KEY POINTS:
Corsets might be a cinch to get into, and are back in style, but there are still some dangers in being tightly laced.
Corsets, and their underwear cousins the girdle or slimming garments, are making a comeback. But women need to be aware of their effect.
Michelle Barton,
of Auckland's Costume Studio, said corsets were very popular at the moment. The store makes custom corsets for both under and outer-wear, and an inner-city store had recently requested a regular stock of their product.
"It's not just the full corsets - the half-corsets, or waist cinchers, which sit just below your bust, are also really popular at the moment. They are a bit more comfortable to wear, too."
Air New Zealand Fashion Week organiser Pieter Stewart said she expected to see corsets on the catwalks this year. "They are very sexy, especially worn as tops, in the summer or the evening."
Celebrities seen trussed up include singers Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera, and actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Scarlett Johansson.
However, while corsets aren't the instruments of torture they used to be - metal stays are now used rather than whale bone, and a 14-inch waist is no longer held up as the ideal - health professionals still have concerns about their impact on the body.
Doctors warn that restricted breathing and crushing of internal organs could be a side-effect of the older style of corset which requires very tight lacing, while the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association's NSW branch, Brian Morton, has identified that fluid retention, gastric reflux and deep-vein thrombosis could also be experienced from wearing tight shaper garments and corsets.
University of Auckland sociology lecturer Lane West-Newman said there was an argument corsets were used in Victorian times to control women.
"Then there's another strand that says shaping your body as you want it to be empowers women." Ultimately, West-Newman said, the celebrity association with corsets meant they would be popular.
"We live in this kind of consumer society where there's a perpetual push to find more and more objects for consumption ... so people think 'why don't we bring back the corset, there's something that hasn't been around for a while'."
Meanwhile, US television shows such as Oprah and Dr Phil have also promoted various shaping garments, with Tyra Banks even showing off her own slimming briefs on camera during an episode of The Tyra Banks Show.
There has also been an increase in the prevalence of body-shaping undergarments. The designer of the Xtreme Plunge Bodysuit, Bruno Schiavi, told a Sydney newspaper the industry had grown by 300 per cent in recent times.
Schiavi claimed the restrictive garment provided an alternative to "risky" plastic surgery options.