Photo of Edith La Sylphe an American ballet and Follies Bergere dancer in the 1900s – 1920s. She took the already astonishing S-Bend or flat-fronted corset to even more contorted extremes with her ‘La Sylphe’ corset. How she could have walked in this I have no idea – I can only imagine how incredibly uncomfortable this must have been!
Having said that she lived until the age of 85, so it obviously didn’t do her too much damage!
Her real name was Edythe Lambelle.
Source and copyright: Some rights reserved by Maux
You might also like:
Celebrating 66 Years of the Bikini: the top 10 iconic bikinis
1930s fashion
Elizabeth Taylor looking like Lindsay Lohan!
Vintage dracula posters on Bram Stoker's birthday
1960s bra advert
1930s actress Marilyn Miller
Sharon Tate in The Fearless Vampire Killers
Vintage look book: Joan Crawford 1930s
Those marvellous men in their flying machines
I’m thinking she had to employ clever make-up tricks after all those lower back pain-induced sleepless nights.
did she have bad back problems then?
Ha ha, quite probably!
Vintage weekly recap: style, satin and S-bend corsets… « We Heart Vintage
[...] La Sylph – the extreme S-bend corset [...]
i swear this picture gave me the creeps. omfg
LOL It’s pretty extreme isn’t it?
looks something out of a horror movie. not even joking. and i am Very very scared of horror movies >_<"
Way back when I was a teenager, my (super awesome and cool) Dad paid for me to attend modelling classes at John Casablanca’s school outside of Philadelphia. While I have had to forego some of the fashion and make-up advice (this was in the 80′s, after all!) much has stuck with me. So when I saw your comment about having no idea how she walked, I think I can explain that a bit, as well as how the glamorous women in old movies seemed to walk like sex on a stick! I was taught to “walk with my hips”…(Again, it was the 80′s and was not seen as “wrong” to teach future models this, even if they were 13!) What you do is walk using your hips as you would use your arm to throw a ball- you don’t use your elbows to do that, do you! Another way to imagine it is as if you are using your hips to flick water off of your toes…always keeping in mind that each foot goes directly in front of the other as if you are walking on a wire, and that your hips are thrust forward while doing so. (More thinking is involved in walking the catwalk than one would think!) I hope that I am making this easier to understand, because walking like this actually makes it easier to see how one really could walk in this corset, but minus the part about thrusting the hips forward. BUT. If you practice walking like this, WITH your hips leading, it has an AMAZING effect, just as long as you can do it without appearing to try too hard, or being stiff. It is a languid walk, and not good for speed—you can NOT run like this, but you CAN be swift! Anyway- I googled the corset after seeing it on Retronaut.com, and your was the very first site to pop up! REALLY looking forward to spending time on your site, and G*d bless you if you actually read all of this! <3, k8
Hi Kate
Thanks for your comment- I certainly did read it all! I love the idea of walking with your hips, and I’m definitely going to give that a try. I’ve got a sore back right now (long story but hopefully it should be better in a few days) so I’ll definitely try that walk when I’m back to normal! I learned all my makeup tips in the 80s too, but I swear I haven’t touched blue mascara and pink eyeshadow in years
I hope that you are back to your strutting best in no time!
Ha ha, me too, thank you!