Advice, please?

[auntiemeesh]

Okay, for those of you who know about these things (I'm hoping one or two of you do, at least), I need to know if the tabs on the bottom of this corset pattern serve a necessary purpose or are mostly just decorative. I was hoping to leave them off if they aren't necessary. Thanks in advance for any and all help/suggestions.

http://www.simplicity.com/p-1576-costumes.aspx - Sorry for the link, I had a pic but it was too small, you could barely see what I was talking about.