So you have just received your brand new custom made Violet Vixen brand corset. Congratulations- now you are ready to begin the process of breaking in your corset. This process is widely known in our world as “seasoning a corset”.
Here at The Violet Vixen, we LIVE for drama, fantasy, intensity and perfection. Above all, we live for doing those things in a proper and safe manner. Our bread and butter here at Violet Vixen are our Corsets. They are custom made specifically to mold and fit our Vixens like a glove. However, the work for the fit on our end can only go so far. A lot of ensuring that a newly purchased corset fits properly lies in the hands of the wearer. Seasoning your corset allows your corset to warm up and take your shape, but it also allows you to warm up and acclimate to being cinched in.
This process should NEVER be painful or uncomfortable. It should always go at a steady pace and be done with care and consideration each and every time. I still take the time to properly season every corset I have and I have been wearing corsets for almost a decade!
Much like you would need to season a cast-iron skillet to ensure the food you cook has maximum deliciousness, you will need to season your corset to ensure that you and your look have maximum deliciousness! Nevertheless, seasoning your corset is not only done to make sure you look good, it is done to help you get used to being tight-laced in a corset. It is impossible to pull a corset straight from packaging and expect to throw it on and lace it to its tightest possibility and for it to look and feel great. Immediately tightening your corset all the way can cause harm to your corset like ripped fabric and warped boning, but more importantly, it can cause harm to your body such as pinching, scrapes and bruising. Much like it takes time on our end to produce the highest quality corset, it will take a bit of time on your end to produce the highest quality and perfect fit.
With proper care and seasoning, a well-made corset can last you a lifetime! I, myself, have been working in alternative fashion and wearing corsets religiously for the better part of ten years. My very first corset is still in near perfect, and wearable, condition due to the care, proper seasoning and love it received from me. I am here to teach you how to wear and care for your corsets to ensure maximum results and wear, while maintaining health and safety for your corset and for yourself. Our corsets are steel-boned, so they are durable, they keep you in and they hold shape. But while they are heavy duty, they are still pliable, and over time, they mold and form to your individual contours. It is crucial to the integrity of the materials and to the integrity of your body that you take your time in this process. After your first corset, it becomes second nature!
Keeping in mind that corset seasoning takes time and effort for proper fit and comfort, you should be making sure that, if you have an important event, you are ordering your corset with enough time for you to properly be able to season it. My recommendation is to give yourself at least two weeks, at the absolute minimum, to properly break in your corset.
When it comes to prepping your corset for wear, keep in mind that it is not going to be super comfortable, but you should absolutely not be in pain. Much like when you get that cute new pair of leather shoes, you have to take them out for a couple quick spins, or wear them around the house to break them in, you will need to do the same with your corset. In my experience, it takes about roughly two to three weeks to properly break in a corset, even four weeks in some cases.
The Most Common Method
In the most common method of corset seasoning, for your first couple of days seasoning your corset, it is best to make sure you wear your corset for roughly one to two hours. You will want to lace your corset pretty generously, but not so tight that you feel like you are stuck in a strait jacket. The ideal feel for beginner lacing would be that of a good cuddle! You will want to make sure that you have not laced yourself too tight that you can’t breathe or function, but not too loose that you are being ineffective. Personally, I like to tighten my laces just a smidge more each session of my seasoning regime after about twenty or thirty minutes of wear to make sure I am getting the best possible reduction, but I make sure to keep it to a consistent window of reduction each time.
After the first two to three days of wearing your corset for an hour or two You will want to increase your daily time in your corset every two to three days by an hour each time, and continue to do so every two to three days until you feel your corset is perfectly fit to the contours of your body. So your first couple of days you will be laced in for up to two hours, the next two or three days you will be laced in for three hours and so on until you are wearing your corset for about six hours at the end of your two to four week seasoning regime. However, keep in mind, that when you are adding time, you are not adding inch reduction. Once your corset is completely seasoned to your ideal (typically) two to four inch reduction, you can reduce your reduction even further. If or when you decide to do this, it is crucial to make sure that you restart the seasoning regime to get your corset and your body used to the new level of reduction!
The 2-2-2 Method
If you do not have the time, or you are not as serious about waist reduction and training and you just want the simple hourglass shape a corset can give, you can try a different approach known as the 2-2-2 method. Even though you may not be aiming for Vampire or Violet Chachki’s waistline, it is still important to make sure your garment fits properly so that you look your best and feel your best! In this easy method, you still get your corset formed to your curves, just somewhat quicker and not as dramatic. With the 2-2-2 method, you will simply lace your corset for a two inch waist reduction for two hours a day for two weeks. Then you should have a nice, comfortably contoured basic hourglass shape. You can even give a little more drama without the over the top intensity by taking it down another two inches after you have completed the first go around of the 2-2-2 method.
It is also important to remember that these are really mostly guidelines, they are not the end all be all of corset seasoning. Not everyone has the time to religiously stick to certain regimens. Not everybody has a workplace where they can comfortably perform their daily tasks while wearing their corset for seasoning. But if you can take the time, you can customize a corset seasoning regimen that will work out for you! You can season your corset when you come home and clean up the house, you can season your corset while you cook dinner, and you can season your corset while you lounge on the couch and binge Netflix or play video games.
However, while you can customize the seasoning process and make tweaks for yourself, I recommend staying as true to the process as you possibly can. Sure, it may seem tedious to have to do this process for every corset, but you will thank yourself for seasoning your corset when you are comfortable and look so effortlessly divine at that big event you have been so hard preparing for! You should wear your corset, your corset should not wear you. In my most seasoned corsets I own, I can be cinched in for twelve plus hours and not even notice that I’m wearing a corset until I get home and change into my pajamas, that is how truly comfortable I am, it just feels like an extension of myself!
Please remember to be a safe and vigilant when you are seasoning and wearing your corsets. Know your limits and stick to them. We love drama, we love intensity, but more importantly we love you too and we value your safety and comfort! Remember to give yourself time and to always make sure that you are comfortable in your corset. After your corset is seasoned, you will know your limits, you likely won’t need to monitor how much time you are in your corset, or even how much reduction you are getting. You will be able to go by the resulting look and your level of comfort.
As always, you can reach out to us via email (service@thevioletvixen.com) or any of our social channels at any time for any reason! If you aren’t sure of what size corset you need or if you aren’t sure how to plan out your corset seasoning regime, or anything else for that matter. Our main goal is to serve you all as best as we possibly can and keep you looking and feeling just as divine and true to yourselves as possible.
Now that you know how to properly season your corsets and care for your garment and yourself in the process, you’re ready to take on the world! For those of you interested in the extremes, the fantasies and the dramatic waistlines like those of Vampira, Violet Chachki and Dita Von Teese, like yours truly, keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming blog where I will discuss with you the different methods of waist training, how to properly and safely waist train and how to select the best possible method of waist training for your lifestyle and ultimate desires!
About the author:
Morticia Graves
Morticia has been helping to revamp and take over the customer relations side of The Violet Vixen since the end of summer 2019. Specializing in alternative and over the top fashion, she has years of experience in the fashion and beauty industry and has had quite a few high profile clients. A practicing Pagan of over fourteen years, she is our resident witch and lives to create and craft. Morticia has always been a friend to the spooky, avant-garde and kitschy side of things, with a serious talent of marrying playful and gothic looks and attitudes.
I just wanted to thank you for working with me when I needed the rainbow armbands for a perfomance. I got them in time and everyone, both in the cast and in the audience, loved them. I’ve pictures if y’all would like to see, especially since I was wearing one of your corsets as well. Just let me know. You guys are awesome and I even got to hopefully send you a few more customers when people asked me where I got my corset.