Inside Ava Corsetry

by Gene Schiavone

@avacorsetry. Antique Victorian lace. Altered to show detail. Inspired by butterflies and has coordinating fairy wings also made from antique Victorian lace. Rare and special and utterly beautiful. #ococ15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGv0uQtn74

Ava Corsetry

AVA.ADORE. New collection by avacorsetry

Squirrel being fed by a marionette of an old lady being controlled by an old lady. My life is complete   

Sylvie Deschamps, Maître d’art, handcrafts “The Festive Attire”, “L’Habit de Fête”, a covering designed as an imperial coronation robe. 

50+ Places to Buy Your Next Corset

Uliana Lopatkina and Xander Parish as Marguerite Gautier and Armand Duval in Mariinsky Ballet’s Marguerite and Armand.

Headpieces and other costume accessories designed by Rob Goodwin for the English National Ballet’s new production of Stravinsky’s Firebird - performed at the London Coliseum in March 2012 as part of their ‘Beyond Ballets Russes’ programme. The ballet was choreographed by George Williamson with designs by David Bamber - who is Design Director at Tom Ford. Photography: Diego Indraccolo - Ballerina: Ksenia Ovsyanick

I must admit that when I went into these reviews, I was skeptical -the prices are just too low for me to be able to equate them to what I would define as a ‘good corset’. The price tags they carry – between $50-99 a piece – wouldn’t even begin to cover my bare material costs if I wanted to make my own corset.  I think it’s very important when approaching budget corsetry to keep reasonable expectations. At this price point, something has to be missing that you’d otherwise expect from a non-budget brand – whether that be ethical manufacturing (I’m not going to comment on individual companies, but suffice to say large parts of Asia don’t have a great track record compared to say, Europe), good quality fabrics and components (such as fine weave coutil and German steel busks), curvy patterning, hand finished binding and accurate stitching. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are all areas that are important to address – I’m a strong believer in getting what you pay for.