incorporating a hook and eye opening at the front which makes it easy to wiggle into, and spiral steel boning over the tummy. It’s designed to meet the bottom of your bra band to give smooth shaping for your whole torso and is an ideal alternative to our Corselettes if we don’t currently make your bra size.

Note: our underbust girdle is not designed to cinch your waist like a waist cincher does, instead it’s designed to flatten your tummy and smooth your hips.

Although we often think of Panty Girdles being a 1960s invention, they actually were first introduced in the 1940s when women took on more active roles during WWII turning to practical trousers for work.

At first glance a panty girdle appears more convenient than an open bottom girdle as it means you only have to wear one garment instead of knickers with a girdle. However, it is very difficult to make a firm control shaping garment which has comfortable leg holes! We’ve made the leg holes on our Kate Panty Girdle as comfortable as we possibly can, but this is the main reason why we don’t have an extensive collection.

With the exception of our panty girdle, which features 4 detachable suspenders, all the suspenders on our open bottom girdles are attached. This ensures that the girdle doesn’t roll up and stays exactly where it should.