Company: Lovesick Corrective Apparel
Gallery: Lovesick Corrective Apparel Gallery
Date: 7 February 2007
I made my first corset in 1992, though I had been drawing them and photographing thrift store girdles, etc. for years. I took apart a 1950's merry widow and made a pattern from it, and then cut up a leather coat I bought at a thrift store for $ 4.00 and re-used the boning from the merry widow. I stayed up most of the night sewing at my mother's house (I was back home visiting). I was so proud of my first effort and still have it. In retrospect the cups are crooked and the sewing isn't so good -- and my mother was appalled -- "Where would you wear that ?" -- but I wore it out that weekend and the drag queens were nice to me in the dark club ! I made my first real corset with a busk later that year.
I believe I was corrupted by a record album ! There was an EP by a band called "the Nails" (NOT the Nine Inch Nails) called "Hotel For Women", circa 1982. The cover was a collection of black and white vintage fetish photographs from the 1930's to 50's, of women posing in high high heels, leather gloves and corsets. I was particularly fascinated by a couple of images of women in very small waisted corsets, and one person that looked like a man in a masquerade mask wearing a leather corset. I spent many hours in my bedroom listening to records (the EP was okay but not musically my favorite) and staring at the cover. I was really compelled by how extreme and sexually charged it appeared to me and wondered where on earth people went to buy these things (I was living in a small town in Saskatchewan, where NOTHING interesting ever happened). It was the first evidence that other secret realities existed. As a teenager in the city I thrift shopped all the time, and one particular charity shop always had these gigantic peach Spirella and Camp garments in their bins. I was intrigued by them but also repelled. They seemed like oppressive garments -- but they didn't create that extreme shape. I bought a bunch of them and altered some, dyed some, wore some. I never found the fetish motherlode, though -- I did have many pointed bras, garter belts, girdles, etc. which I wore punk style or gave to friends. At first I felt like a complete degenerate buying USED LINGERIE, and even sicker, WEARING IT, but I also liked how different it made my body look. When I visited other cities (ie Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver)I was always in search of some mythical place that sold corsets like in the photos ! I never found it...Before the internet it was very difficult to find anything sort of obscure unless you had some connection to someone who knew or spent hours at a library trying to cross reference from some crumb of information or encountered it by chance. I used to write to ads in the back of magazines for catalogs, and drool over the things I couldn't afford. I remember I got one of BR Creations catalogs(1986?) and I wanted one of their corsets so badly ! In the catalog it said they made corsets with waists as small as 17" -- another shocking possibility...
I went through art school, then worked at kind of a lame fetish store. It catered more to gay men, but also made things for women. I was always frustrated by how things weren't the way I wanted them to be, and bugged the owner to make other items more to my tastes. He never did, and the working climate was pretty negative so I quit within the year. The best thing about this situation was that it completely demystified what sewing with leather was about. I figured (egotistically) that I could do better -- so I just started with that merry widow. After enthusiastically making leather bras and costumes and stuff for friends I realised I didn't know enough about pattern drafting or equipment so I enrolled in a night program for fashion in 1993. There wasn't a corset or lingerie specific course in this program, so I had to research corsets on my own. I graduated in 1995, and have been making corsets ever since.
I think it depends what mood I'm in, as well as who I am making it for, and what time frame I have to work within. I think I am happiest when faced with a positive challenge that makes me work harder. I prefer to work with natural fabrics, particularly heavy silk. I also like working with leather.
I have had both unpaid and paid help at various times. I have always had a conflict between having workers that I really enjoy being around (ie friends) without specific skills and workers that are efficient and skilled, but that maybe I don't have much in common with . I am responsible for all pattern drafting, designing, sourcing, etc. -- my help did all kinds of drudgery like cutting or making garter tabs. I have been approached by several young women looking for employment who have the idea that this will be a really fun, sexy job...but unless repetitious tasks are your idea of a good time this is not a John Willie(the guy who did Bizarre magazine in the 1950's) type situation !
I definitely learned a great deal by making (and wearing) corsets for myself and discovered what worked and what didn't. I think this helped me more than anything to understand the logic of corset design and construction.
When I first started wearing (proper)corsets, I wore them as outerwear. I quickly discovered that this drew attention to me that was really creepy, particularly in a setting like a grocery store or bus stop. I wasn't interested in talking to a greebly (male) stranger asking intrusive personal questions ( I would be wearing an underbust corset over an opaque blouse and vintage pencil skirt -- I wasn't wearing a latex catsuit or super busty lowcut corset in broad daylight). I started to wear a corset every day under my clothes, and I quickly learned of the perils of too large garter tabs, abrasive linings, fit issues that weren't comfortable and so on. I liked the secret aspect of this hidden garment -- that most people wouldn't read that it was there. I was also greatly influenced by a client who was(is) a crossdresser in his 70's. He had many obsessions and fixations related to corset wearing and full fashioned hosiery. He is a well educated literate man, but also anti-social and oddly counter culture, too. My daily corset wearing got derailed by my move to Toronto(from Vancouver) in the summer. The extreme heat and humidity, and a sweltering second floor apartment got me out of my corset and stockings almost immediately, despite my stubborn intentions. I finally live in a place with central air conditioning -- so I guess I don't have an excuse not to resume anymore...
I love to make a special corset-centric outfit for a worthwhile occasion, because I really enjoy being dressed up -- it's makes me feel like I am my real self, if that makes sense. It gets harder and harder for me to find the time to make things for myself because I always have other people's orders in progress -- I start to feel selfish ! What if they catch me, all doodled up and their corset isn't done ? Yikes !