The Spirella Sarong, a vintage 1960s panty girdle. Corsetiere.net

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

I loved the hotel room strip tease performed by a stewardess on the 2009 Mad Men season premiere. The fitted suit. The cloche hat. The pumps. So 1963.

For those of you who missed the show: A blond stewardess drops her mid-century modest garments to the floor, one by one, until there is nothing left between her, the show’s hero, and their one-night stand – except a girdle — when, oddly enough, the hotel’s fire alarm goes off.

Don Draper smokes and ponders his existential angst.

I want to know — how was she planning to get that thing off?

You don’t think it’s a problem? Then you’ve never experienced a genuine 1963 girdle.

When my daughter was eight years old, I took her aside one day and explained the girdle facts of life to her. Then I wrote about it for The Oakland Tribune, where I was a columnist at the time. Here’s the story: [Read more...]