The Tightlacing Society

A Tumblr for the Facebook group The Tightlacing Society. A place full of information that is really difficult to organize all that information into something searchable. So thus, the creation of this blog! [avatar by KathTea; photographed by Dave&Belle DreamPhotographie]

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Are Corsets Lingerie? | The Lingerie Addict: Lingerie Fashion Blog

It was the Oxford Conference of Corsetry just over a week ago, and in its run up I spent most of my time getting pretty obsessive about corsets. I’ve been neglecting other areas of lingerie to dedicate my time to crafting these exquisite, waist-altering garments. Consequently, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the significance of the corset.

For the majority of their history, corsets have been almost exclusively an undergarment. It was during their heyday in the Victorian and Edwardian eras that they made the transformation from a purely functional pieces of clothing to a beautiful pieces of lingerie. The introduction of luxurious silk fabrics and dainty lace trims meant that many corsets became elegant components of trousseaus or decadent boudoir accompaniments, a new incarnation for these previously staid garments.

Yet in the latter half of the 20th century, heavy foundation wear fell almost entirely out of favour. It wasn’t until around the 1980s that corsets saw a major resurgence (and one that we can largely attribute to Jean Paul Gaultier’s corseted costumes for Madonna); corsets stopped solely being hidden under clothing.

[tightlacing-society]

Review of Orchard Corset 201 Mesh Corset (CS-201 Mesh) by Cassandra L

1.) Mesh (note- i removed the modesty panel) 2.) 3 months 3.) about 200 hours wear 4.) Pros: Amazing for these hot summer days and a nice short style offering less restriction of mobility and the thinner material stealths well too. 5.) Not as curvy as expected- looked to be a 10" hip spring but mine arrived with a 8" hip spring 6.) Yes- even for myself who has a very wide hip - I was able to use it since my hips are quite low and this corset cut it quite high over the hips and if you live anywhere with hot summers you will be glad to have it! 7.) Customer service was great and helpful :)

[tightlacing-society]

Review of Mystic City Corset 38 (MCC-38) by Cassandra L

1.) Black cotton and what seems like nylon for the sheer parts 2.) 3 months 3.) about 200 hours or so 4.) Pros: love the shape! and very sturdy 5.) Cons: I find the sheer panels to have a rough unpleasant texture if worn on bare skin (which I like to do on occasion to have my tattoos show through) I also find the rib cage larger than noted on her site- I have the piece fully closed and the under-bust is still large although the measurement should fit me snugly. Also I get some belly pooch from this but not too bad. 6.) Yes, for the price this is a no-brainer! Great quality! 7.) Customer service was great- she was very helpful! NOTE: I definitely view MCC pieces for PEAR shapes- I have a very full hip and it still took quite a while to get this to mold to me- they take a bit to break in- if you do not have anaturally larger hip area you may get gaping.

[snail-chores]

Aww yeah! My two pieces from Mystic City Corsets came the other day and already they feel great. They are so curvy and I cant wait to break them in and get back into corseting

[tightlacing-society]

Weekly Featured Corsetiere #23: Waisted Creations

Waisted Creations Luthien is a corset maker and the work she will present for you here will mainly be corsetry. She does sometimes make other things too, but corsetry is her absolute passion. She does not make custom corsets or take on commisions. Sometimes she sell samples but this isn’t a job for her. This is her hobby. She is extremely passionate about corsetry and about sharing her artwork with others. At the moment she is a full time student. She’s studying for her BA Viking Studies at UCL (something which she has incorporated into her work through her work based on Nordic Goddesses.) Her ultimate goals are to make a living from her corsetry and to move to Norway. Perhaps she will be able to open a boutique there one day selling her work to people in person. At the moment she creates corsetry as a hobby. It’s something she has been studying and producing for over a decade now and as she has progressed as a maker. She has come to see what she does as an art form. She hopes this is evident in her work. She enjoys experimenting with corsetry and regularly tries out new techniques and materials. She also enjoys writing about her experiments and their results. She writes for the corsetry magazine Foundations Revealed and she has had articles published by other corsetry blogs and magazines.

[tightlacing-society]

Weekly Featured Corset Designer #22: Miss Katie

I first came across Miss Katie's works before I started corseting. It was an article about corsetry by Roswell Ivory- model and writer on Mookychick. I was overwhelmed and in love. I am thankful to have seen her creations. It would be an honour to finally own one of her lush designs. Miss Katie www.misskatie.com ~ For more than 15 years, Miss Katie has created exquisite costumes for those members of London’s fashionable demi-monde that like to be "constrained" in their clothing. Using a wide range of fabrics to realize her vision of exotic yet wearable corsetry her styles achieve a beautiful silhouette. Miss Katie has enhanced the figures of stars of stage and screen while maintaining her own loyal, private client list. All lovingly made in Britain!

[tightlacing-society]

Review of Sweet Carousel Corsetry by Jennifer Duke

1.) Black satin & green ribbon 2.) 5 months-ish 3.) 90 hours roughly 4.) Drop dead gorgeous. A nice high back for those of us with back squidge. VERY firm, all the way around. I liked the more flexible back boning due to my swayback. 5.) Flexible busk - I like a much sturdier busk. It's a bit on the short side for me, personally - long torsos might need to get this custom'd instead of stock. 6.) Very much yes. 7.) It has taken longer to season than any other corset I own. Even at 90 hours, it's still much stiffer than I would expect. I feel like I could put another 90 hours into it before it softens up. Doesn't bother me, it's just noticeable when comparing to my other corsets.

[tightlacing-society]

Review of Artifice Clothing Corset by Jennifer Duke

1.) Kinetic zippered overbust corset

2.) I think roughly 3 years 3.)Less than 100. It's hard to find occasions to wear it. 4.) The design itself - people FLIP over this corset. And I feel like a tulip when I wear it. I like the matte pvc - it puts up with a lot of abuse from me (I tend to wear this corset to a lot metal concerts and then jump around in mosh pits). 5.) It kind of just... stops, shortly after the waist, with no support. So if I'm laced for a long time, it digs on the high hips a bit. The front boning where the busk would be is a bit too flexible for my personal tastes (but I like a severely rigid busk). And like another poster said, this is a buskless overbust, so it requires some looooooong laces to get in and out of, and it was sent with laces more appropriate for a busk-front underbust, so they had to be replaced as soon as I got it. 6.) For anyone looking for a less-frequent-wear conversation piece corset, absolutely. 7.) That's about it!

[tightlacing-society]

lacedseraph

1.) Fabric: Black satin, purple ribbon 2.) How old it is: About eight months 3.) Approximate hours of wear: No more than 100 - I'm only an occasional tightlacer. 4.) Pros: EVERYTHING. Okay no really - cute design. High back, which is awesome especially for us squishy folk because it contains the back fat and also some side boobage. Sturdy yet VERY lightweight. Comfy! 5.) Cons: This is a personal preference only and by no means the fault of Elise. The flat boning in the back by the grommets is extremely flexible which is great to accommodate super curved backs, but since I have a lot of back fat, the boning conforms to the bulging fat when I laced in, and starts to bow out behind me, so I have to try extra hard to flatten it out. In other words, I wish I'd asked for stiffer and possibly wider back boning to hold me in. Also the busk. I did ask for a longer (14"), wider, stiffer busk which she gladly used, but I still wish it was stiffer - like, probably the stiffest busk available on the market. 6.) Would you recommend it? YES! I will always recommend Elise and will go back to her for more! heart emoticon 7.) Everything else you want to say about it (example: measurements, customer service, were their seams ripping, were the details beautiful, do you love it/hate it, anything you want to say really): I love, love, love this corset and I truly enjoyed working with Elise. She responds so fast and is an absolute sweetheart. I emailed her so many times to specify so many details for the corset and she was always so nice and never made me feel like I was being annoying or like a pest.

[tightlacing-society]

Review of Sweet Carousel Corsetry by Zessinna

zessinna

1.) Fabric: Teal/Black Blossom Brocade Sweetheart Overbust cut 2.) How old it is: 2 years and 7 Months 3.) Approximate hours of wear: I used to wear it for waist training, so I'll estimate about 3000 hours. These days its for special occasions. 4.) Pros: Beautiful vibrant fabric the color was better than I could have hoped. It being an overbust means that it prevents me from slouching into my corset. This was also my first custom and it's surprisingly light. It just glides closed too. 5.) Cons: Elise (the owner) by default includes a high back, which is great, I wanted that, though as I have discovered, it makes it harder to lace up since it takes some effort to lace that top of it, while it also feeling weird against my shoulder blades. 6.) Would you recommend it: Yes I would! 7.) Everything else you want to say about it: Elise was super nice, I had emailed her a few times and called her once to verify a few details and she answered my questions promptly. When I recieved the corset, I was really confused because it was sooo light and way more flexible than any OTR corset I have owned, but as it turned out, that an experienced corsetiere can make strong lightweight corsets that seem flixible but hold their shape really well when worn. I have recently checked the waist measurement, and it has not changed. No stretching at all. I also used this corset to waist-train to 20 inches, since previous corsets couldn't close at that, and I did, so it was a great corset for that as well as just regular tightlacing.

[lucy-corsetry]

An overview of my trip to Thailand: How the new curvier corset patterns were made, what the working conditions were like in the factory, and a bit of what I learned about Bangkok culture and infrastructure. If there were any details you wanted to know that I forgot to add in my video, my ask box is open!

[kathtea-deactivated20190108]

Please be on the lookout for all the latex (and corset) listed in the link above!

[tightlacing-society]

kathtea:

anitadebauch is a very talented model who shaped me as a model today and her car was recently broken into. These wardrobe pieces are irreplaceable to a model so it would be helpful to help her recover them!

If you see any of this stuff anywhere, e.g. for sale on eBay or in Facebook groups, please call Leicestershire police on 101, citing crime reference # 15000073696, and email her on [email protected].

Please look out for the following items:

1. PANDORA DELUXE black and white checker-board appliqué lingerie and footless stockings set.It is labelled Pandora Deluxe inside. There is only one of these sets in the world, so if you see it- it’s the stolen one!

2.  PANDORA DELUXE dusky pink skater dress. It has adjustable black straps, a zip up the back, and is labelled Pandora Deluxe inside.

3.  PANDORA DELUXE light blue and navy blue 60s-style bikini (big pants!) with small gold buckles, labelled Pandora Deluxe inside.

4.  PANDORA DELUXE red mini dress with leopard print trim on the cups. It has fancy straps over the chest, a zip up the back, and is labelled Pandora Deluxe inside.

5.  MURRAY & VERN full-length black latex catsuit, size small. It is labelled Murray & Vern on the inside back of the collar. It has a single zip. (See photo for 6)

6.  HEAVENLY CORSETS black gloss PVC underbust tightlacing corset- i.e. with very high quality steel boning. It has a steel busk front and black lacing on the back, and a hot pink Heavenly Corsets label inside. As far as I know, there is only one of these in existence as I had it custom made, so if you see it, it’s almost certainly the one that got stolen. I think it closes at 20".

7.  SHHH! COUTURE “white” (cream) latex Stormtrooper-inspired two-piece with black geometric pattern. The top has a black zip up the back. This was custom made for me when I won a competition.

8.  CATHOUSE CLOTHING Union Jack latex overbust corset. It has a steel busk at the front and white laces and a modesty panel at the back. I think there is a Cathouse Clothing label inside, but I can’t really remember :( (See photo for 9)

9.  “White” (cream) fully fashioned seamed latex stockings. They are imperfects (an experiment on behalf of the designer). Size small.

10.  Black latex two piece with metallic purple trim. This was a gift and I don’t actually know who the designer was. It’s quite thick, tough, good quality latex, and quite big in the chest for me.

A message from Anita:

If you want to help…

I don’t want or expect handouts, but if you would like to do something for mutual benefit right now, it would be hugely appreciated.

If you are a photographer, designer, website producer or other client looking to book a model, now would be a really good time to book me for fashion, beauty, bodyscapes, simple art nude work, pin-up, boudoir, bondage, foot/ shoe fetish and vintage glamour shoots. Have car, temporarily have Ivory Flame’s satnav, will travel Monday - Sunday! Email [email protected].

If you are a model

and can recommend any photographers in NYC or SE Asia/ Australia I could get in touch with for work, I can in turn share my contacts over there.

If you are a fan

and you like feet and/ or nylons, now would be the perfect time to

order some of my worn stockings. They all come with a free signed photo. If you would like to order other personally worn items, please email me on [email protected].

Give me a little like/ follow/ share on

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

. The more people who follow me, the more likely it is that at least one of them might book me for a shoot, or pass me on to someone who will.

Don’t ask me about insurance.

Whatever question you have to ask about my insurance can be succinctly answered with the phrase, “they’re useless bastards.” Ditto car park security, and quite probably ditto police (we’ll see).

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on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else you can think of, and +1 it on Google. All the little buttons to do it are below. If you are subscribed to my blog, you will be receiving this by email, which you could forward to your friends (please).

Signal boost! Stolen corsets and latexwear. ~Kath

[tightlacing-society]

Hi! I was wondering if corsets just for fashion exist? Like ones that aren't for waist training Or do I just have to get one and not tie it tightly? Thanks in advance!

Hi there!

Indeed they exist!

The corset you are looking for is called a “fashion corset”. Usually plastic boned and provide a little shaping. Fashion corsets are perfect to wear if you want to have the look of a corset, but not the effects of waist-training. They are a lot easier to find than waist-training corsets. :)

There are many degrees of fashion corsets too, since what they do is take attributes from both tightlacing corsets and bustiers.

To start off: Bustiers tend to be more lingerie-esque. They hug the natural curves, and are usually made with stretchy material, and with zippers or hook-and-eye closure (either in the front or back).Tightlacing corsets give the wearer an hourglass shape with a curvy pattern and strong construction and a lace-up back. Then we have fashion corsets, which are between bustiers and tightlacing corsets. They are more-or-less shapewear and most often have plastic bones. 

So if there was scale of fashion to functionality for these garments it would look like this:

Bustier–>fashion corset–>tightlacing corset

Basically, fashion corsets are the grey areas of this scale.

Fashion corsets have attributes from both types of garments. They have an hook-and-eye closure, some may have a metal busk. They even may have steel bones instead of plastic. They may have only a zipper or both lace-up back with a zipper.

Plastic boned corsets usually go in the vanity sizing: small, medium, large. While steel-boned fashion corsets may still go by waist measurements. For steel boned fashion corsets, it’s best to go only 0-2 inches below your natural waist (unlike going 4-6 inches below your natural waist for a waist-training/tightlacing corset).

So, where can you fine them? You can find them in-stores sometimes, especially in stores that have bustiers/lingerie, and most pin-up type stores. Check out the “corsets” or “bustier” section of some online stores, and you are bound to find fashion corsets. Below are some places that I know of, but there are many more!

I hope this helped and answered your question. : )

Hot Topic has plastic boned ones and bustiers.

Black Heart has fashion corsets and bustiers.

Yandy has has a huge variety.

Corset Story has plastic boned corsets and steel-boned corsets (though I linked to their plastic boned corsets). They are the reason I mentioned “steel boned fashion corsets” (despite them advertising otherwise).

Fredericks has plastic boned ones as well as bustiers.

Little tid-bit: Bustiers and fashion corsets are often put into the same category, so it can get confusing while shopping, but it ultimately depends on what you want to wear anyway. :)

[chaxsthexries]

Restyle Black Satin “Violin” underbust review!

1. Satin polyester fashion fabric, cotton twill lining

2. About a month

3. Probably around 60-70 hours

4. Very comfy, fits me Well even for an off the rack corset. Great price, shipping was quick. Busk is really strong, and it’s double boned throughout, which I like.

5. The biggest issue I have is the flat steel boning in the back. One of them actually stabbed through its channel, so I took the opportunity to take it out and do a quality check. It looked fine, save for the slightly pointier edge on one side and an odd hole near one side. However, when I tested its flexibility it stayed bent! This might explain why I had some mild back pain when I wore it to work (I’m a barista). I patched over the hole, and that’s holding up for now.

6. Yes I’d recommend it

7. If you’re looking for a 23/7 waist training corset or one to wear if you stand for a long time, this probably isn’t a great choice. This is better for spending long periods seated or laying down; school, office jobs, even sleeping are easy to accomplish in this! Also this was my first corset

[tightlacing-society]

I am so sorry if it took me ages to see this, I haven't been looking in the tags themselves lately. #Authentic Corset is the tag I check the most, but we will see the tag in our activity page if @tightlacing-society is tagged. :)

[lucy-corsetry]

Comparison between Orchard Corset CS-426 and Timeless Trends long cut corset

I received an ask about this, but for some reason the images aren’t showing up properly, so I’m turning this into its own post and hoping that the pictures work.

I worked on the patterns for both the CS-426 with hip ties and the new silhouette of TT longline with hip ties, so I’m pretty familiar with the contrast between them. The following aren’t ALL the differences, but the most glaring ones.

This is the CS-426 with hip ties. It’s 13″ long in the center front, and 10.5″ long at the princess seam. I believe only the first panel is interfaced, the other panels of the corset are flatlined.

If I remember correctly, the ribs are 6″ bigger than the waist, the upper hipspring is +10″ and the lower hipspring is +13″ (with the hip ties closed). So the ribs are similar to the TT longline, but the hips are slightly bigger.

Also look at the way the first and second panels are shaped. The center front panel swoops inward at the waist and then back out so it’s wider at the bottom again. The second panel is crescent shaped. Panel 3 ends up being relatively skinnier at the hip. The ribcage overall is a bit more conical, too.

Here’s yours truly in the Timeless Trends longline. I don’t quite have the hips to fill out the size 24″, so here’s Sarah in a similar one (although the beige makes the panel shapes hard to see):

The TT longline is 13″ long in the center front (same as OC) but the princess seam is slightly longer (11″) because it’s a more of a straight-ish line up to the hip (it doesn’t really swoop up over the thigh and then back down like the 426 does). The peak under the bust is slightly less dramatic in the TT corset compared to the OC, too.

The ribs are 6.5″ bigger than the waist (a tiny bit bigger than the 426 ribspring) and it is more rounded/ less conical in the ribs. When the hip ties are closed, the upper hip is +7″ and the lower hip is +12″, so a bit smaller than the 426 (but hip ties are expandable so both corsets can accommodate very wide hipsprings. (On that note, if someone had more narrow hips naturally, they can relace the hip ties so that the grommets overlap and the hips measure about 2 inches smaller than the pattern was drafted for.)

Now look at the patterning on the TT longline. The first panel is more straight (it actually tapers a bit), and the 2nd panel is shaped almost like a champagne flute (this contributes to the rib cupping). There is some generous hip distribution in panel 3 to help combat front-hip wrinkling, and I tell you that panel 3 is a very weird shape on paper.

Now here’s the Orchard CS-426 in the back, and then TT longline in the back:

Although you can’t quite see the difference in the panel shapes (and the lacing gap is fairly wide), I can tell you that panel 5 of the TT corset is also a really weird shape to help begin to curve with the lumbar area in the back. These corsets are designed to help support a neutral curve, whereas I find that many other OTR corsets are almost too straight in the back.

Construction-wise, Orchard uses a stiffer busk and stiffer back steels in their 426. They give a very flat front and flat back, which I know a lot of people like for that almost-Edwardian profile. TT corsets have a more flexible busk and steels, but we tried to make up for that with clever patterning to prevent dishing in the front, and sewing the boning channels very tight in the center back to prevent the steels from bowing like “( )” in the back. Also, TT fuses all panels of their fashion fabric to strength fabric, not only the first panel. It helps with wrinkling, although there are still a few wrinkles in the satin (Sarah has scoliosis, hence why the left hip fills out a little more than the right). But if you try the cotton corsets it’s unlikely that you’ll have to deal with significant wrinkles regardless of whether you go for OC or TT.

I could go into other subtle differences, but those are the big ones. And this explanation took way longer than I expected. I hope it was helpful.

[lucy-corsetry]

Woooo, they’re finally here! Back in June, myself and Sarah (beside me in the first picture) travelled to Bangkok, Thailand to redesign the Timeless Trends corset patterns.

The corsets still have their “essence” (they are still immediately recognizable as Timeless Trends) but they all now feature a larger rib spring and hip spring, comfortable cupped ribs, and a neutral lumbar curve - these corset patterns were draped on a human body, so they are surprisingly comfortable.

We’ve also added extra features such as an extra pair of garter tabs (now 6 instead of 4) and front modesty placket.

We’ve worked hard to consider every element of the construction process of these corsets so we can preserve their lifetime warranty. I’m extremely proud of the results!

You’ll find the new hourglass silhouette corsets for sale here (Timeless Trends) and here (Lucy’s shop).

I will have my ask box open for a couple of hours tonight if anyone wants details about the corsets, the redesign process, the factory, or my Thailand adventure in general.

[msexceptiontotherule]

Now if only they would get some plain black styles in stock for the utilitarian types such as myself - solid black goes with EVERYTHING!

[lucy-corsetry]

They did have some solid black in the first batch, but they were ALL reserved for another wholesaler who bought them on backorder [*grumble*] so unfortunately we have to wait another month to get the next batch of them - but we absolutely have plans to stock the solid black (and other best sellers like the beige).

[tightlacing-society]

haris-kay

1.) Mine is mesh with a floral silk and burgundy silk bone casings. 2.) It's a little less than two weeks old 3.) So far, about twenty hours of wear? Maybe twenty-five? 4.) Feels incredibly lightweight, choice of lace between white satin and burgundy satin (I chose burgundy), hip shelf is amazing for someone like me with high hip bones, laces up incredibly easily compared to my other corsets (perfectly parallel gap, unlike my others), modesty panel is nice but also removable, very comfortable compared to my others. 5.) Bones feel almost flimsy? They are extremely bendy. Which is what yields this amazing shape, but nonetheless, that was a first for me. The ribs are also incredibly tapered, so I had some discomfort for the first few wears as my body adjusted to the shape; it's much more dramatic than any other corset I own. Because of the way the corset is designed, asymmetry is likely to show (notice in my picture the busk slanting; I have funky lopsided ribs that make my corsets sit funny on my hips), but I don't much care. If that's going to bother anyone, though, be aware. Lastly, the internal waist tape (like most mesh corsets) tends to dig into my skin and irritate it a little bit. Just something to look out for. 6.) Definitely! I feel like the pros outweigh the cons, and most of them are just user issues rather than corset issues. 7.) Customer service was great - at first, I had put a bid on one of their all-satin corsets thinking it was mesh, and had Sylwia cancel that; then, when I saw a listing for a mesh corset, I bought it, but messaged Sylwia because the pictures were all satin, not mesh. She confirmed that those were, in fact, all satin and not mesh, so she sent me a mesh and refunded me $10 so the price I paid would match the price of the corset I bought. And she messaged me back very quickly about it. I even got a little black corset case with a clear strip down the middle to see what corset it is. The size corset I'm wearing here is an 18", which is a size smaller than usual for me, but I can pull it to about a three inch gap in the back, making the corset sit relatively flush. Since this is a 9" reduction for me at the moment, I'm using the intuitive seasoning method, so instead of pulling to two inches during seasoning, I pulled to about four and would wear it for however long I could manage, then take it off. If that meant an hour, then I got an hour in; if that meant five hours, then I got five hours in. That's why my hours of wear is an approximation.