Date: 2017
Origin: New Zealand
Fabric: pink satin coutil, cotton coutil, leather, synthetic whalebone, steel bones, ribbon lacing
Brand: Corsets By Caroline
Designer: Caroline Woollin
The inspiration for this design came from the Victorian ventilated corsets (one of which the designers was able to see in person when the Symington collection was exhibited at the Oxford Conference of Corsetry in 2013). The corset belies a complexity. It appears that the vertical bones simply need to be attached to the three bands. However, it is tricky to angle the boning channels against the sloping top and bottom bands so that they fall plumb and are evenly spaced and symmetrical. The corset was patterned using Computer Assisted Design software, as it would have been difficult to achieve this level of precision using traditional paper and pen drafting techniques.
The vertical boning channels are strips of coutil binding faced with leather cut to the same size. The waistband is double layered satin coutil and the top and bottom bands are satin coutil faced with cotton coutil. The vertical channels slot into the bands between the two coutil layers and are constructed so there is no visible external stitching.
Photographed at the Oxford Conference of Corsetry 2017, garment loaned by Caroline Woollin.
