Publisher: Cathy Hay

Cathy Hay is the creator and publisher of both Foundations Revealed and the award-winning Your Wardrobe Unlock'd, which were borne out of a grand wish to help other corsetmakers and seamstresses to stay inspired and positive, maximise their skills and realise their sewing dreams. She is a member both of the Costume Society in the UK and the Costumer's Guild West in the USA, and often teaches at Costume College.

Editor: Marion McNealy

Marion McNealy is the freelance Editor for Harman Hay Publications. She loves teaching others draft their own patterns and explore new ideas. Marion has a serious weakness for the straight front corsets and beautiful flossing designs of the late Victorian age.

Marion lives with her very patient husband and son in the D.C. area of Virginia, USA. 

Writers

Joanne Arnett

Joanne finds the hidden structure in garments more interesting than the outer shell. Investigating the architecture required to create a desired silhouette, along with an obsessive attention to detail, naturally led to an interest in corsets. She is in the process of constructing all the Corsets in Norah Waugh’s book, Corsets and Crinolines, and is blogging about every step at http://bridgesonthebody.blogspot.com/ 

Joanne had worked in the fashion industry for years as a stylist, but began sewing just five years ago after she won a grant to produce garments promoting a lecture by the curator of the Smithsonian Costume Collection. She has since earned a BFA from California Design College and is on her way to earning an MFA in Textiles at Kent State University.

Alexis Black of Electra Designs

Alexis has been making corsets since her mid teens, putting her experience at almost twenty years. She was a pioneer of online custom corsetry when she started out on Ebay in 1998, and continues to maintain an international clientele by doing most fittings remotely, over the internet, using measurements and photos.

Alexis attended FIDM for fashion design for two years where she learned the basics of pattern drafting, but otherwise has taught herself the specifics of corsetry through her own research and experimentation. She has been making corsets full time since 2004.

Working under the name Electra Designs, Alexis has built a worldwide reputation for excellence. Her work has spread by word of mouth through online social networking groups to a point at which interested customers must join a waiting list in order to purchase an example of her skill.

The wait is worth it, however, when the lucky lady receives an art object that not only pleases the eye but demonstrates an uncommon attention to design and detail, featuring quadruple stitching and Alexis’ original modesty panel design.

Alexis lives and works in Houston, Texas, USA.

Sunny Buchler

Sunny Buchler has been involved in historical costuming and the SCA for the last 15 years. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a bit of a mecca for historical costuming, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio a couple of years ago. Her undergraduate degree was in costume design, after which did some graduate work at the Motley School of Design in London. She did theatre costuming semi-professionally while in college, but today costumes as a hobby, rather then a profession.

Anthony Canney

Tailor and Corsetiere at The House of Canney, read our case study on Anthony to learn more.

Christina Claridge

Christina Claridge sewed from an early age, and quickly discovered that historical costumes were much more interesting than modern clothes.

She is fascinated by all the textile arts, including knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting and embroidery, as well as sewing. However, she has recently found the limit of her skills when she started to learn bobbin lace.

Christina can be found on Ravelry.com and Livejournal as Evelyn123.

Danine Cozzens

Danine Cozzens fell in love with costume history while studying English literature at UC Berkeley. For the past 25 years she's used historic costume as a window into the past, on the premise that knowing what people wore helps a modern person to understand an earlier era. Starting as a singer at Renaissance and Dickens Fairs, she moved on to create historically-inspired events. She has served on planning boards for the Bay Area English Regency Society, the Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild and the Art Deco Society of California.

Amanda Lerum Faulkner

Bio coming soon

Marianne Faulkner

Ownder and Corsetiere at Pop Antique Corsets & Future Vintage

Mark Garbarczyk

Read our Case Study on Mark to learn more about him

Lara Greene of Lara Corsets

Lara Greene is a costume and wardrobe person from New York City and a member of the Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local #764, I.A.T.S.E. She has been obsessed with and sewing historic costume since childhood. Despite her parents' claim that "no-one makes any money playing with costumes", she has been "playing" professionally with costumes for over 14 years now. Most of her work has focused around film and TV lately but she also works with theatre, opera and print media as well.

Lara has a dangerous weakness for yard sales, flea markets and E-Bay. She collects (and covets) antique corsets (pre-1915), anything related to antique corsets, period patterns (especially the early 1900s & 1930's!), Antique lace, fabrics, trims, period garments, costume history books and periodicals, and unusual antique keys.

Lara has been kind enough to provide some of the photographs of her antique corset collection for use on this site, and we hope to talk her into taking time out of her busy schedule to write for us soon!

Jenni Hampshire of Sparklewren

Self-taught corsetiere Jenni created Sparklewren in 2009 as she is happiest producing dreamy, labour-intensive, droplets of sparkling corset loveliness.

She works from her home-studio in Birmingham, UK,  spending dozens of hours hand-decorating and finishing each exceptionally sleek corset.

Jenni is a strong advocate for study, effort, research and sheer hard  work. She also believes in testing the received wisdom, constantly trying out new techniques and refining old ones.

Jema Hewitt of Kindred Spirits

Jema Hewitt has over twenty years' experience in the film, bridal, television, museum and theatre costuming business. A published author and regular contributor to crafts and bridal magazines, she lectures at universities around the UK and runs workshops on corsetmaking and other subjects from her studio in Nottingham, England.

Her website, on which you can find details of all of the above, can be found here.

Alison Kannon

Alison Kannon is a freelance seamstress and a rabid historical fashion enthusiast. While she enjoys studying a wide variety of historical eras, her primary focus is Elizabethan England and the Early Modern English period. 

Alison has been sewing and researching historical garments for the past 13 years. She is involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism and Gardiner's Company as well as the North Carolina Costuming Society. When not studying historical fashion she is a cardiovascular researcher at UNC Chapel Hill. 

Learn more about Alison’s projects and research at Elizabethan Mafia.

Antje Kowalski

Bio coming soon

Sannie Kralt

Owner and Corsetiere at Skeletons in the Closet.

Hallie Larkin

Historical Costumer and owner of the 18th Century Sutlery "At the Sign of the Golden Scissors" and also blogging at 18th century Stays.

Laura Loft

Corsetry is a magnificent obsession for Laura Loft. She sews from so early in the morning until so late at night that her doctor wishes she would slow down for a moment.

London's best-kept secret, Laura has a prestigious client list that doesn't need a website. But as well as plying her art, she is committed to furthering corsetmaking as an art form and demystifying it for newcomers.

When she's not working, Laura can usually be found in a well-known high street retailer giving customers better bra fitting advice than the shop's employees.

Alisha Martin

Alisha Martin's idea of The Bad Button started in a museum. That is to say, the idea of the company that would become The Bad Button was born in the world of vintage textiles and museum costume collections. Fascinated with textiles and museum artifacts from a young age thanks to a bohemian upbringing spent in the museums of Europe, Alisha found herself gravitating to jobs in museums. Thanks to many serendipitous jobs in museums with great costume collections, she was able to pursue her passion as well as her profession.

Before ever attempting her first corset, Alisha studied extant museum garments for years to gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation of historic construction techniques. Interpreted through the lens of modern tools, her corsets echo the corsetry of the past while allowing for a range of modern bespoke finishing. With such labor-intensive techniques as beading and hand-stitching, custom pieces can be confections of clothing or starkly elegant.

Coupled with this emphasis on aesthetics is Alisha's initial training in forensics and human anatomy, focusing specifically on the skeletal system. Academic training and lab work contributed to her understanding of the body. By focusing on not only the desired shape, but the body's structure, she focuses on the maximum comfort as well as reduction. Finally, after six years of research and practice, The Bad Button came to be as a professional corsetry studio in 2010. She lives in Kentucky with her husband, and is constantly scandalizing the neighbors with talk of women's lacy underthings. You can see her work online at The Bad Button Corsets.

Isabelle Mekel

Isabelle is a the French corsetmaker behind the name "Eikhell Corsets".  She has been making corsets full time since 2005.

Until the age of 20 she knew neither what a corset was nor how to sew. Through some friends she discovered the gothic aesthethic and its beauty and soon came to realise that it was inspired by many historical precedents, cultures and references...

The corset soon became a cult object, and understanding its secrets became an obsession.

With the help of other seamstresses on a forum, trials and errors, a lot of work and sleepless nights, Isabelle underwent a long self-teaching process, always eager to new challenges and experimentations.

She is now confident in her abilities to produce high quality corsets.

She admires the beauty of historical designs but wishes to promote the corset as a modern garment.

Isabelle is also the proud co-founder of the n°1 french sewing talking board : "Les fées tisseuses" (translate as "the weaving faeries" ), famous for its corsetry tips and advice and its friendly atmosphere.

She lives in a big house in Toulouse, south of France with her dog, two cats, her boyfriend and two more roommates (hence the big house) and has now what deserves the name of "workshop" to work properly and continue making beautiful things.

Andrea Painter

Andrea Painter started sewing in high school, following her big sister into theatre costuming design and sharing the use of the old family Singer. She attended the University of British Columbia, learning in the theatre costume shop while examining and coveting the gorgeous vintage costumes, especially the corsets, bloomers and petticoats! She started creating corsets for herself in 2005 as a means to dress up for clubbing without emptying her wallet. Dozens of corsets and clients later, she's still learning new historical techniques and is continually inspired by the beauty of multicultural textiles found around her in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Combining Indian silks, Victorian lines, and vintage notions in many garments, Andrea adores blending modern with historical techniques and whimsical inspirations, creating garments that meander through the realms of fetish, masque, historical, pirate and faerie faire. She also shares her expertise with other sewers, offering workshops in and around Vancouver and Seattle, teaching corset and bloomer construction.

When not sewing, Andrea also hoops with fire, gets hit with swords and sticks, dispenses keys, re-enacts ancient Greek mysteries, and implements security policies.

She can be reached through her website, Luscious Pearl Designs, and through her etsy shop.

Marta 'SnowBlack' Połetek

I was born in the south of Poland in 1984. Ever since I remember I have been interested in making art. Whether it is drawing, knitting, sewing or most recently decoupage does not matter. I have not completed any sewing courses and I believe most of my sewing skills come from three sources: genes – as both my grandmother and great-grandmother were professional seamstresses, my mum who taught me everything she had leant from her granny and my own research, trial and error. I have been making corsets for five years now and I feel that each one I make teaches me something new. I try to develop as a corsetmaker using a variety of materials and techniques. I hope to make my hobby at least a part time job in the future.

Nicole Rudolph

Bio coming soon

Jill Salen

Jill Salen is a lecturer in costume, and has been producing patterns of corsets from private and museum collections for many years. She is widely employed in the theatrical costume industry and the author of Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques.

Jill has been a lecturer in costume at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) for 14 years. She teaches modules such as 'Corsets 1598-1990', 'Cutting on the Stand' and 'Origins of Cutting' and supervises the costume element of shows produced by the college.

Between 1975 and 1982 she was the ladies' cutter at the Welsh National Opera (WNO), where she worked on 54 operas for designers such as Maria Bjornson and Tim Goodchild.

From 1982 she combined being a mother with the role of freelance costume maker, specialising in ladies' period costumes. She now combines her freelance career with teaching.

Always interested in fashion and costume, Jill is pleased to be a member of various costume societies, particularly the Costume Society, of which she is the secretary and archivist.

Sandra Stuart

Sandra has been sewing ever since she was old enough to be (responsibly) allowed to play with scissors, pins and needles. Largely self-taught, through a hilarious series of trials and errors, she may even be allergic to formal instruction.

Her love of corsets sprang from a penchant for dark Victorian-gothic style. Although her eyeliner is less dramatic these days, her passion for corsetry has never waned. She is currently working away at the near-impossible task of creating a corset based on each of the teacups in her extensive collection. Recently, she quit her job to start her own home-based sewing business. She is fueled by endless pots of strong black tea.

Sandra and her husband Jonathan live in a tiny crooked house, right next to the Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia, Canada.

Laurie Tavan of Daze of Laur

Laurie was thrust into the costuming world when asked to not only play Mary, Queen of Scots but also to design and construct a gown fit for such a queen. Having dabbled in sewing her whole life, she found her passion in historical garments. Soon she found herself gowning other Queens and nobles at events throughout Northern California. As news of her skills spread through the historical re-enactment community, more and more commissions and awards came her way. Her home sewing studio soon colonized the living room and annexed the kitchen.

That's when she went pro. With a reputation for unrivalled attention to detail and uncompromising standards, she started a website, took commissions, and now maintains a waiting list for gowns, accessories, and corsets, her fondest specialty.

Outside the sewing studio, Laurie SCUBA dives in Monterey and worldwide, fences frequently in the classical Italian style and dances almost every night of the week. She lives in Northern California with her husband Jeremy and a parrot named Percival.

Jennifer Thompson

Bio coming soon

Luthien Tyranea of Waisted Creations

Luthien was introduced to the world of corsetry when she was twelve, and has been hooked ever since. Although she has been making corsets for five years she has had to overcome dyspraxia whilst learning, which has made the process rather slow.

She loves to use traditional techniques in corsetry to create new and innovative looking corsets, and is willing to take months completing one piece if it means it is how she envisaged it.

She collects vintage dressmaking books and has over 100, with a few Victorian ones, but mostly books from the 1940s-50s. Her favourite period for corsets (and clothing) is the natural form era, and she collects women’s clothes from this period.

Kendra Van Cleave

Bio coming soon

Lisha Vidler

Bio coming soon

 Katarina Vukšić

When it was time for me to chose a high school, I wanted to learn to make clothing . My wish was to be able to make clothing for myself that I couldn't buy in stores here in Croatia. Then, I was in love with Lolita Fashion but when I started my education as a Clothing Technician I discovered Lolita's grandmother... Victorian Fashion.

I was (and still am) so fascinated with the bustle dresses that I learned how to make them for myself and I wear them almost every day. In 4 years of high school I managed to win the first place (twice) in a state competition in discipline "Pattern Making". In high school I learned to be free and creative, I also learned how to teach myself new skills and to always improve at what I love to do. I thank all of my teachers for those valuable lessons.

I enjoy drafting patterns ( I do it for fun and relaxation in a scale 1:5), making and wearing corsets and dresses and I hope I will open my own corsetmaking firm (I'm 21 now so I have time for that) to share my love with the world.

Carly Weggeland

Bio coming soon

Wendy Wildermoth

Wendy has sewn most of her clothing from a young age, and took a few years of sewing to realise that making things, and learning new techniques is a passion for her. She loves shoes enough to study and get formal qualifications in custom shoe making, and in footwear design + pattern making. She then studied fashion production to fill in the gaps in her garment pattern and construction knowledge. For her research and construction is as much fun as actually wearing costumes to events, partly as a perfectionist streak always thinks of how her clothing and costumes could be improved.

Despite jumping in the deep end with other hobbies it took nearly 30 years of sewing for her to take the plunge and start researching and making costumes. Despite early self taught hobbies of embroidery and needlepoint she really hates hand sewing, and avoids it if at all possible. With a broad range of costume interests including historical, steampunk, television and movies, her costume wish-list can only ever get longer. Convinced that sewing for other people as a job would take the joy out of sewing for her, she's happy to let her day job to fund her creative life.

Wendy now lives in Sydney, Australia and wishes she had more luck keeping goldfish alive. She decided it was in the fish's best interests if she stopped buying them as pets. More of her work can be seen at Costumes from a Shoebox.