Does this make YOUR WAIST smaller?

How would you like to lose four inches off your waist in two minutes? Poof! Elizabeth Joyce of Callisto Couture Custom Corsets can make it happen.

"I have a 24-inch waist, but when it's laced up all the way in a corset, it's only 20 inches," says our corset model, Winnipeg burlesque entertainer Miss Angela La Muse. She owns a midnight-blue number with black trim and Swarovski crystals made by the Exchange District entrepreneur.

"The most difference I've seen in a corseted waist was nine inches smaller, and that was a man. But it was a man who was used to wearing corsets," says 39-year-old Joyce, who creates the fantasy garments start to finish.

Here's how it works: The steel or modern plastic "boning" cinches the entire core of the body and quite tightly at the waist. Someone near and/or dear to you can pull the lacing in the back and tie it firmly, or you can lace it ahead of time and do up the front closure yourself. Hey, presto! Madame (or Monsieur) has a slimmed waistline. And one can still breathe, though gently.

You'll want to take a deep breath before reading this, though. Ms. Joyce charges $800 and up for these custom garments, which take up to 40 hours make. They also require exotic materials "from weaving countries around the world." She notes her customers are often "confident women in their 40s and 50s with disposable income."

In fact, her website, www.callistocouture.ca, includes praise from the likes of Winnipeg philanthropist Gail Asper. "Exactly one year to the day I opened my business, Gail was photographed on the red carpet in Ottawa in one of my corsets. I took it as a sign I was at the right place in my career."

Any difficulty getting customers in Winnipeg at those prices? "No, I haven't noticed any," smiles Joyce, who works in a romantic lilac-coloured factory at 506-63 Albert St.

"I make the shape out of stiff German Cotil which won't rip or give way and insert custom-sized steel or plastic boning, in the place of whalebone used in the old days," she says.

Different parts of the garment, such as bra cups and front panels, often have a special fabric covering of their own, so there are delicate patchworks to be sewn together. This is a fantasy garment of a lady's own choosing, with suggestions from the Callisto Couture portfolio on display.

Joyce's little factory is outfitted with an industrial sewing machine that goes at lightning speed (she let me drive it and I almost landed up in the next office), an industrial steam iron and big hoops of steel and plastic to embrace the body and mould it. Then she adds strong but esthetically pleasing laces to finish the outfit. You can substitute ribbon ties for fun, but if you want a dramatic change to your waist, heavy-duty laces are the way to go.

These corsets are so pretty they don't need to be hidden unless they're supporting another garment, like a ball gown or wedding dress. Miss La Muse says she wears her custom blue corset over and under outfits, or alone as part of a costume onstage. The cinching gives her an hourglass look from the front, and a derrière that's a perfect upside-down heart.

Joyce often rescues desperate brides who bought their expensive gowns months before the wedding "and now there's two weeks to go and the dress won't fit." And then there are grads who just wants a sparkly corset top, to wear with a glamorous skirt.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum, she hears from annoyed grandmothers whose doctors have ordered a corset for back support. They look at these ugly things and say, "Ugh! I am still a woman, for heaven's sake."

Corset design seems like a strange second career for a scientist who used to work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. But Joyce got restless in her early 30s -- one grows bored of zooplankton. So, six years ago, she made a radical change.

She always sewed, but didn't know which direction to go with it. "This may sound funny, but I put it out to the universe and the answer came back 'corsets,' and here I am."

Joyce believes she is well-suited to the work. "I am particular, and patient." Plus, she loves nature, and most of her fabrics are from natural substances such as silk, cotton and linen with colours from natural dyes such as tree bark. "When you iron that fabric, you get a fragrant woodsy smell."

A well-cared-for Callisto Couture corset, Joyce says, could last a lifetime. "It's something you can pass on to your daughters and granddaughters."

Think of it as a piece of fabric art -- and a hint at grandma's secret life.