I’m a little addicted to corsets. It’s not enough that I make my own, I feel compelled to collect some of the gorgeous work created by my colleagues. In my collection, I have several Sparklewren corsets. A Sparklewren corset is an art piece as much as a garment and I admit some of them I treasure purely for their aesthetic value – they’ve rarely seen wear. The notable exception is […]
Within the corset community, corset seasoning can be a bit of a contentious issue. Among wearers and makers alike, there’s a distinct split between the individuals who insist upon it and those who think it’s unnecessary. For those outside the community, the phrase can be a little confusing. I know that when I first encountered the term my immediate thoughts were of salt and pepper rather than any kind of […]
At first glance, it may seem a bit strange to have a £500 corset as this week’s Sale Lingerie of the Week. Yes, it’s been reduced from £1200 (just over $1700 USD) to less than half that (just over $700 USD), but that’s still an undeniably lavish sum for most people. Yet Sparklewren is undeniably worth it. If you’ve dreamed of owning a Sparklewren creation, and if her couture designs […]
While there are relatively few networking and professionalization events in the lingerie industry, one of the most revered is also one of the newest — The Oxford Conference of Corsetry, held over the summer at Oxford College. For those unfamiliar, The Oxford Conference of Corsetry (otherwise known as OCOC) is a three-year-old event, created by corsetmakers, for corsetmakers, and dedicated to the study of corsetry. People fly in from all […]
The 2015 Oxford Conference of Corsetry fell a scant five weeks before my wedding date. Flying in the face of good sense, I attended anyway. I had other reasons to be in England, and one of them was the undeniable pleasure of spending an extra day with my corsetmaking colleagues, taking pictures in the Sparklewren showroom. Sparklewren, Karolina Laskowska, Vanyanís, Emiah Couture, Holly Rafaela, and Pop Antique (that would be […]
