Woman With World's Smallest Waist Inspires Vogue Italia Cover Ethel Granger had the smallest waist of any woman ever, but it was not necessarily by choice. Her husband was tired of his wife's shapeless 1920s dresses and requested that she wear corsets and more figure-flattering garments. Granger eventually convinced his wife to wear corsets every day, even while sleeping. Slowly her waist transformed from 24 inches to the tiny size of 13 inches — the smallest waist ever recorded by The Guinness Book of Records.