How about using ordinary lacing at back and making an *external* modesty panel to hide it?

I don't think snaps will hold. When I suggested it, I was thinking of the usual sort of modesty panel, which goes behind the lacing and can get a bit scrunched around as things get tightened down. If you're actually looking to fasten the garment closed, I would definitely use hooks. Big heavy coat hooks, by preference. (Like this or this.) They'll be the easiest thing to get closed and they'll take a fair amount of strain if they're well attached.

I think you'll be able to get a small waist reduction without lacing, but there's a lot of pressure involved in a several-inch waist reduction (60-80 pounds per square inch)¹. Trying to bring that pressure to bear by hand, without the use of a pulley (the laces), is going to be really hard. Putting it on will also be potentially uncomfortable, because you'll have the fastened area at full pressure, with no tapering off to areas of no pressure at all. There won't be the chance to wiggle around at half-tension to get everything settled right.

I'm not saying it's impossible to do at all, and I think it will look really cool if you can pull it off, but it'll probably take a bunch of experimentation. The footnote is a super cool read, by the way. Science!


¹ The Corset: Questions of Pressure and Displacement, by Robert L Dickinson. 1887 - en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Corset

You don't think there would be a way to say, have the modesty panel attached on one side and then have snaps on the other to close? And it also reduce the waist if I account for it on the sides?

Reading back, I think I lost track of your original question and intention. Getting waist reduction without lacing will be difficult - lacing is basically a way of incrementally tightening a garment so that you can draw it in in stages. Without that tool, you'll have to pull it tight and fasten it all in one go, and unfastened portions will have no tension or compression at all.

In any case, though I suspect it's not what you're actually looking for: This modesty panel is hung on a ribbon (notice that the lacing slips under the lighter pink strap at the bottom). You can do the same thing with loops of fabric (like on the tongues of shoes to catch the laces), and if made of the same fabric they're much less visible than the usual eyelets.

Anyway - good luck!

What I'm going for is no lacing or holes. It has a virtually seamless look, with waist reduction. I agree about the snaps. I've been reading some on the boning and trying to figure out placement for the best reduction and seamless ness. I'm a fairly visual person though, so I would love to see the suspended modesty panel

I would probably recommend smallish snaps over hook/eye. The lacing will cause a lot of shifting, and hooks may not stay hooked. You can also always suspend the modesty panel on the lacing with loops or eyelets. If you're not familiar with the style let me know and I'll dig up some pictures.