Brazilian Beauties

CHAPTER ONE

Donna Floriella Deoporto Norvona de Sante Cruxes stood on the deck of the SS Pogona as it finished docking in Rio de Janeiro. She scanned the waiting crowd, searching for a first glimpse of her husband to be. The year is 1881 and Floriella is a 'Letter Bride' -, the marriage had been arranged between the two families via agents, photographs and letters. Floriella is the fourth daughter of a title rich, but cash poor, Portuguese noble family. When she had come of age there was no money left to arrange a good marriage in Portugal and, so her father had decided that a good match could be made to one of the 'nouvo' rich families in Brazil. The Pavella family is one of the richest in Brazil, with massive estates, farms and mansions in Rio de Janeiro.

As the gangplank comes down, Floriella catches sight of her fiancée; standing back from the crowd beside a grand carriage, Floriella checks herself over once more, hat on straight, hair tidy, dress clean. Floriella is wearing her best travelling dress and beneath it, new stays. Her stays are laced an extra inch less than normal, down to 22" and she is feeling very neat. She takes as deep as a breath as the stays will allow and walks down the gangplank, through the crowd, to the carriage. Her fiancée and a splendidly woman peer over her, still intent on the passengers' de-embarking.

Hello, how are you, Ernesto Pavella?

Her fiancée was about answer when the imposingly dressed woman with him said, Ah, you must be the maid - where is your mistress?

I beg your pardon, I am Floriella.

The woman's face blanched; she took out a photograph, looked at it, looked at Floriella and gasped, But, but... you are much slimmer and neater and more ... more ... She stammered and fell silent.

Floriella looked at the photograph and could see what the woman meant; the photograph had been taken two years ago at her second sister's wedding. Her sister had made a good match and no expense had been spared on the wedding, even to the extent that Floriella, as a bridesmaid, had been laced down to 18", and the bridesmaid dresses had come from Paris. At that time Floriella had railed against the lacing, as she hardly ever wore stays, but all her sisters were adamant, that it was for the good of the family and she had been forced to make the effort. Now she stood on docks with a waist 4" bigger and in a travelling outfit that, although it was her best had, been made by a local seamstress. She realised that her appearance was not making a good first impression.

While she had been thinking, Ernesto and the women had started a whispered conversation. Floriella waited while they finished, and examined them both in more detail. Ernesto was just as his photograph: medium height, a moustache and a well-fitted suit. The woman, though, was something else. Her dress, though mainly black, was of fine silk and highly decorated, and looked to Floriella's eyes to be of the latest fashion. The part of the woman's dress that really caught her eye was the waist: it was a perfect stem at least 5" long, and about 17" round, emphasised by a stiff mauve belt and, if that was not enough, her neck was held in a perfectly smooth 4" tube with a lace ruffle at the top, hiding the point where it must be digging in under her chin. The length of her neck was emphasised even more as the collar rose up to just under her ears at side, and even higher at the back.

Floriella's gaze was broken by Ernesto taking her arm and saying, Floriella, my mother wants us to get home as soon as possible, so that you can rest.

With what seemed unseemly haste, Floriella was bundled into the coach, her bags loaded, and they drove off, with curtains pulled down. At the Pavella mansion, after Floriella had been helped to change into her best day dress (which she had the maid lace an inch smaller to 21" thinking to make matters slightly better), she was shown downstairs to the drawing room, where Senora Incita Pavella and Ernesto were waiting for her.

Senora Incita stood tall and erect by her son, and even without her elaborate high piled hairstyle, was easily taller than Ernesto. She indicated a chair and Floriella sat down, carefully mindful that she was not used to stays of this tightness, they digging in painfully as she gingerly lowered herself down. Senora Incita chose a higher chair and, without seeming to bend at the waist at all, lowered herself at the knees, and, perched on the edge of the chair, and began to speak.

My child, I will be plain - you are not quite what we were expecting and, as such, I have cancelled the wedding party until we can get you outfitted in a befitting manner, so that the Pavella name will not be shamed. To that end, I have arranged that a small wedding ceremony will take place tomorrow, and you and Ernesto will then go to our country estate where you will be prepared and outfitted in a manner that will reflect the position of the Pavella family in society. I will announce that you are unwell after your voyage and when you well enough prepared, we will have a full ceremony with invited guests on your return.

At this, she rose and with small delicate steps, tip tapped across the tiled floor out of the room.

CHAPTER TWO

The next morning was completely taken up by a troop of corsetieres, shoemakers and dressmakers coming to measure every piece of her body, and the afternoon by the small wedding ceremony conducted in the family chapel.

That night they drove out to the country estate in a curtained carriage, and for the next month a constant stream of tradesmen arrived to fit her for her new wardrobe. At the same time she was entered into rigorous corset training, wearing stays night and day, which were constantly tightened as she hung for the first time from a lacing bar. By the end of the month, she could just manage a 17" wasp waist without fainting and was competent on the 2½" heels.

The day of the wedding dawned, and in a beautiful wedding dress which was a trial to wear due to the tight skirts, high heels, the pinching corset and a high tight collar, Floriella walked down the aisle once more, this time in the Rio De Janeiro Cathedral. As she walked, she noticed the dress of the females in the packed congregation. She had thought that the waist of her mother-in-law, Senora Incita was just an oddity, but to her surprise found that there were several women present with what looked like even smaller or longer waists. Floriella was sure one young woman was even smaller, and

longer than Senora Incita's, with a large bosom and rounded hips, which were joined by an impossible tube, not 5" across and 6" deep. Her narrow neck shot up in a straight tube, at least 6" from top to bottom. Floriella could not take her eyes off her as she walked past her pew. How could anybody survive with such constriction?

Well, she thought, I am glad that I have only to be laced to a waspwaist of 17" - that is bad enough. The ceremony proceeded, and then the reception, which was a torture for Floriella sitting for hours in the tight stays, and she was glad when she could retire to bed and relieve herself of their tightness.

When she got upstairs though, Ernesto, Senora Incita and several maids were waiting in her bedroom, Senora Incita spoke,

As you might have gathered at your wedding, that, although your figure is now a lot better, it is not at all good enough compared to your peers. Ernesto and I have decided that waist training will continue and become even stricter, so that you will become a credit to your husband and his family.

At her signal, the maids came forward and stripped her down to her underlinen, and Floriella rubbed her aching ribs with relief. One maid took down her elaborate hairstyle and platted her hair into a ponytail; she was then fitted with a full hood which fitted her whole head, chin and neck leaving only her face free. The hood was laced tightly at the back until it felt like her head was held in vice.

She was then led over to the lacing bar, and this time her wrists were strapped to the bar and her ankles were strapped to the floor, the bar raised until she was stretched to the utmost.

Floriella moaned at the pain, but to no avail, Senora Incita said, Please be quiet girl - this is what many girls in Brazilian high society have gone through this before you, and you will please suffer it in good grace.

Floriella gritted her teeth, and was quiet; a second rope was attached to a loop in the top of the hood and the stretching continued, extending Floriella's neck so that her neck bones cracked. A maid then stood on a stool and fitted her with a stiff 4" deep posture collar. The collar was laced tight under her jaw, forcing her head up even further, and the tightness of the collar made her breathing ragged.

Were they trying to strangle her? she thought.

Floriella could only see the next stage in the mirror, as her head was now held rigidly upright and she could not move her head even ½" in any direction. A maid picked what seemed to be half a corset; by the way it did not flex in her hands and how she held it, it was obvious rigidly boned. Floriella saw that it was flared out at the bottom of a corset but it then straightened for 2" and finished.

This "corset" was fitted over her hips, and the tightening began, the top edge digging deeply into the soft flesh under her ribs, indenting her waist so deep, that her bottom rib stood at right angles from the top. The pain on her ribs and waist grew until she was sure she would faint, and then it stopped. Floriella hung gasping for breath.

The maid then picked up the other piece, which looked like the top half of a corset again ending with a 2" vertical section. This was fitted around Floriella's waist and ribs, with the vertical section overlaying the lower corset half. The lacing began, and Floriella felt it forcing her lower ribs upwards, while pushing the lower half down onto her hips. Senora Incita spoke, Lace her until she is near fainting.

The maid continued lacing until the outer belt section was compressing the inner - Floriella could feel herself fading, and moaned silently as the pressure on her now-rigid torso increased. She would learn later that the lacing was achieved because the upper corset was slightly smaller at the waist than the lower corset allowing the lower corset laces at the belt section to be visible through the gap.

And now for the stretcher, spoke Senora Incita.

Floriella watched as a maid picked a metal device that was two half-cones with the tops removed, joined by two threaded bolts. She approached Floriella and pushed the device onto her waist with the lower half cone sitting on the corset over her now well-defined hips, and the top under her ribs; a similar device was positioned from the rear. The maids then used four bolts to fasten the two halves together.

Two more maids then approached and all four proceeded to turn small levers attached to the vertical bolts which then extended and started to force the two, now complete, metal cones away from each other, the lower half pushing down onto Floriella's hips and the upper against her rib cage. The pain was excruciating.

Continue until the belt is three inches in depth, said Senora Incita.

As the maids slowly turned, the upper corset belt slid up over the lower belt, Floriella let out a continuous moan but, this time, Senora Incita did not chastise her, as she was keeping a close eye on the depth of the growing stem at Floriella's waist.

At last Senora Incita signalled a stop and a maid then proceeded to take up the slack in laces at her waist that were found due to the stretching of Floriella's waist. She then measured it and announced it was 17" round.

Good, this is a good start, now let's get her into bed and finish off, said Senora Incita.

CHAPTER THREE

When Floriella was let down from lacing bar, she staggered, as her weight increased the compression on her waist. Breathing raggedly through her constricted windpipe and hard-pressed lungs, two maids helped her over to the bed. They lowered her down and then eased her back on the bed. Floriella felt her shoulders meet something hard. She could not see, but she soon found out: it was a brace attached to the wooden head board of the bed. Floriella then felt a pull on the loop on the top of her cap. A maid had attached a hook, which was attached to a cable, which passed through a hole in the headboard and then over a pulley and down to a weight hanger.

Twenty pounds should be enough to start with, said Senora Incita.

The maid loaded four five-pound weights onto the hanger and Floriella felt like her head was being pulled off. Once the maid had finished, another maid tightened the side lacing on the rigid collar to take up the slackness caused by the stretching.

And now for the foot braces, said Senora Incita.

Another maid fitted two wide cuffs to Floriella's ankles, and then attached to two rectangular metal frames; the frames were brought down to the top of her feet and then straps tightened under her heels, forcing here feet into a ballet en-pointe position. The maid then started to attach another cable to the ankle cuffs - The cable was passed over another pulley at the bottom of the bed and thirty pounds of weights added to another hanger. Floriella felt her back being stretched even more.

Senora Incita was now satisfied, and she ushered the maids out of the bedroom and, dimming the lights, she left, saying, Sleep well, my dear.

Floriella tried to sleep, but the unrelenting pressure from the fearsome corset and the strain on her neck and legs made it nearly impossible. She tried to shuffle about to relieve the pain on her ribs, hips, waist and neck, but she was rigid from her breast to below her hips and neck and shoulders. The only part of her upper body she could move was her arms. She tried to get to the laces of her neck brace, but the shoulder brace would not let her get her hands close enough. She reached under corset into her now deeply-indented portion by her backbone, weaving her hands through the metal of the screw threads. However, although she pulled and tugged at the end of the laces, they had been knotted tightly, and the exertion and trying to breath against the extreme rigidity caused her to faint clean away.

******

The next morning, supervised by Senora Incita, she was released from the training corset and the neck brace and quickly dressed in a long corset with a 2" stem. The corset had a fitted shoulder brace that dragged her shoulders back until her shoulder blades nearly met. Wincingly tight boots with 4" heels and a new dress buttoned tightly to the stem waist and with a stiff 3" collar completed the outfit.

When she was dressed, she followed Senora Incita down to her day room, where she asked her to relent on this harsh regime. Her reply was sharp and filled with anger.

Your letters and photograph deceived our family. After two years since the photograph, we expected that your figure would have improved, not degenerated to that of a serving wench. Ernesto agrees with me that he and the Pavella family deserve only the best and Brazilian fashion requires that you agree to these measures to achieve a fashionable figure and posture.

The meeting was over. Floriella then searched the house for Ernesto, walking slowly with a perfectly erect figure from head to thigh and tip toeing carefully in the unfamiliar high heels. Stairs were a trial, as the stiff collar, shoulder brace and inflexible corset did not allow her any view of the floor closer than about twelve feet away and each step had to be searched for using the pointed toe of her boots.

At last she found him and pleaded with him for some relief. Ernesto's reply was similar to his mother's, adding that he found a stem waist very attractive and wished Floriella to try her very best to achieve a long stem waist in the shortest possible period.

That night Floriella's bedtime regime was altered slightly - her hands were covered in padded mittens (to stop her interfering with the laces) and the ankle weights were left off. The reason was that Ernesto joined her and seemed to take an inordinate amount of interest in the stem waist, whilst performing his marital duties.

******

For the next ten years Floriella was subjected to the nightly regime, which was only relaxed for the pregnancy and birth of her son and daughter. Within a week of each birth she was back in the corset night and day and, within a month, she had managed (with outside inducement) to regain the lost ground. Initially, she was sure that the number of weights taken off in the morning was more than the number she counted on at night, though the maids denied any knowledge of the count. The routine was only varied when Senora Incita concentrated on reducing the size of the stem when, instead of the stretcher, a steel belt would be fastened around the stem, and tightened with screws. For all this time her diet was also managed, with plenty of small fattening meals and mouth-watering chocolates available in every room, so that Floriella had no choice but to fill out, above and below the cruel corset, giving her a matronly, curvaceous figure. As the pressure from the corset increased, the doctor prescribed large pessaries to fill out her anus and vagina so that were not crushed; this extreme measure did not discomfort her a great deal, as the tightness of the corset and her lengthening stem meant that she could hardly feel the lower half of her body.

CHAPTER FOUR

The time is now thirty years later and Senora Incita has passed away. Today is the day of the funeral. Prior to Senora Incita's death, as she declined, Floriella had been planning to relieve herself of the harsh fashion regime that had been inflicted on her since she had arrived in Brazil. To that end, she had ordered lower heels and dresses with lower and looser collars; she had also tried to relax the lacing on her corset, but had found that while standing, her body was so reliant on the tightness, that any relaxation felt as if her backbone was collapsing and caused her severe pain, although she found that that the stem could easily be reduced by two inches to relieve the continuous pressure on her ribs and hipbones.

Today she would honour her mother-in-law and appear in full regalia one last time. Floriella walked over to the lacing bar where her two maids were waiting and stood below it. Quickly the maids unlaced the light 4" stemmed 18" waist sleeping corset and stripped off her underlinen. She was then dressed in silk, heavily laced, combinations. Suffering without the support of any corset, the maids quickly strapped her wrists to the bar and raised her up until her feet were off the floor.

The next stage was the dress corset; this was Floriella's longest corset, both for the length of the stem at 7" and in the length of the corset itself, which stretched from just under her now-large bosom to halfway down her thighs. Floriella only wore this corset for important parties and balls; dinners were out the question, as sitting in this corset was a complete impossibility. The corset itself was beautiful to look at with black and silver panels, and dripping with black lace at top and bottom, its construction was belied by it's beauty, as the corset, when the busk was hooked, would stand on its own, with the metal boning at the stem waist being solid and that of the top and the apron being closely packed. The weight was significant, and both maids struggled to lift it and fit it to Floriella's now permanently-deformed torso, while Floriella fed her arms through the shoulder straps. They then grappled with each hook-on busk (There were twenty of them, with one every inch at the stem.

Once the busk was closed, a maid reached down and inserted the large pessaries that were necessary with her strictest corset. The lacing then began: first the back lace was tightened from top and bottom towards the middle until the corset was rigid from hip to breast.