Browsing Tag: New

[theme music] Hey everybody! In this video, I’m going to be answering a few questions regarding “is it bad to buy second-hand corsets?”, “Is it unhygienic?”, and “do you have to break in that corset again?”, and things regarding buying a corset that is not completely new. Whether you want to buy a second-hand corset is completely your prerogative. Some people are kind of squicked out by that because they consider a corset to be kind of like intimate wear, so they might associate it with intimate activities or you know wearing it right next to the body, but it really depends on the person. So if you know that a corset is gently used, nobody’s trying to pull the wool over your eyes, and as long as it’s relatively clean and not used during unhygenic activities, if you know that the previous owner always wore it with a shirt or a corset liner between their body and the corset itself, then it’s really probably not much dirtier than a jacket for instance. I don’t personally have an issue going second-hand myself, especially if I had known the owner previously And I buy secondhand – like 90% of my clothing is probably a secondhand. I go to a lot of thrift shops like Goodwill and Value Village. Now there are certain things that I will not buy there are like bathing suits and underwear that I will not buy a secondhand. When it comes to shoes, it depends on how worn they look and my boyfriend is kind of grossed out by this and he’s just like “Ok, well have fun with your foot fungus.” And so far, I’ve never gotten foot fungus. [laughs] But knock on wood. So is it bad to go secondhand? I personally don’t think so as long as the previous owner is pretty transparent about its use. Second question: “what are the differences between a gently used and a new corset, and how can you tell which one you received?” There are definitely visible differences and differences in feeling between a new and a used corset. Some people don’t believe in seasoning or breaking in their corsets, and they say that the fit of the corset will not be affected with the more you wear it. Yes and no. I’ll go into that in a little bit. But basically, I want to start by saying new corsets are crispier due to the sizing which is like the chemicals and the starch in the fabric itself because factories will probably never wash the fabric before it’s made into a corset. You’ll also notice that with a new corset you know, a factory-fresh corset, that the stitches are all even, the bones are all straight. There’s no wrinkling around the fabric, there’s no shifted grommets in the back. The laces may feel more springy. If it’s ribbon, it might not have you know a lot of wrinkles in it The laces might also feel like a little bit stickier in a way. It would have to be worked a bit before they really start lining through the grommets like it’s second nature. But I would just want to add an asterisk here because a lot of custom corset makers will lightly lace the corset on a mannequin or a dress form and take pictures of it before they send it to their customers. So if you are a customer and you received what you thought is a brand-new corset that that’s never been worn before and you have noticed that you know the ribbons in the back are just like a tiny bit wrinkly, don’t panic. They didn’t send you a used corset. It was just probably lightly laced on a mannequin or something before they send it to you. Used corsets may have differences in some or all of these things depending on its construction and its quality. So what I’m talking about here applies mostly to off-the-rack corsets but a used corset constructed with the sandwich method may show some slight shifting in the threads. It might be slightly, slightly wider at the waistline compared to at the top and bottom because the waistline is where there’s the highest tension So those threads that are interlocking all the way down would slightly shift. As long as the threads are not broken or torn then the corset is still working fine. But if you have a corset that was constructed using lap seams or external boning channels or flat felled seams, this is harder to see. That shifting and threads might not be visible. It’s also easier to see this thread shifting in corsets that were sewn with a longer stitch length. So this is more common in the really budget off-the-rack corsets You know like under $60 say compared to higher-end corsets, especially custom corsets Going back to signs of a used off-the-rack corset, if a corset is pretty lightly boned and there are you know a few inches of unsupported fabric between those bones, you might see a little bit of wrinkling especially at the waistline or, commonly, along the front hip – that’s a pretty hard place to go wrinkle free. And with the bones themselves, in a well-loved corset, flat steels might be curved slightly to conform to the lumbar curve of the previous wearer over time and because this curve is concave, it means that the outer fabric – the fashion fabric – might be slightly wrinkled along the back panel, especially by the waistline of the grommets Likewise the grommets themselves might have shifted slightly towards the center back seam because when you’re pulling on those laces, that’s where the tension is you know going towards. Now the grommets should not be completely falling out of the hole. That is corset damage. But in a used corset, don’t be surprised if all those grommets are not you know perfectly lined up with like laser precision. Now let’s talk about the fabric itself and whether a well-worn corset, or a corset that’s broken in would have stretched in a way. In an off-the-rack corset, again depending on its quality and style of construction, and depending on how often it was used, might have stretched half an inch or an inch in the waistline. Mesh corsets do definitely stretch more than the non-mesh ones. That’s why so many off-the-rack companies recommend going down a size as compared to your normal corsets – your non mesh corsets – because it is expected to stretch over time. What I also notice is that corsets that have a partial waist tape are more likely to stretch more than corsets with a full waist tape. And if a corset has a satin ribbon waist tape, it will stretch more than a corset with a twill tape waist tape or a grosgrain ribbon waist tape. Once upon a time, I was burned very badly by buying a used corset on eBay and I was told that it was a size 22 and it had a partial waist tape and no strength fabric, and it ended up stretching to more than 26 inches. It was like more than four inches larger than the size on its label. Pretty upsetting at the time, but I asked questions, and it ended up being a happy ending. But that’s an extreme situation, and chances are if you are familiar with the brand that you are buying and you can see pictures of like the outside and inside of the corset, that’s not going to be an issue for you. Or you might luck out and get a corset where the first customer tried it on just a couple of times and decided it wasn’t for them so it’s not even you know well-worn. You’ve got what is almost a brand new corset that hasn’t stretched out or been broken in at all. With a really well worn corset, you will also likely notice that it does not like to lie flat like it did when it was new. It might look slightly wonky and retain the roundness of its wearer when taken off, especially around the hips. But once again, the fabric will also be softer and more malleable compared to when it was completely new. One really good quote that stuck in my head during one of the Foundations Revealed conference calls was from Laurie Tavan and she said that we as corset makers never want our corsets to stretch out such that you know the horizontal measurements change but it is actually good to have some ease on the bias as it helps the corset to lie smoothly and be more comfortable as well. And a couple of other corset makers I know actually deliberately cut some panels on a slight bias Like you know the panel that along the biggest curve at the bustline or the biggest curve of the front hip to mold smoothly around curves and prevent wrinkles. I digress, but coming back on point, To some effect, all fabric – even our industry favorite herringbone coutil – it is going to stretch on the bias a bit no matter what. The measurements of the under bust and the waist and the hips will not change by too much in a good quality corset because of the sewn on binding at the top and bottom edges at the under bust and hips, and because of the waist tape at the waistline holding those horizontal measurements fast, but along the bias in other areas of the corset, yes, there will be some ease. If you measure the horizontal measurements of a corset that has never been worn vs a corset that has been worn, on any other horizontal point that is not the top edge, middle, and bottom edge there may be slight differences in that measurement because the fabric is warping slightly on the ease [bias] as it was designed to do. That is why a fabric is malleable and able to wrap smoothly around a three-dimensional body. Alright next question. If you buy a well-used corset, do you have to break it in all over again to suit your body? Well, I like to use the metaphor with buying shoes. So when you break in new shoes it’s to soften the shoe and get it to mold around your foot so it doesn’t give you blisters. And I remember stealing my mom’s shoes a lot because I did not like breaking in any shoes So I would have my mom buy new shoes and have her break it in. And I mean her foot and my foot is not exactly the same like size or shape, but it was close enough, right? So I would end up stealing her shoes after they’re all soft and comfy. So to the same effect, in a pre-used corset, the threads have already shifted as much as they probably already will, the corset has already softened, the fabric has already eased along the bias to better wrap around the hills and valleys of a body, and it will automatically probably be more comfortable to you, and you’ll probably be able to lace it tighter than if the corset were brand new. And if you’ve had the privilege to be able to walk into a corset shop and be personally fitted and you know they lace a floor sample of a corset on you in that shop, that floor sample corset has probably been laced on dozens if not hundreds of other people before you, so it will feel less crunchy and probably more comfy than the factory-fresh corset that you purchase and take home. But once you exclusively wear that new corset for a while, say you wear it like every day for three months, if you were to go back to that shop again, I bet you that if you put your corset and their floor sample corset beside each other or if you were to lace one on and then you know take that off and immediately lace the other one on, you would be able to say, “yeah that’s not my corset. This is my corset.” Same way that a mother can tell their identical twin infants apart. So long answer short, no. You probably don’t have to break in a corset once you received it if it’s already been well loved. However, if this is your very first corset and you have no prior experience with waist training or tight lacing or anything of the sort, you will probably still want to ease yourself into it slowly and not go as tight as possible on the first wear. You know, give yourself baby steps. Last question: “are there any potential fitting issues with used corsets “that you generally don’t have to worry about when buying new corset?” Well if you lace up your corset and find that the ribs and hips are bigger than your own, then no amount of wearing your corset is going to make that shrink to fit, unfortunately. But that’s the same with new corsets as well. I will say however that if the original owner had a [noticeably] asymmetric body, such that their body placed different amounts of pressure on different sides of the corset – say they had scoliosis and there ribs protrude a bit more on this side, and their hip protruded more on this side, there is a chance that corset will never become perfectly symmetric again. I probably retold the story about a dozen times but shortly after I got my first Josephine corset in the mail, my Isabella Josephine, one of my friends really loved it and wanted to try it on and wear it at a party So she tried it on and she was probably wearing it for an hour tops but it was laced on an angle on her. It ended up twisting on her body. And even after that one hour, it never fit my body the same way again. It always twisted slightly on my body after that no matter how much I tried to tug and tug and pull and you know lace it on my mannequin and stuff it out in different places and try to get it to you know ease into being a bit more symmetric over time, It was never quite perfect again. So if somebody has asymmetries or if the corset itself was asymmetric and it was laced on an angle on that person and ended up twisting on their body over time, unfortunately, I have never quite figured out a way to 100% untwist it. So you know be aware of that. So that’s my advice on what to look for and what to expect when buying secondhand corsets or gently-used corsets. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below. If you have any other questions pertaining to gently-used corsets, feel free to leave a comment. Give this video a like if you liked it and subscribe for more corset videos, and I’ll see you next week for another video. Bye. [Lucy smoochies]