This entry is a summary of the review video “Xandriana Tightlacing Underbust Review” which you can watch on YouTube here:
| Fit, length | This corset is custom fit (made to measure), so a corset for you may fit differently. Center front is about 12 inches high, and the side seam is 9 inches high, back is 15 inches high. Modern hourglass silhouette – rounded over the ribcage and rounded over the hips. Slightly longline. |
| Material | Outer layer is pale pink satin (might be satin coutil). Lined in white herringbone coutil. |
| Construction | 6 panel pattern. Panels are assembled using a topstitch. Bones are sandwiched between layers, double boned (one on the seam and one in the center of the panel). |
| Binding | Matching strips of pale pink satin, machine stitched on the outside and hand finished on the inside. |
| Waist tape | 1 inch wide waist tape, stitched invisibly between the layers. |
| Modesty panel | Modesty panel is suspended on the laces and boned in a criss-cross fashion. A 1″ wide unstiffened placket in front. |
| Busk | 11 inches long, standard width busk (half inch on each side) with 6 knobs and loops, the bottom two a little closer together. Reinforced flat bones on either side. |
| Boning | 28 bones total (14 bones per side). Mostly 1/4″ wide spiral steels, single boned on the seams plus extra bones in the middle of the panels. There are two flat steels sandwiching the grommets as well, and two flats by the busk. |
| Grommets | 28 two-part Prym eyelets, size #0, medium/large, held in strongly. Finished in silver and set a bit closer together at the waistline. Good wide washers, few splits but don’t catch on the laces. |
| Laces | Laces are 1/2″ wide double-faced satin ribbon, finished in pale pink. |
| Price | At the time I’m writing this, a custom underbust starts at $300 USD (suitable for tightlacing but not waist training). For a waist training custom corset, the price starts at $400. |
Final Thoughts:
This corset was a bit of a serendipitous find. I had been meaning to try a corset from Xandriana for awhile, as one of my acquaintances (a previous client of Xandriana’s) had positive things to say about the craftsmanship.
So when I joined the Corsets On Sale group on Facebook and found another person who was selling their old Xandriana corset, with measurements very close to my own, I immediately jumped at the opportunity! The lovely pearlescent finish and the cheery flossing were even cuter in person, and I was pleased to see that the corset was not actually white, but actually the palest, most delicate shade of pink. I also liked the very high back of this corset as it provided excellent support while sitting at my desk, and it made muffin top virtually impossible. After uploading this video, I had the opportunity to talk with the corsetiere, and discovered that the flossing was actually done by the first owner of the corset.
Although this particular corset is not advertised for waist training, its construction is stronger than many other corsets out there that do claim waist-training-friendliness – one of my favorite features in this corset is the distribution of the boning. In corsets that are simply double boned on the seams, it can sometimes feel like the double bones make it “too rigid” in places, while there are vast spans of wrinkled, unsupported fabric between the bones. When you have one bone on the seam and one on the channel (as in this corset), the distribution is more even, which can help prevent pressure points on your body and prevent ugly wrinkling in the corset, resulting in a beautifully smooth and comfortable corset. The darker pink flossing in a clean V shape on the boning channels was also a nice visual touch, and highlighted the fact that this corset had quite even bone distribution.
This is a lovely little corset; the only changes I would make is to perhaps have the bones in the very back bow a little less – but as I am the 2nd owner of this corset, I know nothing of its previous treatment nor anything about the customer service from Xandriana.
Looking at the different listings in Xandriana’s Etsy shop, it seems that the tightlacing underbust has only 1 layer of coutil, and a non-specific number of bones; while the waist training version has 2 layers of coutil and a guaranteed minimum of 26 bones, and more depending on the size and reduction. If you would like to learn more about the different options Xandriana offers, do visit her website here.
Do you feel the high back adds anything to the comfort and/or support of the corset? Does it make lacing up one’s own corset any more difficult/easier?
I do find that a higher back contributes to more support overall, and it prevents muffin top as I mentioned in the article. :) However because there’s virtually no tension around the corset at the top edge (compared to the waist where there is understandably quite a bit of tension), I find that it’s quite easy for the laces at the top to pull tightly and overlap – so if you weren’t able to close this corset from the get-go, then it may be difficult to keep the laces straight and parallel. So I would probably opt for a back not quite as high as this one – perhaps only 2 inches higher than the underbust, instead of 3 inches.
Thanks for the reply!