It's a clincher!

AS IF her pert bottom, flawless skin and golden locks were not enough, Kylie Minogue has now gone and got herself a 16 inch waist. Not since Mammy tightened the ribbons of the corsetted Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind has a waist of such tiny proportions been seen (although it later emerged Kylie's waist was closer to 20 inches).

The corset, once seen as an instrument of female torture, is enjoying yet another resurgence, thanks to the John Galliano showgirl outfit worn by Ms Minogue during her latest tour. That it is still a feature in British fashion, hundreds of years after it first emerged, is testament to the corset's ability to reinvent itself and mean different things at different historical moments for each generation of women wearing them.

The corset first appeared in Britain the 13th and 14th centuries and was often worn as an outer garment over robes. But it became popular in Britain in Elizabethan times, when an eye-watering iron hinged corset was worn to give the body a smooth outline beneath gowns.

The fashion, as typified by Queen Elizabeth I, was for a flat torso shape and flat boyish chest, rather than a tiny waist. But by the 18th and 19th centuries, fuller bosoms, bigger hips and a tiny waist were all the rage - although squashed internal organs and sexual and reproductive problems were the price to pay for being fashionable. The iron gave way to buckram, a strong coarse linen cloth, and they went on to be lined with whalebone or steel. By the late 19th century, materials such as lace and silk became more in use and a waist of between 18 and 21 inches was the norm.

To Victorian women, corsets were not only indicative of high fashion, but the restrictive and often suffocating tightening of the ribbons also signified the repressed emotions of the women who wore them. The tight-lacing was to become ever more severe.

But as the First World War came, the grip of the corset loosened as women took over jobs previously dominated by men and needed less constrictive clothing to do so. Later, as the "1920s" Flapper look came in, they were to disappear altogether until their popularity was boosted by designers, musicians and films in the 1990s.

Madonna gave the garment a new twist with her Jean Paul Gaultier-designed conical corset - although toned to within an inch of her life, it did little to enhance her non-existent curves: instead, the piece was more like body armour. The movies Dangerous Liaisons and Moulin Rouge also gave the corset a fashionable nudge and it has been at the heart of collections designed by Vivienne Westwood season after season since the 1970s.

Debbie Raine, of Darlington, is taking advantage of the corset's resurgence with her new business, the Maisy Raine Corset Co.

But unlike the old iron corsets, Debbie's designs are hand-made in beautiful silk or cotton and she uses a tough, lightweight acrylic, which is reinforced in her wedding corsets, in place of the whale bones of old. Colourful ribbons still adorn the back - it helps if you have someone to lace it up - but more importantly, it is possible to breathe and wear one of Debbie's corsets with confidence knowing your internal organs are not being pulped.

"The thing about corsets today is that they're just so versatile," says Debbie, 42, who was a community health nurse for 24 years before setting up her company. "You can dress them down with jeans or you can dress them up for a wedding. The instant you put them on you feel sexy. The other great thing is that they give you a female shape."

But while the corset can be seen to celebrate everything womanly, there is a fine line between a simple enhancement of assets and looking like you belong in a 19th century Parisian brothel. On one hand, they can miraculously heave bosoms up into the places that you want them, but if you are not careful, they can push the rest of you into places you definitely don't want to go, ie the dreaded back fat. Teaming them with the wrong partners can also lead to eye-popping situations - mini skirts are a definite no-no unless you are auditioning for Eurovision.

"The one thing which put me off the corsets on the websites I was looking at was when they had that over-the-top, bondage kind of look, and I didn't really want to go down that road," says Debbie, mum of Tom, 15, and Beth, 13.

"It's another reason why I chose not to use models with their breasts hanging out. I wanted to get the point across as well that we're all different. It's about women feeling confident. Nobody should feel excluded. If you're a 60-year-old and feel confident wearing one then you should be allowed to."

Debbie uses traditional dress sizes on her designs and for those who are in between sizes, she suggests opting for the smaller size as there is a three inch "modesty" panel which comes with every corset. She makes ten limited edition versions of each corset in her collection with sizes ranging up to 22. A client can also have a corset custom made.

"Corsets come and go in fashion," says Debbie. "I've got bustiers upstairs that I've had for ages, and I see corsets as having something for everyone. There's something really charming about being helped into one, standing with your hands on your hips while the ribbons are done up. It's a romantic notion really."