A busk. It’s a stabilizer for the corset. Nowadays, they’re metal with a hook-and-eye sort of thing, so you don’t have to do up the entire lacing process every time.
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It’d be altogether much more comfortable without the stays, but interesting how they help in an engineering sense, for attaching and distributing the rest of the fabric’s weight.
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Mostly stays weren’t laced super-tight like we tend to think of corsets now. They’re incredibly supportive and comfortable when worn “normally”. You get bust and back support, and the straps aren’t cutting grooves in your shoulders like a bra.
