Body Improvements: the corsetted body

As a corset designer and maker I usually recommend that clients go for a corset around four inches smaller than their natural waistline. It sounds like a lot, and it is as temporary as your corset wearing but it can dramatically affect the visual effect.

And here I am going to demonstrate the power of the corset. I have a 28" natural waist and here I am wearing one of my own 24" corset mock up's. The back lacing is not completely closed, but it has reduced my waist temporarily to 25", but see how dramatic the waist has become.

New corset designs for 2014

Every corset designer worth their salt never rests on their laurels.

Most corset makers, like myself, take every opportunity available to try out construction and pattern cutting exercises, from trying to make headway on an interesting patent found on Google or an interesting book that comes out or through personal study and research.

Today I am going to share my own self study process, just one of many ways in which your corset study can be informed and enriched. Even making mistakes is a form of study, and one which I relish as a knowledge increaser rather than a failure of task.

When I want to start I start with my regular Size 12 block with all the ease removed, which is where you would also start if you were to begin making lingerie, in which the fabric sits so close to the body as if to form a second skin. I also know I want to make a corset with more pattern pieces so I can increase the amount of boning I am using with the addition of seaming. So I'm going to go for a 16 panel corset, lets see where we end up.

Must apologise for the darkness of the photo's, I only had black coutil in the studio today.

So here is my size 12 black, I trace this onto a fresh piece of dot and cross paper.

 From there I use my knowledge of how a body is shaped and how I want to reduce the waist to draw up my pattern. At this point I have a pretty good idea of how this will shape on someone's body, and there is no better way of testing the pattern without putting it together.

And here is the first draft of the pattern. From here it's my job to question all aspects of the design and make decisions on how I want to alter it. I need to think about how I want the corset to modify the body and it's silhouette, about the design lines and where I will place the boning.

Here is my coutil mock up pinned where I intend to modify the pattern.

Changes:

• straighten up the seam lines into a more vertical position
• more waist modification for nipped in silhouette

 Things to consider

• neckline, love the height but not sure I want it to stand proud of the body (which it will)
• boning placement around the bust to stop creases around the bust where it is super tight for an enhancement effect.
• hemline shaping

That's it for now, off to redevelop the pattern ready for the next installment.

New things: Halloween corsets and new shoots

Here I go again, typing away after a hard days work with Downton Abbey on in the background. That's how I have spent the last few evenings and I'm sure a few more are in my near future....

There are many new things on the horizon, and it is very exciting. Only yesterday I was planning two photo shoots with the shy and talented Andrew Loader, a superb photographer. One with the infamous Peacock train and the other with the flamenco skirt I have blogged about previously.

Tonight I find myself designing my next corset outfit to wear out. I will be using a fabulous pillar box red piece of leather that I have been hoarding for years and be pinking black leather and making some beautiful brogue appliqué. I am jumping making the C2 historical re-make, and diving straight into making a modern interpretation instead.

Sketchbook excerpt:

I started to draw the pattern out on top of a size 12 block and let my intuition guide me as to the pattern cutting. When I start to create new seam lines on a new corset block I always find it is useful to begin by cutting out the pattern paper and pinning it on the size 12 dress form to have a look at the general lines to see if they work in 3D as well as I had seen them in my mind.

 Hurrah! Pretty good! I made some adjustments to the pattern whilst it was on the form and then decided to cut it in calico and just go for it.

 

As you can see there is some fabric stretching and straining that needs some attention, and I feel that if I am to wear this corset it will need more room in the bust...but they are problems to be solved another evening.

Sketchy Saturday

Inspired by Veronica Lake:

I got an interesting e-mail yesterday from a friend to make her a Halloween frock and corset ensemble for a jaunt out in NYC for the Halloween parade to end all Halloween parades. I am up for that, these are my initial pencil sketches. Will see how this develops.
If she isn't into them I just might make it for myself.

On a roll sewing today

In the previous post I was banging on about a Jenyns corset that I really love and want to have a go at, that was this morning.


So after I had seen all my clients today I set about putting that into motion. I found a 1911 corset pattern in the corset makers tome Corsets and Crinolines by Norah Waugh so that I could wrap my head around what shape corset was in vogue at the time. Unfortunately I don't have a photocopier or it would have made drafting the pattern a 20min exercise instead of an hour.

I always find it interesting to lay my pieces down and visualise the final shape it will force the body into:

I can see from here that my pattern piece 2 could do with being a little shorter and actually that the hip shaping is done through the triangular pieces and that the corset is designed to contour the bottom into a more streamline shape. I think this corset is also much shorter than I thought it would be, but I am absolutely sure that I have worked it from the book pretty well so my deduction is that this corset is designed for a woman shorter than the modern average woman. The truth will be in the mock up.

Mock up:

I admit that I hammered my way through this really quickly just to see the effect, so please forgive the slightly shonkyness...I'll be fixing that tomorrow, and putting the boning channels in for a proper test. After initial musings on this design on the dummy it looks like it has some very strange proportion thing going on so I will fix my little front seam boo up, and I think I will actually try it on me as I am both short and squishy and maybe I will get a better idea of exactly what this corset is trying to achieve.

Also today I have been putting stuff up on my wall to inspire me:

At the mment it's full of other people's photo's but pretty soon I'll be replacing them with my own fab designs. That is all for today, night.X

Devil is in the details

So, yesterday was all about resolving some design issues. Although I love fan lacing I think it isn't right for the one I am working on. I was just looking at it for ages and it just seemed too busy...and not in a good way. So I had to think about re-working this idea. Sometimes design is just like that...

I have also been working on some detailing idea's inspired by the video I found on youtube and posted in New skills to try  and the black lace cocktail dress in a step closer to product . I'm trying to acheive a lace applique and sequin layered flower. I want it to be all black but I want the texture and quality of the materials to make it interesting and give it depth.

It's really hard to see unfortunatly how much detail is in there, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe that's a lesson in itself.

Feeling the love...

I'm really enjoying doing this blog so far, it's really helpful to see that I do get a lot done on a day to day basis....someties when you're in the thick of a project it can feel like you're working and not seeing any results but this is really positive stuff. I can see like a timeline how it is progressing.

I have also decided that I will not be posting up images of the final work until much nearer the time or it will spoil the suprises.

So, as I mentioned in the last installment I have been working on fan lacing concepts today. I started with the inspiration of the neck corset I made the other day for fabrics and styling, and a longline corset block that I have adapted to suit and I now have this gorgeous looking thing:

After I eyeletted it up it was then just a matter of playing with lacing:

It's all wrinkled up because I haven't put any boning in it yet...I will be figuring those out next. I just wanted to see if it worked, et voila!

I still have some design reworking to do to get the fan lacing pieces fitted, but I'm very pleased so far...just some suspenders to go now and I shall call it a night.

A step closer to product

Here I am again, I think if I write up what I did in the morning it's more likely to get done!

Yesterday was a mixed up bag of work, I had clients work to do all day so I didn't really get going on my AFW collection until about 8pm after Riley (my baby) had gone off to sleep.

I really want to do a fan lacing corset in my collection this year, and it being the most unknown to me...it is the first one I am tackling. I have talked about fan lacing corsets in a previous blog beauty-of-fan-lacing if you want to refresh your memory. I have previously made a long line corset that I am basing the pattern on, so the first thing I do is tweak the pattern to acheive the size and shape that I want. As always I have my sketch to guide me.

I am making this corset to go with the neck corset I finished yesterday, so it will follow similar stylelines and use the same fabric.

Although I didn't get much of the construction done, I have also been thinking about details and decoration, and looking through my archive of fashion books I have been delving into 50's couture for inspiration...I found a particularly amazing use of applique lace which I intend to utilise on a dress by Michael Sherard made in 1958.

I adore the detailing of this dress, it is so simple and so effective and it totally works with the styling I have in mind for Fleurs Du Mal. So I will use that as my basis and move on from there. So here was my work from yesterday as it now stands in my workshop.

Neck corset

For the past 2 days I have been working on a neck corset idea for AFW. I started off with no particular idea of fabrics or styling, but a drawing of what I wanted the structure to be.

This is my original sketch, done in ink with a fat nib. I tend to start all my designs with black outlines and fill in the details as I'm going along. Every designer works in a diferent way...this is mine.

From the design I  create a paper pattern, this time modifying an opera coat collar in Turn of the Century Fashion Patterns and Techniques by S.S Gordan  and then make a test pattern usng calico. A test pattern is necessary in all new designs to check the pattern achieves the task and fits correctly. I am testing the pattern on a standard size 12 dressmakers dummy.

From there I now am compelled to consider style, fabric, decorative detailing before I can progress to actually make the neck corset. That's when I usually stare for an hour at a blank piece of paper with my pencils, inks and paints before inspiration strikes. With my fabrics picked I set about the task of construction. As I do actually want this corset to be stiff I use stayflex to provide strength on the pink satin I have chosen and sew the neck corset in a similar way to a normal one, sewing all the layers as one and creating boning channels.

Here it is so far on the mannequin with the corset that is it's inspiration. I still haven't decided if I will actually bone it yet and have left it unadorned thus far.

So the first design...2012 Collection 'Fleurs Du Mal'

The 2012 Collection is called 'Fleurs Du Mal' (Evil Flowers). It takes it's name from a  very famous set of poems by Baudelaire written in 1857, which is considered a French literary masterpiece. I feel that the work is a description of the juxtaposition and fluid nature of beauty and degradation, and was at the time considered very shocking, because Baudelaire meant it as a critique of society.

I am very interested in this concept of beauty and decay, and the fluidity of states of being. This year I have also had a garden for the first time in almost twenty years and have spent many a wonderful hour in it, admiring it's seasons and changes and getting my hands dirty in it's processes.

I imagine my collection being photographed in an overgrown walled garden, the air thick with moisture and dappled sunlight. I love flowers, I love their transient nature, I think that their delicacy perfectly opposes the structure of my corsetry...I might even try to envisage some 'de-constructed' idea's - now that they are out of fashion I feel safer to do so.

This week I have been playing with pattern cutting things I have never tackled in depth, such as bra's, knickers and collars and it has been very exciting....but sometime soon the playing must stop and the seriousness of getting down to work must begin.

Titanic era corsets

Today I've been thinking about Titanic or teens era corsets as it is also known. I personally think of this era as a transition period between the true S-bend corset of the early Edwardian period and the advent of the fall of grace of corsets in the fashionable wardrobe in the 1920's.

The development of this corset style is directly influenced by a huge shift in female fashion from the body altering wasp waist to a more streamlined silhouette...but remained restricted by a modern woman's standards. This was in part to the steady lengthening of the corset over the hipline assisted by a new invention, elastic, which now meant that stockings could provide the pulling power necessary to keep the corset taught under the sleek new fashionable style.

This is Camille Clifford ( 1885-1971), who was a famous tight -lacer. She exemplifies the silhouette of this time: both bust and bum are proud, contorting the body into the infamous S-bend which renders the waist stretched between the bust and bum extremes. It must have been an uncomfortable pose indeed, although considering that women were so used to wearing corsets in those days perhaps not as much as us modern women would think?

Major design features of this period:

• extreme long line corsets
• mainly vertical seaming and boning channels
• streamlining of hips
• straight 'neckline' cutting either mid or below the bust
• usually accompanied by suspenders
• neutral colours
• little or no hand finishing
• internal boning channels

Fan lacing...experimenting...

Experiments with fan lacing going well.

I've been  trying to incorporate concepts of fan lacing with the aesthetics of the Victorian corset. Been having loads of fun finding different ways of lacing up the back to get the most out it. I have surmised from  my experimentation that considerable fitting must be made to the lacing to make it 'fit' correctly, so upon purchase of one of these models an assistant will have had to adjust these laces to the wearer exactly before the freedom of daily self lacing could happen. Presumably, the design itself allows a certain amount of flexibility for the wearer top loose/gain weight as all they would have to do (unless weight change is dramatic) is go and have the laces re-fitted at the retailer.

Interesting.

Also of note is that the fan lacing corsets are not meant to be tight laced like their predecessors. There is just not enough flexibility to gain the 4" difference you could expect from a traditionally designed corset.

I love the idea of incorporating fan lacing as a decorative feature on a traditional shaped corset. This is a first propper attempt, very pleased with it...further experimentation required. Took me three lacing's to make it work. Phew!

Corsets - the beauty of fan lacing

The fan lacing corset was designed with only one idea in mind : to make the corset easier to lace up ones-self.
There are two notable companies that were at the top of their game in this specific corset design genre: Jenyns and Camp.
When I did research at the Symington Collection I got to see oa Jenyns corset up close, and I kid you not....it was a fantastic feat of engineering!

The things that defines this type of corset is the lacing at the back and how the criss crossing of the lacing between the fan and the corset provides the ingenious ability if the wearer to be in complete and sole control of tightening the lacing without the need for assistance.

This particular corset is made under license by the Symington Company, and is dated 1911. Here is the original advertisment:
The corset sat low under the bust, and provides no support there, and low over the hip - giving supposed excellent suport of the lower back. This model was popular well into the WW1 era when women donned their Jenyns to support their backs as they worked in factories for the war effort.
The corset is made of white coutil.

This is an exert from my sketchbook about this specific model.

The brand 'Camp' was the main rival to the Jenyns and was invented by Samuel Higby Camp in 1908, but not patented until 1921. Whilst the original Jenyns models used lacing sewn into the fan shape Camps featured a metal fitting that allowed the lacing to remain in one length and allows the lacing to be adjusted using a pulley system rather than simply by front buckles as in the above Jenyns example. Later jenyns examples feature Camp's pulley concept.

In trying to understand the way this works I have mocked up a simple short version of a Jenyns corset. Unfortunatly at the time of experiment I didn't have any of the little metal pulleys, so have replaced it with eyelets. At this stage I have omitted the belt tightening because it clashes with the eyelet system. I have used two different coloured laces to show the crossing pattern...it's the geek in me.

 Since then I have now sourced the metal bits I need to create a true fan lacing corset I'm off to do some mor experimenting...

Engineerium project

Today I have made headway into my Engineerium project. Fabric has been ordered, sequins have arrived.

I am now starting the technical side: pattern cutting the corset. Today I have made a block for my dress form and drawn up the main features of the structure of my corset, see below:

I always find it useful to photograph my work at the planning stage because it is easier to see fault in the design when it is 2d than when I am actually looking at the garment on stand. For example, on this picture I can clearly see that one of the lines is not flowing particularly well so I will need to correct this at the next stage of pattern cutting before I start making a toille to be fitted to the model.
It is far easier to make corrections earlier on in the planning process than once the garment has been half put together.