What goes into a well-made corset?

Finding a corset to buy online is as easy as finding a pair of fishnets at a burlesque club – they’re everywhere. Finding a good quality corset on the other hand, now that can be a challenge! There are lots of places selling ‘authentic corsets’ or ‘training corsets’ that really don’t match up to their titles. At FairyGothMother you know you’re in good hands, so let’s take a look under the corset at what makes them such good quality and which one will suit your needs.

Here at FairyGothMother you’ll find a large and very extensive range including FairyGothMother’s own Lulu & Lush collection, as well as corsets by a few other choice designers. There are a number of tell tale signs of quality that they all have in common:

Steel boning is probably the most important factor in a corset. Cheap corsets often have plastic bones which never last long nor support the body properly; making them very uncomfortable in comparison to sprung or spiral steel. A plastic bone will bend when you sit, leaving a kink, which will remain forever. After only a few wears you’ll find a plastic boned corset will look misshapen and possibly have a few snapped bones. This will virtually never happen with steel.

Lining Fabric is almost equally as important in a corset. Especially if it is to last a long time, keep its shape and cinch the waist properly. Otherwise it’s not a corset! Its just an imitation and won’t give you that beautiful corseted waistline you’ve been drooling over (yes we’ve seen you). All corsets on the FairyGothMother site are properly lined for strength and comfort, this gives the garment a tremendous amount of strength and allows for robust wearing. All off the peg corsets are lined with strong cotton which allows the skin to breath, and all bespoke corsets are lined with coutil which is a specially designed corsetry fabric made from cotton but with a tight weave and robust threads to resist stretching. Perfect for creating that tiny waistline.

The Waist Tape is often completely left out in inferior corsets, which is such a shame as it makes a dramatic difference to the silhouette of a corseted figure. The waist tape or waist band is a strip of extremely strong ribbon or twill tape which runs around the smallest part of the waist giving support where it is most needed and adding a little extra pull to the waist curve. All of FairyGothMother’s corsets come with a proper waist band, no exceptions!

The Busk and Eyelets (sometimes called grommets) on a corset are important to check for quality. If a corset has no busk it will likely tear at the front closure point, corsets that don’t open at the front obviously won’t have a busk but steer well clear of hook and eye closing corsets! The eyelets on poorly made corsets are normally very inadequately supported; they should have steel boning either side. Eyelets without will often pop out, sometimes ripping the fabric as they do so. Alternatively corsets can have lacing bones, bones with the holes for lacing pre drilled. At FairyGothMother you can happily select a corset knowing that you can lace as tight as you need without damage to your corset (or you for that matter).

Aside from the above, all Lulu & Lush corsets are made using spiral steel boning with sprung steels for added support around the busk at front and the eyelets at back. The number of bones varies between designs but there will always be a bare minimum of 20 in any corset. As for their other designers – Puimond and Miss Katie are two designers who use a larger number of bones, while Vollers use less and are more suited to the beginner and fashion wearer. Other designers include: Valkyrie Corsets, RDLF and Eternal Spirits Corsetry.

So now you know what your looking for in your perfect corset why not browse by designer or try the bestsellers corsets page for a good range of special and everyday corsets, or the specialist corsets page if you’re a more advanced wearer looking for a more dramatic shape to your waist.

Written by Kirsty Sapsford from Corset Dress .co

Hello Lovelies!

As you already know, we are closing our Camden branch tomorrow, and as such, we suddenly have more stock than we know what to do with, including lots of one-offs made especially for photoshoots and catwalk shows, as well as lots of samples.

So if you’ve attended one of our shows and fallen in love with one of the amazing outfits, or popped into the Camden shop recently and one of our corsets taken your fancy but was just that bit too expensive, have a look at the new items we’ve added to our already quite epic sale. We have some truly beautiful and unique pieces you won’t find anywhere else, including an absolutely breathtaking purple patent leather corset dress by Puimond, reduced from £1200 to £450!

As well as these, we have lots of classic items at ridiculously low prices, so grab yourself a massive bargain and help us make some room for our summer collection. Don’t forget to keep checking back, as we have added many items and Sam is currently photographing and updating the system with new sale items, as we speak!

xxx