Corset Lowdown

Corsets have been attractive to both men and women for 100's of years. Shapes and construction techniques have varied. and so have the materials used. In order to create the correct shape for you, you might be better informed if you have knowledge of the variety of items used in today's corsets.

Corsets and Body Shaping

The earlier corsets tend to be those with the least amount of shape or curves. Your breast shape tends to be compressed and the subsequent reshaping of the breast mass gives a minimized appearance. To attain this profile you must work against the iherent shape and curves of a lady's body.

Boning, Busks and Other Corset Techniques

A successful corset design is related to two components: a) the properties and type of boning material used. and b) the ability to pull together the lacing. In order for you to have a comfortable feeling while wearing your corset you can only tighten the lacing so much, it is therefore more practical to use the proper quality of "bone".

A good boning material is spring steel coated in nylon that typically is rendered in a lighter color pallette and is delivered in a variety of thicknesses, widths and lengths. When looking for a particular type of spring steel for the corset you choose the thickness, and not the width, should be of primary importance. You can tell when you have selected the proper spring steel boning because it is really flexible but it is almost impossible to bend.

You can sometimes find busk fasteners that open and are used in the front of corsets to enable you to get into and out of your corset without help. These did not appear until around 1860 and began with the straight busk, today's spoon busk was created more than a decade later. All of these corsets can be found in either our corset superstore or our corset auctions.