Bespoke Corsetry: Review of Vollers Made-to-Measure Corset

There is nothing like getting a lingerie item made to your own specific measurements: it feels like the ultimate luxury, having something so close to your body fit like a dream. So you can imagine my delight when the legendary Vollers Corset Company contacted me and asked if I wanted to review a corset from their selection. Of course I did! Knowing I wouldn’t fit into the measurements of their regular overbust corsets, we immediately decided to have a corset made to my measurements specifically. I was over the moon! After a couple of weeks of making my corset and sending it to me in a lovely luxurious wrapping, I finally placed my paws on this beautiful garment. As corsets take time to test, I have owned this piece for a few months now but I hope I can be a bit more thorough with my review because of that.

The Design: I wished for something similar to the Eye Candy corset as it was a classic sweetheart neckline with a Jessica Rabbit-ish look to it! I had seen a couple of other bloggers wearing similar styles and had fallen head over heels in love with it. I also really wanted an overbust corset, as that was something quite impossible for me when buying corsets off-the-rack – so it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. I would say that the Eye Candy style is more of a quarter-bust style as it does NOT cover even half of my bust. I know my bust is quite big to be contained in an overbust corset, but it is also a matter of breast shape; my bust has a lot of fullness on the top part of it (ie above the areola) which means there will be naturally more overflow with these sort of corset styles.

I had no idea what colour my corset would be, but I wished for something golden, as I thought is was a great colour for both spring and autumn and would fit perfectly under a little black or red dress during the Christmas party season. The Vollers team decided to make my wish come true and paired the gold with a classic black. The laces are black to be as modest as possible and the golden grommets are carefully hidden with an extra fabric trim at the front. The curve of the corset is quite impressive which is always a huge upside when it comes to corsets – however, if you want something extra curvy and decide to go for bespoke Vollers corset, I would advice you to give the design team a bit smaller waist measurement than you actually have. This will ensure you can tight-lace and even waist train in your corset and won’t have to change your corset size too soon.

The lower part of the corset is not my favourite style though – the rounded “hem” makes my belly look more rounded than it is and does not flatter my body type the best way. I would have probably needed something a bit more straight/horizontal line to fit my body – now the hem of the corset curves upwards at the sides which is not ideal on my body, as I would love some compression and definition especially on my upper hip/lower belly area.

The Fit: The corset I received features 16 steel bones, ten panels , a waist tape and five busk closures to close it at the front. As I knew better with this corset, it being my second, I knew that I had to close it at the front starting from the middle busk closures and then working my way up/down from there. This corset was a lot easier to close and open compared to the True Corset which I reviewed here – I think that might have had something to do with the Vollers corset being an inch or so bigger at the waist, which made it easier to loosen it up before trying to put it on. As this corset is made to my very own measurements, I could choose the size between regular corsets sizes 24 and 26, which made the waist size absolutely perfect for me. I only wear corsets for special occasions, so I won’t be closing the back anytime soon, but as this is the right size for me, I can still tighten the corset the way it won’t show any skin under the modesty panel.

My biggest gripe with this corset, as with the previous one from True Corset as well, is that  it is undoubtedly too short for me. I have an extremely long torso that would need a suuuuper longline-style corset, which the Vollers corset unfortunately is not. This is a preference thing though – some like their corsets short and sweet, whereas I like mine to go seamlessly across my whole upper body. I feel like the shortness of the corset is pushing my middle body fat towards my lower belly and thus creating more bulk there, which is not the most desirable affect, especially with wiggle-style dresses. Also, it gives me less boob coverage when being so short, as I can’t hike the corset up more and risking my lower body having even less coverage.

The first and foremost question we need to ask with this piece is however, does it support my boobs? Well, in short, it really does. If you scroll down to the last picture of this review, you can see me wearing the corset under my Collectif Dolores dress without a bra on. The corset gives me a very Marie Antoinette like shape – kind of like a shelf-boob – but there is no discomfort with the bust flopping around or moving painfully inside my dress. The cups are big enough to hold all the volume of my lower breasts and there are no unsightly bulges to make people guess I have crammed myself into a too-small OTR corset. It doesn’t flatten me out either but makes my waist and bust ratio look deliciously curvy.

These pics have been taken a few months apart – this means there may be some slight changes to my body and how the corset looks on it.

Comfort: This one is always a bit tricky for me when it comes to reviewing corsets – some people claim good corsets are never uncomfortable and you will be able to breathe pretty normally with one on. To be honest, this is not the case with me. Even with a bespoke corset, I have hard time wearing it for several hours as it constricts my breathing, movement and eating habits. Disclaimer: don’t eat a normal warm meal when wearing a corset! It will instantly make you feel sick and you will need to take your corset off, especially if you are a beginner. As someone who lost her corset virginity only a few months ago, I cannot say for sure if the comfiness aspect will improve over months of wear, but I am pretty sure me and corsets are not meant to be full-time lovers. I also think this is a lot due to my ribcage shape which is very protruding and thus fights the shape of the corset. However, bones are flexible and will get used to corseting over time.

The materials of my Vollers corset are definitely premium quality and feel good against a bare skin – I know you are supposed to wear a liner or a cami of some kind to prevent your corset from greasing and getting sweaty, but I don’t wear them for a full day ever, so I am not too concerned about that. With my Vollers corset, I can clearly see that the quality is overall supreme, and it is lovingly stitched to the very last detail to make its wearer feel extra special.

Overall, my experience with the Vollers bespoke service was excellent, even though I forgot to mention a few details that would have helped them to create an even better fitting garment for my body type per se. If you are looking to have something made just for you, make sure to tell them each detail that they would need to take into consideration when it comes to your corset. Bespoke corsets cost always a bit more than their OTR equivalents, so make sure that the makers have all the information they need – this will ensure that at the end, you will have a perfect luxury product for your special occasions.

If you are looking to invest in a reasonably priced, well-made made-to-measure or off-the-rack corset, I would be happy to recommend Vollers for both purposes and budgets. You can find their look book here and  get an idea what would suit your body the best way. To have a corset especially made for you, you can contact Vollers by email. However, they do offer most of their corsets in sizes 18″-38″ which is a very impressive size range on its own. Have you ever considered buying a bespoke corset? After this review, would you be tempted to? Let me know in the comments! xx

My First Corset! – Review of a Playgirl “Under the Cup Support Corset Cincher”

This review is a bit overdue for multiple reasons – the first one being my illness a couple of weeks back when I was in a horrible flu with the side effect of an ear infection and ferocious cough that prevented me from wearing the corset in the first place. It is absolutely not true that you cannot breath in a corset but breaking in a new one when being sick? I didn’t want to take the chance, I was coughing my lungs out already. Another reason for postponing this review was my fear of writing my very first corset review – corsets are not as familiar to me as bras which is why I wanted a proper testing period for this product but also time to do some heavy research. After much reading about corsets and wearing one now and then, I can give my thoughts on being a first time corset wearer and also how this Playgirl waist cincher suited my purposes of a first-time corset.

When True Corset asked if I wanted to try something from their selection, it was a tough choice and I wanted to pick something suitable for my body – something quite long, full-bust appropriate and rather basic yet curvy. I know some of the off-the-rack corsets can be a bit too straight for my body and purposes, so I tried to pick something with a bit more curve, yet nothing with hip panels per se as I don’t have that prominent hips that would fill such a corset. I also thought about the colour for a while – on one hand I love bright colours, on the other a black or a white corset could be combined with most lingerie and would still look nice. As I stumbled across the “Under the Cup Support Corset Cincher” and it claimed to be one of the best options for us larger busted ladies, I decided to go for it.

Note: These pics have been taken after just a couple of wears and I have NOT tightlaced the corset and it has NOT been properly “broken in”. I  could have laced it in much tighter but that is not the best decision when wearing the corset for the first few times.

The Corset Cincher is 12″ long at the back and 11″ long at the front, so I knew that it would be a bit too short for me, even though being on the longer side of OTR corsets. I have a freakishly long torso, about 12-13″ and thus it’s hard to find a corset that would reach as far down on my body as I would like to. This particular corset was meant to cover all of the skin below your bra, but for me it did not unfortunately do that, because of my own body proportions. There are ten panels in the corset and twelve steel bones, eight spiral and four flat. Grommets are completely black which means the style is very discreet and classic. The materials are pretty basic too: the outer layer of the corset is thick taffeta and the inner layer is made out of 100% cotton twill. There is also a waist tape inside the corset, which apparently is a sign of a rather good construction.

Breaking in a corset takes quite a bit of time and it is not recommended to wear your first corset for long periods of time. I started with only a couple of hours and now have proceeded to wear the corset up to 7-8 hours a day. I am not waist training as I don’t have time and patience for it, but I would like the gap of my corset to close so that there wouldn’t be any skin showing at the back. This will take some regular wear so I hope to be wearing this corset as much as I can over the next couple of months. I went for a size 24 which is meant for a 28-29″ waist just like mine, but I do have to say that the sizing with this particular corset feels small. Side note: put it on in the morning before you are all bloated! I would say that in my experience (which is quite little though!), this feels more like a 22. The rule of thumb is to go for about 4″ smaller size than your actual waist measurement, especially if you are waist training. More experienced corset-wearers can go even smaller!

Putting on a corset is another task that can be a bit tricky when you are just a beginner – I for example thought it would be best to try to close the grommets from up to down or vice versa but in fact, the easiest way to close them is to start from the middle grommets and then work your way up and down. To even close the grommets you have to loosen up the laces of your corset quite a bit, depending on how small you went with the size. When you get the hang of it and especially if you have a friend to help you, it is not an impossible task to do! To read more about practical advice on corsets, please take a look at the What Katie Did corset guide.

I happen to own two corsets at the moment and have enjoyed wearing them a lot when I have the chance to do so. What I noticed particularly about the Playgirl corset  is that it’s quite comfortable for a first corset. The long back supports my bust area quite nicely, it makes me sit straight and is comfy to wear even for several hours! There are some things to remember when you are wearing a corset though: you can’t eat as much, you won’t be able to move your middle the way you are used to, so even taking a wee in the bathroom can be a hilarious task to do. When you get used to it, it will be worth the hassle though!

When it comes to the appearance of the corset, I do like the curviness level of it but there are still some things that I need practice with – for example estimating how tight I can lace the whole thing. As you can see, in the pics there is a significant amount of space at the lower portion of the corset meaning it stands out a bit. I haven’t even tried to tighten the corset without Mr 2COP’s help, so I am pretty much on his mercy when it comes to getting the fit right. It’s trial and error, but I am sure to get it right sometime in the future. I promise to take you some progress pics and post them on Insta! Also, if you would like a progress post here on my experience of wearing corsets after breaking them in properly, I would be happy to write about that as well.

If you would like to try this Playgirl Under the Cup Corset Cincher, please take a look at the True Corset site, here. This particular corset comes in sizes 20-36 and costs $75 – they also have great deals on selected corsets so check that option out as well! Also, please let me know in the comments if you wear corsets and what are your tips and tricks for wearing them – I would love to know! xx