A waist cincher is a belt worn around the waist

Waist

The waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On proportionate people, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso....

 to make the wearer's waist physically smaller, or to create the illusion of being smaller.

Today

Waist cinchers and Waspies from the 1980s are a type of wide, laced belts with elastic fabric and soft plastic stiffeners.

Ribbon corset

The ribbon corset is made of pieces of ribbon, as opposed to fabric

Fabric

A fabric is a textile material, short for "textile fabric".Fabric may also refer to:*Fabric , the spatial and geometric configuration of elements within a rock*Fabric , a nightclub in London, England...

. In 1901, a simple pattern of silk ribbon, two bone

Bone (corsetry)

In corsetry, a bone is one of the rigid parts of a corset that forms its frame and gives it rigidity.-Purpose, history and materials:The purpose of the boning in a corset varies slightly from era to era....

s, and a busk

Busk

A busk is the rigid element of a corset placed at the centre front.In stays, the corsets worn between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the busk was intended to keep the front of the corset straight and upright. It was made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with...

 was available, allowing women to construct their own ribbon corsets.

A pseudo-ribbon corset looks like a ribbon corset but is made from cut cloth instead of ribbons. The outside seam of the cut cloth is sewn fine, while the tight inside seam is sewn plain and curved.

Function

A type of short corset been used as light corset for sleep, and another type for light summer corset, used next to the skin or outside of the summer dress. But also an elastic girdle belt been used on the outside of corseted dresses.

The "New Look"

Dior's "New Look" brought the waist cincher to popularity around 1947. In his autobiography, Dior wrote: "I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine busts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts". The hand-span waists so beloved by Dior were achieved by foundations garments, of which the most popular was the waist cincher. Called the "waspie" or "guepiere", it became the quintessential undergarment of the "New Look". Boned and back-laced, it differed from the Victorian corset of decades past primarily in its length, usually only 6 to 7 inches. Fashion magazines of the time stressed that it was "super-light weight" and containing "feather boning". Such garments were worn tightly cinched at the waist, usually over a girdle. The combination was described by Anne Forgarty, an American dress designer who popularized the "New Look" in the US "To maintain your figure at its flattering best, depend on foundation garments to control and distribute; a cinch or tight belt to restrain."