Setting the Record Straight *sigh*

Okay, so to start off with, these wannabe corsety things in the pictures above WERE NOT made by me, or anyone affiliated with me.....or anyone as cool as me. In fact, it was made by some underpaid overworked little ladies in China, apparently. Holy Face, I didn't think I would have to address this, but here I am doing it.

About 3 months ago, I got an email from a customer that said, "Uh, this person looks like they stole your patterns" so I hopped onto this ebay store, and SURE ENOUGH, there were all of my patterns, or likenesses thereof, staring me in the face. I felt really sick inside. I had spent years of my life creating these patterns, revising them, restructuring them, and making them as full of quality as I knew how, and this guy bought a corset from us, made his own version of it, and then started having them cheaply made in China. Now, friends, I do want you to know that I understand how capitalism works, and I believe in it. I believe competition is my ally, and I believe that if you have a company who cares deeply about its customers and is passionate about its product, you can do GREAT things. At first, I didn't want to even think about this guy. It made me soo angry every time I started to, that I would sit there sewing my HIGH QUALITY corsets and thinking up new possible profanities that might be good enough for such a bad person. But, the more I talked to my husband about it, the more I was convinced that it would be a GOOD thing for our company to have some cheap knock off company copying us. Tyler told me that by having a "knock off", it would give more credibility to us, the original company. We would suddenly be the "high end designer" corsets, while this guy is the cheap "everyone knows they're knock offs". The more I thought about it, the more I calmed down. Furthermore, a lovely thing started happening. I would watch this company's sales from time to time (They started out just making cloaks, and then branched into bodices, when they saw how awesome ours were. Their policy is that they start every ebay auction at $0.01 and then let the customers bid the items up. I was DELIGHTED to see that people were paying knock off prices for...well...knock offs. I honestly don't think he can even be paying for the materials....oh, wait! When you pay someone 25 CENTS a day, you can afford to sell a full tailed corset at $35!!!!! (and I'm not even kidding. I just checked his sold items. He's sold several of them for that cheap. Not good.)

Let me explain why this guy's stuff isn't anywhere near the level of mine-First off, if you start looking through his corset auctions, especially the ones where there's the little chinese girl modeling, you'll notice that there is absolutely no womanly curves built into his stuff! They are VERY much straight up and down. Trust me guys, this is a bad shape. I don't know if he's just out of the loop, but most women have CURVES. Or if they don't, they like to LOOK like they have them. Also, I know that the stitching on these is immaculate. Women who work in factories for goodness-knows-how-many hours a day are FREAKING good seamstresses. I know, I've worked with some. They are amazing. So, of course, on the up close pictures, these corsets look flawless. Yes, I get that. BUT, I wish I could show you guys the difference between chinese boning and the quality stuff from either Europe or America. I had a Boning company from China contact me out of the blue last year, and they wanted to know if I would like to do business with them. I told them if they sent me some samples, I would think about it. So, a few days later, I got some samples of white-coated spring steel boning. On the outside, it looked fine. It was definitely thinner and more flexible, but originally I thought, "Well, I would double it up, and it might work just fine." Then, my marvelous brother in law, Barrett, (who HONESTLY believes in quality products made in America) suggested that I put the boning to some stress tests. He then took it from me, bent it in half one way, after which half of the white coating came off, and then bent it in half the other way, and it snapped clean in two! It was total crap! Can you imagine wearing a corset where suddenly a piece of steel is jabbing you? Ouch! Anyway, back to the issue at hand, it looks like the knock off guy is using even cheaper boning. OF COURSE, it looks good on a mannequin, who's been wearing it for 5 minutes and who is made of hard foam. Of course it looks good on a cute little chinese girl with no curves. Yes, the boning will generally stay pretty straight when you're only wearing it for pictures. BUT I KNOW that LOTS of you women out there have had corsets where the boning looked like a lasagna noodle at the end of the day. I know that tons of you have had the boning in the front bow out like a ski jump off of your stomach, or it's snapped, or goodness knows what else!! I saw a lady wearing one of these knock off bodices at the OK ren fest (I'm sorry, whoever you are, but you looked wretched) and it made her look like a very cylindrical tree trunk with no curves, and the boning up the front had 3 big ripples in it. It looked like a 3 tiered hourglass in front. Not pretty.

(now, the above picture IS mine. CURVES.)

Wow, I didn't mean to go on and on. But, I REALLY want you guys to know where I'm coming from. I originally didn't want to draw any attention at all to this guy, because he didnt' deserve attention. Plus, I didn't want to give him any form at all of advertisement. Maybe some of you just do not care who makes your corsets, or if the patterns are cheaply made and stolen from an honest, good person. Maybe lots of you out there think, "Well, still...it's $35. Why not? Just to see!" I understand that thinking! I've been there myself. I'm not going to chastise you guys or get offended (well, I might never be your friend again, but that's beside the point!) but I do want you to know that truer words than these have almost never been spoken.

"YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's painfully true with this guy's stuff. I'm not charging the amount of money that I do just to piss everyone off. I'm charging what I do because I get the highest quality of stuff, and I spend my life thinking and rethinking the corset business and ways to improve my product and ways to make new things. This guy just sees what I does, makes a copy, and then sends the pattern to China. He doesn't care about quality or a woman feeling beautiful. I can guarantee you that. And, if you'll notice, his fabrics even look horrifyingly similar to mine. However, once again, they might LOOK good, but he doesn't give a dang if they will last more than one wearing. You can TELL that he doesn't care.

THE MAIN GOAL for writing this email was to set the record straight. I'm sooo touched by how many of you have responded to this and have sent me emails letting me know about it. I can't imagine how I could have been so blessed to do business with such good, loyal people. Wow, loyalty! What a beautiful word!! I really felt like starting this company has helped me make friends worldwide, and I want you to know that the friendships I have with you guys are very important to me. It's not just "Give me your money and get out!" Lots of you know how long-winded I am in my emails. I try to answer all of my own emails, and I try to make them personal and meaningful so that you guys will know that I DO give a dang. :) It's actually sometimes been a hinderance, because I would literally spend 3-4 hours answering emails some days. I'm very passionate about my work, and I would LOVE it if I could "inspire" people to make beautiful clothing of their own design, rather than just copying what's already been done. Once again, I'm not afraid of competition, and I truly hope that this has helped my company, rather than hinder it. I decided that if I got ONE more email from a customer that was concerned about the knock off company, that I would make a "public announcement" so to speak..well, today I got 3 emails. I love you guys and I feel a great swell of gratitude for everyone of you who has taken the time to get angry about the knock offs and write me a letter! I really didn't mean for this to be "bash someone else's company" hour. I didn't want to come across as this bitter person who only thinks that you should buy Cheerios, and never buy Malt-O-Meal Honey-Nut-Os!! I just wanted to let you guys know the truth, and thank you once again for your amazing loyalty!

Love

Michelle

Behind the Scenes at Damsel in this Dress

I thought I would share a few images from our workshop! This first one is what a huge rubbermaid tub of 36,000 grommets looks like. I have to order that many at a time to get the amazing price that I do, but it's not cheap in that great of bulk! Believe me! I shed a tear every time I order more. OH, which is why we don't have silver and black finishes! Our ebay branch of the company that is run by my sister has black and silver, but the main branch (or me...Michelle) doesn't, because it takes so much $$$ to get them.
Here's a lovely shot of a pile of bolts of fabric.

Ah, Edward! And no, I didn't name our grommet press after the sparkly vampire, people! It's just that his name was on him when I got him. This little guy set us back $3000, but was the best purchase we ever made for our company. It's a pneumatic grommet press, and it's hooked up to a huge air compressor and it cuts and sets the grommets, all with one pull on that little black knob on the front. And yes, the bowls beside the grommet press are little kids' bowls from IKEA and my husband uses them to put smaller amounts of grommets into.

Now, I haven't named my machine yet, however, I did put some vinyl bird and floral stickers on her to give her some personality. Any ideas for name, guys? I want her to have a unique name that says, "I work hard for my money, so you better treat me right." This machine is awesome! Just to give you an idea of the differences between normal little household machines and this one-normal machines run at 200 stitches per minute at their top speed. This girl runs at 6,500!!! The first time I sewed on an industrial, I nearly ripped my arm off. OH, and normal machines weigh something like 10 to 30 pounds, depending on the machine, and this one, along with its table, motor, foot pedal, and all, weighs 200 pounds. That's a REAL woman!

OH, and another wall of fabric.

New Fabric!!! Thank heavens!

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I finally got my fabrics page on my website up and running again! So, now you can see what we have! However, I feel I must apologize for the shameful profusions of red fabric that exist on the site. All the same, I can partly blame it on the upholstery fabric industry. You see, I'm at the mercy of whatever is in vogue for home decorating, and apparently no one decorates in black and silver or purple (I'm sorry to the many customers who have requested those of late!).

When I pick out my fabrics, I always first go for the quality, then appearance. I've sadly made corsets out of materials that I thought were beautiful but ended up being totally cheap (In other words, I don't care how pretty the chinese brocade fabric is at JoAnn. It DOES NOT hold up to body shaping!!) and perhaps that why I don't have as huge of a selection of colors as I might like. I have customers who sometimes get frustrated because I can't fill a "simple" request such as "black with purple stripes" but here's the thing. If you guys can go and online and FIND me a fabric store that sells that in an upholstery weight jacquard or chenille, then I will be MORE THAN GLAD to fill that request. However, I think the second you hop online to find that, you'll be yelling profanities at the complete lack of awesome fabrics. You can always find amazing stuff in quilting fabrics, and you can even find corset makers who use quilting fabrics, but the trust is-100% cotton just isn't built to take a beating.
My oldest brother always said, concerning business, that "You can be the cheapest or you can be the best, but you can't be both". I think it's painfully true. I could sell corsets that were $25, but they would all have plastic boning only in the front and be made out of floral calico that I bought off the $1.00 a yard rack at Wal-Mart (at least the ones that still carry fabric!) Honestly, I actually don't think I'm the cheapest OR the best. I want to give my customers a really well built product that they can afford that makes them look and feel like seductresses! (well..maybe not my little 13 and 14 year old customers. You guys can just feel "pretty") I know that there are corset makers out there that have 40 pieces of boning in their corsets and 100 grommets, but those also cost $600. Boning is NOT cheap, friends. Nor is the time that it takes to place all those pieces of boning in their channels. We tried to find a way arond that by putting boning in the crucial spots (front-flatten tummy, sides-flatten love handles, back-give good back support) and then we use two layers of very durable stiff upholstery fabric (3 layers in the front) that do amazing things as far as holding in the body and smoothing you out! I'm not lying when I say that at the Norman Medieval Fair this year, I had a customer come up that was wearing one of the super expensive, million pieces of boning corsets, and she liked my little sturdy $55 wench corsets just as much. What is more is that they did the exact same thing for her body. Both corsets gave her a beautiful hourglass shape, both were the exact same body length, and both gave a romantic appeal to her.
Holy Face! How did I get onto this subject? I only hopped on here to tell you guys that you could see my fabrics. Wow, sorry about that. I guess the jist of this blog is to say: "New fabric!" and "We really do make a good product. We're not necessarily the "best" but that's only because I realize that I'm 23 years old and have A LOT more to learn about corset making before I'm through. However, I'm very proud of what I've learned, and I LOVE having a job where I get to help women learn to love their reflection in the mirror!"

SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ATTENTION!!! I'M HAVING A "HOLY CRAP! THAT'S SUPER CHEAP!" SALE! I'M HEADING BACK TO MY UTAH BUSINESS LOCATION ON MONDAY(JUNE 8TH) BUT I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH ROOM IN MY TRAILER TO FIT ALL OF THE NEW FABRIC I PURCHASED, PLUS MY LEFTOVER INVENTORY FROM THIS LAST FESTIVAL I DID! SO, EITHER I CAN TRY TO SELL LOTS OF CORSETS ON ETSY AND ARTFIRE FOR SUPER CHEAP, OR I CAN SIT IN THE PASSENGER SEAT OF MY VAN FOR 1,200 MILES HOLDING TONS OF CORSETS IN MY LAP(you think I'm joking, but I'm not!) PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!

I'M SELLING MY VIXEN CORSETS OFF FOR $69 TO $79 (NORMAL PRICE $100 TO $110) AND I'M SELLING MY COURTIER CORSETS FOR $89 (RATHER THAN THE $145 PRICE TAG!) I'LL DEFINATELY BE LOSING MONEY ON THEM, BUT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT ANY OTHER WAY TO DO THIS. I'M SORRY, I KNOW THERE ISN'T A GREAT RANGE OF SIZES, BECAUSE THE STUFF THAT'S LEFTOVER AT THE END OF THE FESTIVALS GENERALLY ISN'T MEDIUM/LARGE SIZES, BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE VERY AVERAGE SIZES THAT SELL FIRST. HOWEVER, IF ANY OF THESE THINGS FIT YOU, GET ONE! SERIOUSLY! OTHERWISE, I MIGHT BE THROWING CORSETS OUT OF MY VAN WINDOW AS WE DRIVE DOWN THE FREEWAY(now, I WAS joking there.)!

Yikes!

Holy Face! It's a good thing I didn't mass produce any of the double breasted corsets yet! From your very honest comments, I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't pursue this style at all. The pattern in it's current state was hard enough to draft and put together, but if I were to employ the methods you guys suggested, I think it would turn into a corset that took many hours to sew and would cost $300.
Thanks for your comments. I should definately do "blog preview" this with every style. Sometimes I THINK I have really awesome ideas, but they're just not marketable. I don't want to stick with the same styles of bodices forever, and I DO want to branch out and put my creativity to use....at the same time I have realized that wearable works of art are really not what everyone wants. I was even just looking for some more hats to go with my costumes, and rather than being drawn to the crazy ornate top hats from www.gypsyladyhats.etsy.com I was thinking, "Man, I would just like black." I feel like such a hypocrite, because you can't imagine how depressed I get when I drop thousands of dollars on all of these amazing luxurious fabrics, and then I have customes that say, "UH...I just wanted a solid black." However, I did the same thing. *sigh*

Double Breasted! Because 2 is better than 1

It just occurred to me, I hadn't really shown anyone my double breasted corsets! Here's where I jumped the gun a bit. Usually, when I design something, I throw several of them on etsy or ebay just to see if they sell and to figure out if people actually like them. THEN, after really testing the market, I'll draft all the sizes of the pattern, go through a couple of revisions, and then offer them on my website. However, we were wanting to do a steampunk style photoshoot, and I just HAD to have some of these on the lovely girls I used for my models! Anyhow, so now that I've actually got them, I would like to ask your opinion!

So, how this works is it's a normal overbust corset, but then it has half lapel collars up at the top, and there's a flap that folds over the lacings and creates the "double breasted" look. It fastens with pieces of elastic that come out from the side of the flap and hook onto 3 buttons alongside the side seam. Anyway, I would REALLY like some honest opinions on the thing. If you guys think it sucks, then tell me very nicely.....However, if you really think it's swell, or you think it WOULD be swell if I made some changes, let me know!

An Owl with a Gun

If any of you have ever wondered what happens to the inevitable mountains of scraps that our business generates, here's a charming example of what happens to them. This is a "Shoot Owl" (rather than "hoot owl") made from some scraps that I possessed. It all started when my little blonde blue-eyed 2-year-old boy wanted to play with my antique owl necklaces, and I didn't really fancy that notion. I told him that Mommy would make him an owl, and then he yelled, "Shoot Owl!" So, that's how this thing came about. Sorry to any of you that are opposed to guns. It's just that my little guy LOVES "sharpknives" and "shootguns" , as he calls them. And you know, I believe in just letting little boys be boys. My little guy will have enough exposure to the gentle side of life, seeing as both his Dad and Mom make corsets for a living.