Corset Report

There has been an attraction to corsets by both women and men for a long time - 100's of years. The construction techniques and the shapes they form 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.

Using Corsets to Shape the Body

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 attain 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. If you want the corset to feel comfortable when you are wearing it you can only lace up and tighten so much, you should rely on the boning for providing the rest of the support.

Spring steel boning is nylon-coated steel that is white in color and comes in a group of thicknesses, widths, and lengths. When you are making a selection for the type of 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. When the proper thickness of steel boning is selected 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 allow you to slide into and out of your corset without another person's 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.