Blog

The High/Low on Measuring Your Torso for a Steel Boned Corset

Posted on by Rachel Barb
The High/Low on Measuring Your Torso for a Steel Boned Corset
13
May

Corset measurements are a bit different than your typical garment sizing.  While you’ve probably measured your bust, waist, and hips to make sure you’ll fit into tops and dresses you order online, you’ll need a few more numbers to ensure that your close-fitting corset doesn’t restrict everyday motions.

The last thing you need is to lace into your lovely new corset and head out for a night on the town only to discover that you can’t get behind the wheel of your car because your corset is stopping you from sitting.  This is why one measurement in particular is so crucial: your torso length.

This isn’t a measurement you have to take often, so it’s no surprise if you’re puzzling over how to nail down this tricky number.  What constitutes the torso?  What’s the best way to measure it?  How can you tell which corset style best suits your unique torso?

What’s in a Torso?

You know that your torso is the trunk of your body, roughly relegated to the area around your abdomen.  What you might not know is where this nebulous region begins and ends.

Your torso starts just under the bust, where you’d normally measure for the band size of your bra, and it ends at your hip flexor (not necessarily your hip bone).  Where’s the hip flexor, exactly?  It’s the crease where you bend at the hip when you raise your knee so the thigh is parallel to the floor.

The 411 on Finding Torso Length

Even when you know the boundaries of your torso, you still might have a hard time figuring out your measurement.  There is an easy way to get the job done and make sure that your corsets aren’t too long for your torso.

All you have to do is perform a sit test.  You’ll start with the measuring tape below the bust, or the crease where the bottom curve of your breast meets your abdomen area.  Instead of wobbling on one leg while you raise your knee to find the crease of your hip flexor, simple sit on a chair that puts your thighs parallel to the ground for easy measuring.

This will save you from toppling into a table or falling and crushing your cat.  In addition, you can easily measure both the right and left sides of your torso.  Our bodies aren’t always perfectly aligned from one side to the other, so if one measurement is slightly shorter, you’ll know to choose the corset with the closest match to the shortest torso length.

Picking the Right Corset

It’s important to remember that height doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with corset length.  If you put a long-torsoed woman of 5’5” next to a short-torsoed woman of 5’10”, they might have the same torso length, so it’s really imperative to measure instead of just picking a waspie because you’re short or a longline because you’re tall.

When picking a corset, keep in mind that not all models are straight across the bottom edge.  If you want more coverage in front to hide a tummy pooch but you have a shorter torso measurement, just look for models that feature an upward curve from front to side, so that they’re shorter at the hip.  This will give you the coverage you crave without condemning you to only standing while you’re wearing the corset.

Stay up-to-date with weekly blog posts, waist training tips, and the chance to win one of our monthly corset giveaways, like us on Facebook & subscribe to our mailing list today! Want to find the perfect steel boned corset? Shop some of our favorites: underbust corsets, overbust corsets, corset dresses. You can also shop our corsets by material: cotton corsets, denim corsets, leather corsets, mesh corsets, pvc corsets, and satin corsets.