Before I forget

The very talented Emily Schmall, third blonde from left, had a story on the Herald's front page today. The subject, corsets. Sadly, the story did not include a photo of Emily in one.

Before Miami Beach embraced topless sunbathing and thongs, it was a quaint Southern town where no woman dared leave home without her girdle.

It was in this setting in 1959 that Fay Potter opened a corset shop on Lincoln Road.

Whether for a torsolette, garters or stockings, Miami natives and snowbirds alike flocked to Fay Potter Underfashions to be ''fit like a queen,'' according to an advertisement in The Miami Herald at the time.

The art of a corsetiere was in customizing a corset to the inward slope of a hip, the swell of the breast, and Fay Potter was nationally renowned for her art.

Now I can't get the phrase "the swell of the breast" off my mind.