Tag: Josephine

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Isabella Corsetry “Petite Josephine” Corset Review

This entry is a summary of the video “Isabella Petite Josephine Corset Review” which you can watch on YouTube here:

Fit, length This style is standard sized 22″: Center front is about 11.25 inches high, from underbust to lap is 9 inches, and the center back is 12.5 inches. Waist in this corset is 23″ (it was 2nd hand so it stretched slightly), ribcage is 29″ (7 inch rib spring) and lower hip is 33″ (11 inch hip spring). “Longline” for someone with a short length, conical in the ribs and cupped over the hips.
Material 3 Layers: Fashion fabric is black satin. Interlining in between, and lining is black cotton twill.
Construction 6 panel pattern, and constructed with the sandwich method with double boning on each seam.
Binding Commercial black satin bias binding. No garter tabs.
Waist tape 1 inch wide invisible waist tape, sandwiched between the layers. Full waist tape, from center front to center back.
Modesty panel You have the choice of ordering any Isabella corset with a sewn-in panel, a separate panel, or no panel. This particular corset didn’t come with a modesty panel.
Busk 9.25 inches long, heavy duty wide busk, with 5 loops + pins, equidistantly spaced.
Boning 20 bones total, 10 on each side. Double boned with 1/4″ wide spiral steels on the seams, and there are four flat steels in the back sandwiching the grommets. (My original Josephine has 2 extra bones.)
Grommets 28 two-part grommets, size #00, with medium flange. Finished in black and spaced a bit closer together at the waistline. Big washers, all grommets rolled nicely. There is a lot of friction lacing up but probably because of the modesty panel.
Laces Black double faced satin ribbon – no spring, very strong and flat.
Price $175 USD base price for the immediate line corsets (but on an indefinite sale; around $150+ depending on the color/ fabric).

 

Isabella Corsetry is run by a woman named Erin in Sacramento California. The Isabella Corsetry brand offers three ranges:

  • the “Immediate” line for standard-sized, in-stock corsets in simple fashion fabrics (OTR corsets), which is only the most popular 5-6 underbust styles.
  • the “Made to Order” line for standard sized corsets, but they can be made in your choice of fabric (choose among 200+ fabric options, or send them your own custom fabric), in 18 styles.
  • the “Custom” line if you prefer the corset made to your measurements and specifications, and you can choose among the 18 styles or request your own style.

Josephine longline corset by Isabella CorsetryFor awhile, the Josephine corset was one of the curviest OTR corset styles on the market, and I believe it was probably the “original” pattern that many other companies had copied over time. The Petite Jo was the answer to those who loved the look and the curviness of the corset, but had too short of a torso to comfortably sit down in the original Josephine. Now Isabella has come out with the Katherine, which is marketed towards waist trainers or tightlacers who have gone as far as they can in the Josephine!

The only caveat I found to ordering from Isabella Corsetry is that the wait times are quite long, especially if you’re ordering your corset from outside of the US. While the shipping time was stated to be 2 weeks to Canada, I found it took closer to 6 weeks for me to receive my order, which made me wonder if the in-stock corsets were actually made to order.

The other thing I noticed is that both my original Josephine and my Petite Josephine had stretched an inch in the waist over time with very regular use – however, I’m impressed that they did not have any ripped seams, popped grommets or other structural issues; they’re strong garments certainly capable of withstanding months or years of waist training, as long as you take into account the stretch factor.

See more on the Isabella Corsetry website here.

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Where to buy Conical Corsets for Training the Ribs

Note that this post is a copy of the same one under the “Research Corset Brands –> Guided Galleries” menu. It is part of a collection of articles to help corset enthusiasts shop more wisely.

Christian Dior’s “New Look” (1947) required a tight wasp waist with a preferably conical ribcage.

Rather than an hourglass silhouette, some people prefer their corsets to give them a more conical, tapered ribcage like what was so popular around the 1950’s New Look era. A human’s floating ribs (the 11th and 12th ribs) often have flexible joints, and they’re designed to swing in and out like a hinge with each breath you take. It is also possible for some individuals to train their ribs to be pushed inward, so they have a slightly tapered ribcage with or without the corset on.  There are arguably over 100 different makers who can cater to the conical ribcage to give that 50’s “wasp waist” look, but I will just show some of my personal favourites, and some particularly impressive corsets that I’ve found to give this shape.

As mentioned before, different ‘schools’ of corsetry have different definitions for silhouettes. I was first introduced to this style as the “wasp waist” silhouette, as rib shaping is often more demanding to wear compared to more rounded hourglass silhouettes. Others may call this the conical silhouette, or the ice-cream cone silhouette – so when purchasing a corset, do clarify what kind of silhouette you’re looking for.

Continue reading Where to buy Conical Corsets for Training the Ribs

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Isabella Corsetry “Josephine” Underbust Review

This entry is a summary of the review video “Isabella Corsetry Josephine Underbust Review”. If you would like more complete information and side notes about the corset, you can watch the video on YouTube here:

Fit, length Dramatic curves, extreme hourglass. This is a longline corset coming over my hips. The center front is 13” high; the shortest part of the corset is 10.5″ hiugh.
Material 3 main layers. The outer fashion fabric is black satin, then there’s a layer of twill as interlining and another layer of black twill as lining.
Construction Made from a 6-panel pattern (so the corset itself is 12 panels total). It looks as though the coutil panels were lock-stitched at the seams, the allowances were pressed open. The layers are joined together by stitching in the ditch between the panels and also by making boning channels. The stitching is perfect on the outside, but the seams are wiggly on the inside. The lining does not float. Bones are sandwiched between the two layers of twill (lining and interlining).
Binding The binding at top and bottom made out of black satin bias tape machine stitched on both sides; it’s small on the outside, then folded under and machine stitched in the ditch, in the seam between the corset and the binding itself, to catch the rest of the binding underneath.
Waist tape 1” wide twill tape between the lining and interlining, invisibly stitched.
Modesty panel There an unboned modesty panel in the back made from two layers of just satin. Slightly over 6” wide.  Easily removable if you want to remove it. No modesty placket on the front.
Busk A heavy duty busk, slightly under 1” wide on each side and 11” long, with 5 pins, it’s EXTREMELY stiff. Keeps the front very straight.
Boning 22 steel bones in this corset not including the busk. On each side there are 9 spirals about 3/8” wide, and they’re mostly double boned at the seams except for at the back between panels 5-6. By the grommets they also use about 3/8” wide flat steels; very sturdy.
Grommets There are 30 2-part size #00 grommets (15 on each side). Black finish to match the rest of the corset, they have a medium lip around and are spaced equidistantly. Functionally they’re very sturdy, no popping or pulling away, whatsoever. On the underside there are no splits – much nicer than the grommets used in Isabella’s Bat cincher.
Laces 1/2” wide black double satin ribbon. They’re very nice, strong, pretty, glide through the grommets nicely and also seem to hold the bow well with little slipping out over time.
Price Currently $175 USD for immediate line. For other fabrics (made-to-order) it’s $250, and for custom fit/fabric it’s $360.
Josephine longline corset by Isabella Corsetry
Josephine longline corset by Isabella Corsetry – product photo in their made-t-measure line (might be a tad curvier than their standard pattern)

Final Thoughts:

This corset continues to be one of my favourite off-the-rack underbust corsets. It’s comfortable and gives a crazy curvy silhouette – to this day, I think I have gotten more compliments when wearing this corset than with any other off-the-rack corset. It’s relatively affordable compared to other major brands out there. The only con I could say is that Isabella is quickly gaining more and more recognition and thus she’s becoming busier, so wait times have been increasing for her corsets! However, I’m happy that she’s overflowing with commissions; I think her work should be credited. I could definitely see myself commissioning another piece from Isabella in the future.