My blog topic today is, hurry.
I hate hurry. Always have. I drove my mom crazy when I was in grammar school. I would sit on the edge of my bed when I should have been dressing myself after breakfast, pick up a good book, and get lost in it until mom rushed in, invariably yelling at me in words to the effect: “Get ON with it Ann, get yourself dressed or we’ll be late to school!”
Bottom line? Hurry doesn’t work when it comes to corseting. Or waist training. Period.
Recently I had a very curvy client write back with some sad news. She had damaged her brand new corset. But how?
We shipped out her new corset on Oct. 4, received by her about Oct. 6 when she started the seasoning process. Her snug natural waist was 39″ and we made her corset to close down in back 8″ to 31″. Our written instructions and our verbal ones to her at a personal consultation, were extremely specific as to how tightly to properly season a new corset. We told her how to measure, how to lace down to start, and how long each wearing occasion or day to wear the corset in order to properly season it, so as not to damage the fabric and cause harm to a new corset. We specifically told her that no matter if she felt comfy and felt she could lace it completely closed early on, she must not, in order to protect her investment.
When she told us she intended to wear her new corset at a conference shortly after receipt of it, we told her it was suitable to lace it tightly for the conference days, but only for a “few hours,” then release the laces and return to the noted seasoning schedule. Apparently she did not take our advice seriously.
We heard back that no less than 12 days later at a conference she attended, she had completely closed down the corset in back top to bottom and wore it both days, about 14 hrs per day — and a stud popped off the busk and a waistline seam stitching split about one inch in length.
Not surprising, and it has nothing to do with poor quality construction or materials.
She had the new corset for 12 days. Assuming that she put in say, two wearing sessions a day, that is, one in the morning, then removed the corset and put in one wearing session in the evening, of two to max, three hours each session, she would have worn the corset just 24 times before her conference. Our specified program would at that time have her wearing the corset for 2-3 hrs a day at an over corset measurement of 35.5″ (under corset 34.3) . Yet she closed down completely for 14 hrs two days in a row to 32″ (under corset 31″).
That’s a 3.5″ hurry-up that resulted in a mini-disaster.
Our client is convinced that she “followed instructions and properly seasoned the corset.” The facts show that she did not. Therefore she will foot the bill for the corset to be opened up and the stitch line repaired and reinforced and reshipped to her, to start again. This time we hope she will follow instructions.
Rushing the seasoning process for a new corset on almost every occasion, will be a highly risky venture. So too, will rushing waist training be highly risky in terms of potential success.
Every time (note: EVERY) that a client contacts me wanting to “rush” an order beyond the typical 1-3 month production time in order to “hurry up and let me start waist training”, that person has not followed thru on the order, or on the three-month program of coaching we sponsor. Too much enthusiasm, too much optimism, and the client is doomed to fail. That experience led me a year or so ago to omit the option of ordering a corset “rush” for an additional fee.
Today ROMANTASY will not entertain such requests, even for bridal corsets. A rush order results in too high of a risk and too many disappointments. Like fine wine, fine custom corsetry simply cannot be rushed — nor can waist-training results.
We at ROMANTASY are more disappointed in ourselves when we disappoint a client, than the reverse. We want to enjoy our work, which at heart is about enhancing a sense of well being and delight in our art-for-wear garment, for our clients.
There is yet a third time and place that hurry-up does not work, and that is in putting on a corset, especially a new one. If you don’t add about 30 min. to your dressing time, perhaps even an hour or two, you are doomed for discomfort and frustration. A newbie to learning to lace up finds her or his arms aching, shoulders straining, and sweat popping out on the browline. Far better to lace a bit, let arms rest and do something else then a few minutes later come back and lace a bit more and continue the gradual process.
Just try dressing before ad event and running out the door in 5 minutes of donning even a well-seasoned corset, and you will rue the day and occasion: Heartburn if you eat, tweaks and hot spots even if you don’t, and sooner rather than later “get me outta here” will result and you’ll have to loosen up or take your corset off. I add about 2 hrs. pre-event dressing time when I lace down, even with 25 years of corseting “under my belt.”
And that practice, I don’t intend to change.
T
Corset Waist Training 