My Corset Story - Becoming a Master Corsetière

My ‘about’ page is so formal, here’s a bit more of my back-story - how I got into making corsets, and why I made it my business.

I started my corset making journey 20 years ago when I worked at Keble College, Oxford as a Conference Manager (yes, I did all the weddings there!) … One day, the Housekeeper came into the office and told me she was going to a fancy dress party dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and that the outfit would comprise of a short gingham skirt, and a matching Corset. I was intregued! She told me that she had purchased a corset kit from the internet, and told me where. I bought one immediately and from that moment was hooked!

My first corset was an absolute disaster!

After a few attempts, I started getting wearable results and I started making my own corsets to wear at alternative clubs in London - Slimelight, Torture Garden, Club Rub, Skin II, Lady Luck, etc. I soon became obsessed with modern corsetry and it’s potential for endless creativity.

This was the third corset I made!

In those days the only way you could make a corset was with a historical pattern - these weren’t ideal for many reasons - the fit for the modern body is all wrong, the bust lines too low, the shape, designed for theatre, the shape boring. So over the next few years I made it my mission to discover how to make a dramatically shaped modern corset.

Back then, information was scant, and there were no teachers. There were Yahoo Groups who promised to teach all the secrets, but they were guarded heavily - you practically had to sell your first born to gain access. This was the days before facebook, insta, even smart phones! Blogs were king but there were no corsetry blogs, until I started mine which I called “Marmalade Kiss” (a name I procured from a burlesque name generator!).

In my quest to help myself learn corsetry, and help others, because information was so secretive,   I started an online shop selling corset making supplies. The foundation of the shop was step by step tutorials in corset making and how to use the components. The shop was called “Sew Curvy” with the strap line “Make a Corset, Discover a Passion”.

The tutorials at Sew Curvy attracted the attention of a publisher who enabled me to make my name writing a book “Corset Making - from beginners to intermediate” which was published in 2012 and is now a standard reference work - meaning it sells more and more copies each year!

A standard reference work is when book sales don’t dip over a decade. This book on modern corset construction is nearly 15 years old and still a best seller

I had already started teaching corsetry in 2010, but in 2013, started ‘The Oxford School of Corsetry’. Corsetry students came to me from as far away as New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Africa, all parts of Europe and America- they all travelled to England for my corsetry classes! Some of them became regulars, coming to every class I announced - Victorian corsetry, Edwardian Corsetry, sheer Corsetry, beginners corsetry, advanced corsetry etc., I just loved teaching corsetry because I learned as much from my corsetry students as they learned from me.

The biggest effect from teaching corsetry every weekend, throughout every summer for nearly 15 years, was that I amassed decades worth of experience in corset fitting in a relatively short amount of time. This amount of experience would take many decades if it were just gained from clients but it also made me the most experienced corset making teacher in the UK! Nobody else was teaching modern corsetry and for at least 10 years I was the only person doing it.

Just some of my students from over the years

After a few years, I had enough of a reputation, and enough past corsetry students and enough corsetiere friends in the business to seed an International Corsetry Conference. I had the contacts and experience in Oxford to book a world class venue, which could accommodate everything I would need to launch a world class event.

Oxford Conference of Corsetry 2015 was attended by Mr Pearl and Immodesty Blaize

The Oxford Conference of Corsetry ran five times between 2013 and 2019, and brought together corset makers and enthusiasts from all over the world to share knowledge and friendship in the inspirational venue of Jesus College, one of the oldest colleges in Oxford.  Most of the best corsetieres in the world attended the event, including the famed, Mr Pearl who’s work you will have seen on the Paris runways, Dita von Teese, and even Victoria Beckham’s wedding dress.

Mr Pearl looks on as Immodesty Blaize performs at the Oxford Conference of Corsetry

All through the years I’ve taken clients too, and these have been people from all walks of society, from the aristocracy to popstars, performers, and all shapes and sizes of all genders - some of them have travelled as far as my students to work with me which has been an honour and a constant surprise!

In 2021 when the full effects of Brexit came into place, my internet shop reached the end of its profitable life. Customers from Europe vanished overnight, but I took this as an opportunity to do what I had always wanted to do in the first place, which was to be a full time corsetiere. I had the supplies, I had the reputation, I had the clients I wanted, and that was 2 years ago. I’m so much happier being a full time corsetiere, than being a part time corset maker and most time shop keeper. I took the decision to stop teaching in person so that I could concentrate 100% on clients, and I can honestly say, I am happier in my work than ever!

Me with Autumn Adamme, the Godmother of Modern Corsetry, and Morgana, the world’s most famous corset model at The Oxford Conference of Corsetry