Before their marriage Ethel was a plain, unsophisticated twenty-three year old girl who wore the shapeless 1920s dresses that William despised. […] One epochal day, when William put his arm around Ethel’s waist she asked “darling, can you feel any difference?”. He could: a pair of corsets that tied Ethel into 24 inches, more or less her natural waist line. The process of Ethel’s waist modification began. Initially Ethel was satisfied with wearing a corset only during the day, but William convinced her to keep it on while sleeping.

After years of corsets, Ethel finally achieved a Guinness Book of World Records-worthy 13-inch waist, as well as a signature look involving a variety of facial piercings. We have an exclusive pic below, as well as more on Vogue Italia‘s website.

Vogue Italia  used Ethel as inspiration for their their September issue, featuring Stella Tenant.

“Her waist has been photoshopp­ed into another dimension,” commented nermz345. “did you all check out her waist???” asked candyazzbb. “I have bracelets larger than that corset girdle thing,” noted mamysmom1.

I have one question though, the editor of Vogue Italia Franca Sozzani, made a huge impact when she put full figured models on the cover back in June and she has a initiative about anti- anorexia and healthier body images for models and women, my question is: does this cover (even though it references a person) give a negative body image to women? What do you think?

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