Cheap corsets vs the real steel!
Once up on a time, the corset was seen as a normal foundation garment to a western woman’s daily wear. Nowadays we prefer the freedom to be more active and not restricted by such garments. However there is still a demand for corsets. Sometimes when I tell people the price of a tailor-made corset they usually reply “oh gosh that is a lot!” and then go on to tell me about a corset they saw in a shop that cost only 30€. My first question is usually “Was it a real corset?” and the customer usually shrugs. I explain that a lot of skill and art goes into creating a real corset. A cheap corset looks nice on the manaquin but if you were to really try and pull that corset tight a few times, problems will occur. For example, bones poking out or eylets falling off. Most times the material used is very cheap and are probably manufactured in China. This is how shops can afford to offer a corset for such a cheap price, but after you try and pull it tight on two occassions or more, I’m sure the fabric will start to fray and the bones will start showing through.
With a good quality corset this problem should not occur and you can wear your corset for many years because the quality and strength of the fabric will be simular to the Victorian methods of corsetry, using Cortil as the stong fabric to stand the stress of tight lacing. The Victorians used whale bone in their corsets, but today this is illegal and instead steel boning is used, such as spiral boning which made its way into corset usage from around 1910-1930s because it was more flexible than the rigid steel boning.
Steel Spiral Bone for Corsets
In a good quality corset there will be a strong steel busk, spiral bones, straight steel bones for the back where you lace and strong eyelets. Furthermore, a higher price means you get a corset that is tailored to your exact measurments rather than a cheaper one bought straight off the rail that might not cover the tummy properly or that gives that unflattering ‘too much bust spilling over the top of your corset’ effect!
I believe we are entering a new dawn, where quality wins over quantity and being cheap is not at all the main priority. All corsets produced at Miss Moss Corsets are made from high quality fabrics imported from England, silks from Italy and steel from Germany. If you are intersted in a custom-made corset please get in touch and i’ll send you our sizing chart. Corsets can be sent to anywhere in the world!
Happy New Year! I think this one will be a good one!
So I have a lot planned for the new year!! A lot of exciting ideas and new projects lined up!
First off, next week I will be selling my designs at Japan Festival Berlin. The event is being held at Urania on Saturday 15th – Sunday 16th January 2011. 10am-6pm both days! I am really looking forward to it because it will be the first big event I will be selling my designs at! So I am pretty busy at the moment, working on stuff for that!
In February I have been asked to make a pin up style Valentines day collection for an exhibition called SemiDomesticated where it will be an opportunity for me to show my designs and hopefully get some buyers interested. Each piece has to be made with something vintage or an up-cycled fabric, which is really interesting. I went shopping for fabrics in England a few weeks back. I was looking for some power mesh to start making a girdle, and the shop assistant pulled out some very vintage power mesh that she said was from around the 1950s which was fabulous! Exactly what I was looking for!
Recreating the past
Years ago when my Corset obsession was beginning to really take off I went to the Victoria and Albert museum in London and I saw a beautiful fuchsia pink Corset with a black lace trim and a pink ribbon finishing. On a more recent visit to the V&A museum I unfortunately did not see the corset as the exhibitions change frequently but I re-looked it up in a book I bought from the Museum and I found it again. I decided to recreate this corset but with my own modern flair!
Above is the image of the Corset that is part of the fascinating historical costume collection at the V&A. Its dated from about 1885-1895. It is French and the shape is classic for the end of the 19th century. The steel busk which fasten the corset at the centre front came into popular use around the 1850′s making it much easier for the wearer to get herself into her own corset without as much assistance of others, but help was still needed.
Before the 1880s white cotton or linen were used for “respectable women”. The corsets of this period didn’t have much decoration to them as they were used as a tool to mould the female body to the desired ideal at the time. Bolder colours were used by prostitutes and women of “looser morals” However after the 1880s, thanks to the industrial revolution the corset trade really began to change and develop and more materials were starting to become available and a larger range of fabrics such as coloured silks, satin or silk broche so the colour of the Corset above was typical towards the end of the century with lots of decoration and elegant laces.
With this elegant historical design as my inspiration and after researching fabrics I found some beautifully bright fuchsia pink silk from a my local little fabric shop in Italy, I had some black lace sent from England and I started working on my own design. However the lining I made from black and white polka dot fabric, just to add a more modern feel to the design! I organised a photo shoot with the photographer Steve Braun and the fabulous model Lydia. It was Lydia’s first time at modelling but she was a complete natural and the photos turned out really nice! Although Lydia does not have a super tiny waist of the women from the Victorian era, I am still happy with the results of a modern day corset for a modern woman. We do not need to lace up super tight like the corsets of the past. The women we see in the old images who have super tiny waists are showing off their social status and their husbands wealth and role in society. The smaller the woman’s waist showed that she simply could not do much and this helped the image men saw women as the “weaker sex”. It was not up until the end of the first world war in 1918 that women were really showing they had a voice, they had proven they could take over the men’s jobs in the factories to help with the war effort and to be seen as equals.
I am glad that today we have a right to choose what we wear and if we want to wear a corset or not. I think, even now, it is still seen as a sexual symbol and I think it will always stay that way but it is our choice to show ourselves in whatever way we please, tight laced or not and not just to satisfy the taste of a possible future husband!
Little treasures found in Venice!
I started living in Venice, Italy in September 2009. I was doing a costume design internship with a company called Atelier Pietro Longhi in the heart of the city. It was a fabulous experience and I feel I learnt more from my 4 month internship there than I did in 3 years at university!! And living in Venice was a magical experience if not a little boring at times too. I refer to it as sleepy town because not much is happening here for young people!
Baby steps…
I have been recommended by a few people that I should start a Blog! So here it goes!
