[mochaccino]

Just to contribute to the last conversation, Cathie Jung has a 16" waist. The smallest waist IN THE WORLD on a living person. She's not a good example of what most tightlacers look like. Attractive waist size is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but it's also determined by height. I know a lot of Filipina women who are in the 4'8-4'11 range, and it's not all that uncommon for these women to have 20-22 inch waists. Plenty of women under 5" do have "normal" (meaning 24" or larger) size waists on a tiny bodies, even when they're thin, but a few have waists that are "proportionate" to their tiny height. That means that their waist measurements will "sound" too small to a women of normal height, but won't actually look too small in real life.

I read somewhere that if a women is going for a classic pin-up hourglass figure, her waist circumference should be 35-40% of her height. At a slightly exaggerated looking 35% of height, the waist of a 5'4" woman would measure 22.5", and the waist of a 5'0" woman would measure 21". Some people obviously prefer larger waists than this.

Your natural waist is ALWAYS larger than your corset waist. If you are average height with an average size natural waist, and you want to shrink down to a 23" inch natural waist, you will need to slowly cinch down until you can comfortably fit into a fully closed 18" corset. That sounds tiny (and it is!) but your natural waist will spring back by 25-30%, giving you a 22-24" natural waist measurement right after removing your corset. Apparently you might not get as much "spring-back" if you don't cinch down as far. For example if you have a natural waist of 26", and you slowly cinch down into a 22" corset, you might only spring back to 24 or 25" once the corset is removed.

This is an important fact to keep in mind because (if you have a 26" waist) achieving a 22" corset waist might take only 2 to 4 months, while achieving an 18" corset waist might take 1-2 YEARS, and only if if your a VERY dedicated waist trainer.