179 Ficlet: Old Fashioned (Darla)
Title Old Fashioned
Author Brutti ma Buoni
Rating PG
Word Count 200
Prompt 179 - Vogue
Characters/Pairing (if any) Darla
“Tighter. Still tighter.”
“Is that wise, madame?” Oh, Elise, haven’t you learned anything yet?
“I don’t need to breathe. Let’s enjoy that.”
*
When Darla was young, women were galleons. Stiff-skirted, boned, laced, ruffed, coiffed. In the centuries since, her neckline has risen and fallen from chin to nipple and back again. Her waistline has dipped and climbed in an entirely unrelated rhythm, expanded and contracted with the tides of whalebone and modish tyranny.
There have been new fabrics, new colours and old favourites lost to the whims of fashion and trade.
There was the regrettable period after the Great War. Boyish, Darla could achieve, in her shingle and tube dresses. But how she loathed it. The war and the New Look were refreshingly feminine in comparison.
But it’s marvellous to be dressing up again. Perhaps the last real French maid in existence to service her beauty. A true corset. The pleasure of being constrained; not something Darla indulged too often these days, being reliant on another’s strength. But a masked costume ball at a grand hotel... business, opportunity and pleasure combined.
*
“Tighter.” She’ll get back down to an eighteen inch waist. She will.
It will be magnificently reminiscent.
***
Author Brutti ma Buoni
Rating PG
Word Count 200
Prompt 179 - Vogue
Characters/Pairing (if any) Darla
“Tighter. Still tighter.”
“Is that wise, madame?” Oh, Elise, haven’t you learned anything yet?
“I don’t need to breathe. Let’s enjoy that.”
*
When Darla was young, women were galleons. Stiff-skirted, boned, laced, ruffed, coiffed. In the centuries since, her neckline has risen and fallen from chin to nipple and back again. Her waistline has dipped and climbed in an entirely unrelated rhythm, expanded and contracted with the tides of whalebone and modish tyranny.
There have been new fabrics, new colours and old favourites lost to the whims of fashion and trade.
There was the regrettable period after the Great War. Boyish, Darla could achieve, in her shingle and tube dresses. But how she loathed it. The war and the New Look were refreshingly feminine in comparison.
But it’s marvellous to be dressing up again. Perhaps the last real French maid in existence to service her beauty. A true corset. The pleasure of being constrained; not something Darla indulged too often these days, being reliant on another’s strength. But a masked costume ball at a grand hotel... business, opportunity and pleasure combined.
*
“Tighter.” She’ll get back down to an eighteen inch waist. She will.
It will be magnificently reminiscent.
***