I’m a bad, bad girl. A corset rebel. I don’t always follow “the rules.” In fact, I don’t usually follow “the rules.”
But the fact of the matter is, “the rules” of corset training are actually friendly guidelines that have come to the surface from experienced trainers to promote maximum comfort, health, safety, and longevity of the individual’s practice of waist training and of the garments themselves.
Realizing this, I’ve been looking into the corset liner thing.
Yes, for about a year and a half now, I’ve been “bare backing it” (heh) or using whatever cami or t-shirt is around, clean, and available, without having devoted liners. With the corset directly on my skin, I like the intimacy between the garment and I, but I understand that sweat and skin cells working their way into the network of fibers that is the nature of fabric can be problematic and over the course of a 14-16 hour day or more, not the most comfortable. Dry cleaning or vodka cleanings (thats half-and-half water and vodka in a spray bottle, misted on the lining of the corset for odor, deodorant stains, and spot cleaning as needed) are more often required without liners, which in itself wears on the garment, so *SIGH* fine. Learn everything the hard way, as my silk looks a little worse for the wear, I go shopping around for corset liners.
If you roll your cigarettes in $20 bills, you may consider Electra Designs bamboo corset liners. I am a big fan of bamboo as a fabric material, being lightweight, absorbent, water-wicking, and fast-drying, but still. This pricing is out of control: $120 for a set of 3. (Note that this may all be a moot point as Electra Designs has been mysteriously out of production for 2 years or so.)
Fran, single powerhouse force behind Contour Corsets (highly reviewed by Lucy), also makes made-to-measure liners at a slightly more reasonable price point. She skips the buzzwords in favor of pragmatism but in return offers video tutorials on how best to wear and utilize your liner with your corset, detailed written instruction, as well as photo guides. Even if you don’t end up shopping from Fran, I find her site to be a wonderful resource for all waist trainers. Note that she does everything herself, from web design to corset patterning and completion, which I think is charming and impressive for a woman of her consistency, achievement, and notoriety in the corsetry world.
A quick google search of “corset liner” will bring up some initial results, one of which is from Corset Connection. Put bluntly, I wouldn’t wear one of their corsets if you paid me, I’m not going to wear one of their liners. My education in fabrics tells me that a tight lycra tube around my mid section is going to feel fucking awful after hour .5 and I won’t pay $20 for it: no thank you.
None of the options I was finding really did it for me, so I found myself Jerry-rigging — which is fine! Lucy has a great video on corset liners: what to expect from those you purchase from corsetieres and tips on how to effectively fake them yourself with maximum comfort. If you don’t know much about fabric or sewing, worry not, she’ll take care of you.
But I lucked out: I stumbled upon the perfect solution to my lazy wino problem (I don’t have as much energy as Lucy, God bless her). One word: Muji. It’s big in Japan.
So imagine a store that sells, kinda, everything. Kitchen stuff, stationary, high end aromatherapy vaporizer units and accompanying essential oils, some basic clothes, travel accessories… that’s Muji. All the items are really nice, simple, utilitarian, unbranded, unlabeled, and designed for maximum efficiency and peacefulness in use. When applicable, space efficiency comes into play (which makes sense for a Tokyo based company), such as in the long sleeve shirts shrink wrapped into 3″ cubes with a “fashionable permanent wrinkle unique to each shirt”. Matching scarves were pressed down to 1.5″ sq.
Anyway, I stumbled upon this wondrous store with the round ice cube trays (ideal for whiskey) and whatnot, and towards the back, they were having a sale on CORSET LINERS! No, of course not, they were labeled “seamless women’s camisoles” but for the price point and convenience, I was over the moon. So I bought many in various colors with matching panties (which were not on sale, sadly, but still very reasonable).
Mother load. Here’s what makes them so valuable as corset liners:
Seamless = maximum comfort. Nothing digging into the skin except cloudy goodness.
I did a little awkward selfie photo shoot for your viewing pleasure, so you could see what the various tank shapes looked like on.
If one desires a tube shaped corset liner, rather than a full tank, simply cut the shirt under the bust line. You can machine stitch around your new edge with a zig-zag to prevent stretch and fray.
All sizes of tops and bottoms are medium, though next time I would go a size down for the tops to reduce bulk under corsets. For reference I’m about 5’7″ 130.
First, a dark grey.
Taupe, with a brief.
A black wide strap tank and boy-short.
And alternatively, thin strap tank:
Feels pretty great under a corset, I must say!
You can get these Muji tanks online.
I don’t work for them, I swear. I would just rather have a million reasonably priced liners to wash all the time to wear under my gorgeous expensive corset (the thing I want to invest my hard earned money into).
Speaking of, I think my next should be ready soon. More on that later!
LOVE,
Euphrates X
Getting Little in the Middle 