Michele Kobke was 20 years old when she decided she wanted the smallest waist possible.
She read up on it online and in forums, and began wearing a corset in late 2009. Today, at 24, she says she only takes it off to shower or change into another one. She sleeps in it, and according to some media reports, she also wears it to eat and even to swim.
The result is what caught the world’s attention: her waist went from 64 to 40 centimeters, without surgery. But there’s one detail that changes the picture: without the corset, she herself admits that her waist measures about 54 cm. The 40 centimeters only exist when the garment is tightly laced.
Her idol is American Cathie Jung, who holds the record with a waist of about 38 centimeters, and Michele wants to match her. Doctors have warned her of weakened abdominal and back muscles, a displaced and smaller stomach, and a specialist quoted by the press says her lungs are weaker than normal for her age. Today, she has to divide her food into around ten small portions a day.
She sums it up this way: “My life hasn’t changed, it’s just become slower”.
How far would you go for a measurement?