Corset tips and lacing instruction

Before you lace your corset, remember to untie the laces and loosen them. There should be no struggle to close the busk. Remember, the busk is sturdy and made of solid steel, but it is also where the majority of the pressure is. Bending and twisting the busk endlessly might result in bending it out of shape and, worst case scenario, breaking it.

After you've closed the busk, drag those little ears of lace that you can locate at the back of the corset at the point of your waist. Tighten these comfortably. Then you can start to adjust the lacing from the top and downwards and from the bottom and upwards. Lace yourself comfortable and not too tight!

After wearing the corset for somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes, you can (if desired) lace yourself some more. Post-lacing is more healthy for both you and the corset, giving your intestines time to adjust to the corset, and the boning of the corset time to adjust to your body.

When removing your corset, simply untie the laces and loosen it, just like you did when you put it on. Unbutton the busk, and there you go. Let your corset air out after wearing, just like you would with a woolen garment, to clean it. It is also recommended to wear some sort of fabric between you and the corset to prevent oil and sweat from your skin to damage the corset. Either wear a strapless top or a corset liner, or wear it on top of clothes.

With a newly acquired corset, never lace yourself to the max at once. Just like a pair of shoes, you have to break the corset in and let it get used to your body shape. Due to the fact that the corset molds itself after your body after some time, it is important not to lend your corset to other people for more than a very short period of time, and preferably not at all.

When buying a corset that either is not custom made for you or created for tightlacing, buy it 2-4 inches smaller than your natural waist size. Ask for measurements if you are curious.

If your corset needs a little "wash", always get it dry cleaned. Water will damage the boning and the busk. If you have stains caused by liquid, use a soft cloth with luke warm water and pressure slightly on the stain until it is gone, and if necessay, use a mild dishwashing soap on the cloth. Airing the corset out is usually all it takes otherwise.



The history of the corset

Many people do not know that the corset is a garment that has existed for hundreds, or in fact thousands of years. It has changed a lot, of course, from being made out of leather bands, steel, wood and into what we know as the corset today. Here is a summary of the history of the corset, from the ancient Greek and to contemporary corset wearers.

The first record of a corset that we know of is of a snake goddess from Crete, dated back to 1600 BC. This woman is proudly standing with one snake in each hand, lifting them up and exposing pushed up breasts, rounded hips and, most importantly, a cinched waist. We also know that women in ancient Greece molded their bodies into a more feminine shape using leather bands which they strapped tightly around themselves. This would also be done to young girls from a very young age with the intention to create a more desirable and feminine shape.

The feminine shape had been accentuated for many years, until the medieval times came. Together with Christianity came chastity and sin. Women were not supposed to wear tight clothes that would expose their bodies too much, probably to stop people from performing what was viewed upon as sinful acts of passion.

This changed during the renaissance. In artwork, we see tighter dresses, often with a tightly laced bustier or vest over it. Christianity and religion was still a fact, but as the old traditions of philosophy and humanity crept into the light again, people became more independent from religion, and started to think more on their own. In England, Queen Elizabeth I reigned during the mid-renaissance, or the Tudor period as it is known as. Paintings of her show a tightly laced torso with a big underskirt, creating a dramatic figure. The corsets, referred to first as payre of bodies and then as stays, in those ages were very stiff and straight, pushing the breasts up high, whereas the underskirt created the shape of the hips. Corsets in these ages were mostly made out of fabric and wooden boning, but could be made of rather uncomfortable materials as well, such as metal and wood, though this was fairly uncommon and done only by the wealthy since they did not have to perform bodywork such as the commoners. A Spanish queen once uttered that she would not remove her wooden corset until she experienced peace. Compared to the corsets we know today, this was quite a contrast, and must indeed have been painful if she actually did it.

In the baroque period, they stays become less straight, though the waist of the stay was still a bit lower than the natural waist, so they were not able to lace them to the extreme. 22 was usually the smallest. To enhance this, they wore big underskirts and crinolines. The baroque period was opulent, extravagant and dramatic in style, which is obvious when you look at paintings, architecture and fashion from those ages, which would become even more opulent in the years to come.

Following the baroque period, came the rococo. With its cradle in France, one can say that Marie Antoinette is the perfect example of a fashionable woman from those ages. The stays were still dramatically cut, but unique for this era, the lacing helped pushing the shoulders backwards (the best was if the shoulder blades almost touched), resulting in a very straight posture and full breasts. The underskirts were broad and helped enhancing the dramatically cut waist. Brighter colours were used, and being feminine and posh was indeed the thing to be, with wigs, make-up, details and heels  this applying for both genders. This being the age of the French revolution, eventually resulted in the working class loathing of the corset, since it represented the aristocracy. If worn visibly, the woman wearing it could often experience being harassed.

After the French revolution, appearing aristocratic and opulent was not exactly what people sought after the most. Regency brought a simpler way of dressing into the world, not to mention the empire-waist. Many people are under the impression that women in these days did not wear corsets. The definition of a corset is a garment created to mold the torso, which they did even in those days. The waistline was moved up to underneath the breasts. Underneath that, they wore layers of undergarments, and on top of that, either something similar to a bra or a short stay. The bra-similar garment was called a divorce, dividing the breasts and pushing them upwards. It was boned with steel and iron, and slightly padded. More normally worn, was a short type of stay. Being just like a regular stay, only shorter, it pushed the breasts up and created a slimmer figure. It ended where the waistline begun, and thus it created the desired figure for this era.

This continued until the 1820's. In those ages, the corset was coming back again. It started with the regency waist dropping down a bit with slight corseting underneath and a belt over the dress to accentuate the waistline. During the 1830s, the Victorian ages begun, and so did an era of the corseted waist, which would last for quite some time. In the 1860s, they started creating sturdier corsets with many panels and a lot of boning, usually made out of whalebone, to create that wasp-like waist. This was due to the flattening of the front of the dress, and thus the emphasis came at the waist and the hips. In these days, even pregnancy corsets were created, and there was even a saying in those days that a woman should never have a corseted waistline above her age, probably aimed at the younger females. Corsets were usually not laced beneath 18 though, and even though there were cases of extreme tightlacing, the majority of the corseted waists were somewhere between 20 and 30, big puff sleeves and big skirts creating an optical illusion that the waist was smaller than it actually was. In these ages, men would wear corsets as well, some of them giving a masculine and straight posture, while some of them created a more feminine waistline.

In the Edwardian ages, starting somewhere between 1890 and 1900, the health corset came, pushing the body into an s-shape. They were longlined, strongly boned and sturdy. These corsets were not as healthy as they claimed to be though. Even though they removed some pressure from the abdomen, they could do damage to the back because of the unnatural shape they forced the body to take. Later on, this type of corset and body shape in general became unpopular, and during the 1910s, together with the art nouveau and fashion movement, the body shape evolved more and more towards the 1920s flapper style.

The flapper style was very straight and rather unfeminine when it came to body shape, thus quite a contrast from the shape that had reigned for quite some time. They did not wear the same type of corsets as they did during the Edwardian ages, but did indeed wear shapewear to straighten things out and achieve that tomboyish look. The shapwear often had lacing and boning, just as a regular corset.

Between the 1930's and 1960's, the corset was replaced with a girdle or a waist cincher, still giving the body a more feminine shape, but not as extreme. This type of shapewear was either made out of powermesh to push things in or other fabrics with the same function, The waist cincher (which became really popular during the 1950s) had boning to create that lovely curve as seen on Marilyn Monroe.

After that, the corset had quite a pause. During the 60's, Twiggy became a fashion icon, and with her slender and boyish figure, she contributed to create a new fashion image. Fashion constantly changed, but corsets were not often worn and were not a big part of the industry.

It was not until the 80's and 90's, when the fetish scene started to flourish, that the corset had its revival. It also became a big part of the gothic community. The new burlesque movement also contributed to this. Corsets were usually sold to people with special interests, which they in a way do today as well, but nowadays, even people with a more normal style wear corsets, either for fun or because they simply like it. It is a garment that is becoming more and more popular, and there is no wonder why.

Written for DraculaClothing by Mari Groven Holmboe.