Circular Fashion Corset Project

Water does not resist. Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go,
and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

Margaret Atwood

This Corset Revival Project is part of a long line of artworks that explore a sense of ‘flow‘ that I have created in my chosen medium, embroidery. Organised by the Circular Fashion Incubator (CIC) at Leeds `Beckett University. As a professional embroiderer I have been working with needle and thread for over 15 years now. This project gave me the opportunity to experiment with draping in a way I have not been able to before as the base required the use of the pre-existing corset. 

The design centers around one of my favorite pastimes, open water swimming. It’s about the peace and tranquility of the purposeful action that parallels the way sewing makes me feel. I enjoy the way the water hugs you much like a corset does and wanted this piece to reflect the way I feel when I swim (but don’t look because wetsuits make you look more like a seal than a nature goddess). 

Draping has always held interest for me but there has not been a good project to do so since I was at the London College of Fashion, studying textiles. As an embroiderer I found that using a curved needle was the easiest way to sew the fabric to the corset base without hitting off the bones. The fabric was all left over from my graduate collection which has been sitting in storage for many years. The blue sandwashed silk makes for a beautiful base for the design as it has wonderful movement and is malleable for draping purposes. I chose to try not to create any additional unnecessary waste so all the pieces that I used on the corset were kept whole and shaped only through the draping (with the exception of frayed edges to tidy up the seams for an elegant finish). Where the pieces of fabric have been partly used for previous textiles experimentations, I have left those intact and on show to celebrate the journey the materials have taken on their way to their final outcome.

The embroidered part of the project comes in the form of a sequin technique I have been refining for some years now. It involves bending disk sequins so that they ‘stand up’ and their curved narrow edge becomes the outermost part of them. Naturally the angle of them changes with the curved surface of the corset which makes the way the corset looks constantly change and flow with the movement of the wearer. The standing sequins themselves reflect the flowing nature of the piece as they nestle into the valleys of the draping. The majority of the sequins were donated to the project by my two generous sponsors; ‘The Sustainable Sequin Company’ and ‘Sequin World’. They provided materials that would otherwise have been wasted as they had their holes punched incorrectly, were made of an unstable colour or were created as a mix of colours when changing over shades on the sequin making machine. This made them perfect to be used in a project that would give them purpose and look gorgeous in the process. 

I hope that the viewer and wearer will enjoy a feeling of calm when enjoying my design. That sense of being immersed in something bigger and allowing ourselves to be guided by it; to ‘go with the flow’ and see what comes out on the other side.