Corset Report

There has been an attraction to corsets by both women and men for a long time - 100's of years. The types of shapes and construction techniques have changed over time. and so have the types of materials used. In order to reproduce the correct shapes, you need to have an understanding of the items and materials you can select from.

Shaping the Body with Corsets

The oldest corsets are typically those with a minimal amount of curves. The breast flesh looks to be extremely compressed and create the appearance of a minimized profile. To develop this shape you have to constrain and work against the typical shape and inherent curves of woman's body.

Busks and Boning

A corset of high quality depends on two main factors: a) the characteristics of the boning material used, and b) the level of lacing tightening. In order for the corset to fit you comfortably you can only lace up and tighten so much, the remainder of the support is done by the boning.

A popular boning material is nylon coated spring steel that is usually a lighter color and is created in a group of lengths, thicknesses, and widths. When selecting the spring steel boning for a corset that will look like it was designed for you the width is of minor concern while your primary focus should be on the thickness. The steel boning characteristic makes a perfect corset because it is quite flexible and it is extremely hard to bend.

There are also busks which open and are used in the front of corsets to enable you to get into and out of your corset without help. The first time busks were used was near 1860 and started with a straight simple busk, the complications of the spoon busk was developed around 1870. All of these corsets can be found in either our corset superstore or our corset auctions.