Corset History

Corsets have been idolized by both women and men for many centuries. The construction methods and shapes they produce have varied. and so have the materials used. In order to create the correct figure, you should have an understanding of the materials and items you can choose from.

The Corset Body Shaping Story

The corsets from earlier times have usually been those with minimal amounts of reshaping. The breasts appear to be pressed down and their shape changed to represent a minimized silouhette. To attain this straight silhouette you are having to "fight" the natural curves of most women’s bodies.

Boning, Busks and Other Corset Techniques

Any top quality corset design relys on two fundatmental factors: a) the type of material used in the boning, and b) the amount of tightening allowed by the lacing design. To ensure you are comfortable while wearing your corset you can only tighten and lace up to a point, the remainder of the functionality is provided by the support delivered by the boning.

Steel boning is typically coated in nylon that is typically a light color and is found in different length, thickness, and widths. When selecting the spring steel boning for the best corset for you the thickness, and not the width, should be of primary importance. When the proper thickness of steel boning is selected it is quite flexible and it is extremely hard to bend.

You can sometimes find busk fasteners that open and are often used on 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.