Chapter 22

Ethel’s piercings drew attention as well. Ethel said that she had 13 piercings in each ear, as well as several in her nose. William sensed that Miss Shirley understood quite well that there had to be other piercings as well, but she dared not ask.
When the other photographer came, miss Shirley had already left. Ethel had changed into a dress made of black nylon. Over this dress, her belt could be tightened even more.

This photographer too, chose the garden as the setting for his photographs of Ethel. The articles appeared in the daily newspapers, and the reactions of interested people poured in at the Grangers.
In the Woman’s Sunday Mirror of June 16, 1967, Ethel could be seen on a photograph, wearing shoes with a 5 inch heel, and a black leather belt over her dress. The light background provided a good contrast, making her slender waist very visible. Ethel was now 52 years of age, and mother of a 27 year old daughter. Her measurements were: breast 36 inch, waist 14 inch and hips 38 inch. Before she started wearing her corsets, she had a natural waist of 22 inch.
And she managed to reduce her waist to 13 inch, which she reached just before the outbreak of the war. In this period, publicity for the Grangers reached its peak, and the manuscript William left us, ends in this period.

William died before Ethel, who passed away in 1982. After William died, Ethel kept wearing her corsets.

We enjoyed working on the series on Ethel and William Granger, and have tried to keep each episode interesting. The manuscript William left behind, actually consists of three parts. The first part is about William himself, where he tells about his passion for corsets and piercings. In this part, he also introduces us to the women who were in his life before he met Ethel. The second part is about Ethel, up to the outbreak of the second World War. The third part is about Ethel after the War, until the sixties.
To many corset enthusiasts, Ethel Granger remains a mystery, and many are still fascinated by her appearance.
But any way, she will always be found in the history books on the corset as the woman with the smallest waist on earth.

 

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