Light Lacing

Light lacing is the most common kind of corset wearing, especially for occasional use.  It’s most often about a 10% reduction of your waist measurement, but the exact amount can vary from person to person depending upon your natural shape and the amount of natural squishiness in your torso.  It’s important because it prevents the rigid corset from shifting and chaffing or slipping around while you wear it.  That compression quite literally holds it in place.  In the process, you should see a nice little exaggeration to your natural figure.

In order to have the strength and stability necessary for a light lacing corset to be comfortable and have any chance of durability, it needs a couple essential features: A strength layer (sturdy cotton or coutil), and steel boning (either spring steel or spiral steel).  Heavy weight leather can eliminate the need for both cotton and boning, but these corsets are not common.  It’s also a good idea for the corset to have waist tape, as this helps provide strength and durability in the location of greatest stress on the garment.  Any seller should have the materials used listed on their site, and be willing to answer those questions if you contact their customer service.  Beware of tricky wording like “Steel busk and bones”, which leads you to think it means “steel busk and steel bones”, but is actually not specific on the kind of boning.

The steel boning (and enough of it) is very important because it is what prevents the corset from buckling under the stress of the compression and ending up a wrinkled, painful mess at your waist.  Plastic boning doesn’t usually work because it isn’t as strong and stable as the steel, and as it warms to your body temperature it becomes even softer.  If the corset doesn’t have enough boning, even if the boning is steel it will still buckle from the stress.  That buckling causes uneven pressure, and can make the corset dig into your body, which is uncomfortable at best.  If the buckling is severe enough, or manages to happen in just the wrong place, it can cause pain and bruising, and generally make the experience one you’re likely to not repeat.

Most corsets will have either a steel busk or some sturdy boning in the center front, bones sandwiching the grommets in the back, and at least one bone per seam (another 8-10 bones).  If you are larger in size, or taking more than about three inches off your waist measurement, you’ll probably need more boning (or sturdier boning) to help the corset keep its shape.

When you are looking at custom and bespoke corsets, you may find other alternative materials that can be used with great effectiveness, but as far as I know these alternative materials are never used by the RTW industry.  They can include reed and cording, and I’ve even heard of one custom maker who uses plastic boning, though a vastly different variety from the featherweight boning or rigiline you can buy at the fabric store.  Alternate strength materials include meshes, ribbon, linen, hemp, and all manner of coutil-family fabrics.  Most makers use a single strength layer, but others use two, or offer the option.