Today is the last official Day of our 13 Days of Halloween Celebration....I'm pretty darn sure that it ended up being more than 13 days, AND more than 13 costumes.
Today, we have custom fit sets from the Wizard of Oz! These will also be available as ready-to-ship pieces in a lot of sizes after October 10th. I just HAVE to get our next festival over with before I start spending all of my time producing items for our online stores.
Yes! Best Fabric ever!!!
Before I close, I just want to IMPLORE you to take a moment and think differently about yourself. I work with women every single day of my life that are so beaten down about their bodies that they don't even want to TRY to feel good. One of the main reasons I got into this business is because I felt like I could slowly start to change the female default mindset, one depressed customer at a time. You guys should see all of them women I meet and all of the emails I get where women say things like, "I'm fat, so you're going to have to make me something huge." or MUCH worse things than that. With every breath, they put themselves down and their insecurities practically blast out of them. I get it......I do. I say foolhardy deplorable things about myself, and then I'll hear my lean little 6 year old daughter ask me if she has a flat tummy today. AAAAAhhhh. I HAVE to work on changing myself, and I MUST help other women change their hearts and minds.
If you haven't purchased a corset from me, I just want you to know that it's not NEEDFUL to buy something just to make yourself feel better, BUT corsets ARE empowering. There has only been a tiny handful of women that were soooo beyond help that they would put one on and STILL NOT feel pretty, but I would say that 99% of you can lace yourself into one of these things and your whole countenance will change. You strand straight and tall (because you have no choice there!) and you become unstoppable. When I'm at festivals, I have ladies come into the booth as the worst version of themselves and emerge as a fiery phoenix super-charged version!
If you're still thinking of purchasing some drab little polyester nightmare for Halloween, PLEASE, I beg of you, don't walk further down that road of self-loathing. You are worth more than that, and I want to see you shine. For the SAME price as one of those hideous things, you can grab a simple corset from us, and then go to a thrift store and pick out CRAZY things to go with it, and you'll look and feel so sensational that you'll stop people dead in their tracks.
I've taken about 8 YEARS to change my brain. Corsets have helped encourage me to be proud of my womanly shape, lose 50 pounds (ooh...actually maybe 60. Originally, I weighed 210, and I'm 5'5") build my company to be bigger and better, reach out to other women, and diversify my skills, my ideas, my empathy, my everything! I can't be intimidated, shut down, or put down while I'm wearing a corset! We have had the most HIDEOUS disasters and misfortunes with our company this year, but every time I go back to a festival and put on my entire costume, it acts as a shield, and I DARE anyone to defy me!
I really want to help you ladies out, so PLEASE give me that opportunity. I feel this is my life's work, and I WILL get through to you eventually. ;)
I am fat. And you are going to have to make me something huge... but not because I hate myself. Because I am so amazing that I needed to be six feet tall and weigh two seventy five to have enough square footage to contain it all! :) I don't think fat is a bad word. Not at all. And it's hard to change your mindset and get to that place, I know it is. But it helps if you've got some other people who already know that you're amazing. Massive kudos to you for being one. Here's another that totally makes my day- http://www.therotund.com/
ReplyDeleteYou're awesome. Thank you for posting this. :)
Thank you for loving yourself!! LOVE this post. LOVE yourself- or nobody else will. It's an inevitable part of life.
DeleteMichelle, I've been following you for a short while now and every blog you've posted, every picture I've seen of you... someone has said how gorgeous you are. And you are gorgeous. You have a beautiful feminine figure that you emphasize with your addictive corsetry. But it's more than that. It's about confidence, and apart from your cheekbones, that's what really shines through in pictures of you!
ReplyDeleteI drool over your creations almost daily and wish for a time when I will be able to afford one (or five!) Your passion for helping women change their self-image is inspiring and your method for putting it into action is nothing less than brilliant. You really are making a difference.
This is SO true of women these days!
ReplyDeleteI want to BURN the blasted magazine covers which show photoshopped women that are *nowhere* near as skinny as they're shown, have all blemishes, freckles and flaws airbrushed off... And basically are presented as something they are not.
I've lost almost 80 lbs in the past year and a half, love the fact that I'm a curvy hourglass shape, and love it even more when I slip one of my corsets on. Yours fit me the best (and I'm not just saying that, they REALLY do) and I still need a little coaxing in the hip/bum area that I'm not as large as I see myself. That being said- we all need to CELEBRATE our bodies, because when it comes down to it... Nearly all the guys I've met, and the one I'm going to marry next year, LOVE curves on ladies. It's natural- not skin and bones.
So while we may see fat, rolls, flab, cellulite, and all other manners of flaws- it doesn't really matter unless you *allow* it to bother you. People will be attracted by your personality, the way you carry yourself in a room full of people. Sure, lots of skinny and pretty girls get the modeling contracts.... But of them, look at how insecure THEY really seem to be- the majority of them at any rate.
I'm proud to be short, curvy, and showing off my body without being skanky! Thanks for reinforcing positive body image and giving us some amazing corsets which really help pull it off flawlessly!
I love your Haloween costume range. These Wizard of Oz ones are amazing.
ReplyDeleteEvery woman should be proud of their curves, woman are meant to have them, thats why we live longer and just look at old nude paintings, those ladies aren't skinny and they are beautiful.
Beautiful words from a beautiful woman. Thanks for selling me my first corset. Not only does it give a woman a better personal body image, but it gives us a better sense of self.
ReplyDeleteSince we met you at WorldCON, my friends and I have been wondering why corsets ever went out of style in the first place!
Oh my Lord, that attached skirt on Dorothy is fabulous. You're my favorite visionary. Thanks for being supportive, creative, and absolutely amazing. Love.
ReplyDeleteLast year, you made me into a spectacular, head-turning, pink frosted, bustle-skirted steampunk Glinda the Good. I am so tickled someone else will get to have as much fun as I did being Glinda in your clothes!! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are honestly in my short list of very few people I love to emulate, otherwise known at heroes, and have been for a few years. I follow your shop and blog surprisingly often for trying to hold down an etsy and vending costuming shop on my own and having no extra time ever. It is because you are such an inspiration. A wonderful person, a crazy amazing example of what a costuming business could only hope to achieve, a businesswoman to be reckoned with, a beacon of confidence, and so much more! We are both vending at OryCon in November in Portland, OR, and I am waaaay to excited to see your booth and hopefully yourself in person. Thanks for changing so many lives for the better, so often, with this message and so many others. It changes the world!
ReplyDeletehttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6gwvOo7za9Y/ToW3D0KItyI/AAAAAAAAAns/v3hnwgYn8kg/s1600/closeup.JPG
ReplyDeletehello,
is it just me or in the picture above, i wanted to know why where the lacing are between gourmet hole 2 from top and gourmet hole 6 from the top, it looks like the rods are curving a bit like steel was used instead?