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Lucy’s Corsetry Review: Lara Black Mesh Corset

Posted on by Rachel Barb
Lucy's Corsetry Review: Lara Black Mesh Corset
01
Jul

Featured Corset: Kayla Short Black Cotton Corset

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Today, I’m going to be reviewing the Lara Mesh Underbust Corset made by Glamorous Corset. So here’s the front, the side, the back, and the other side.

For the length and fit of this corset, the center front here is 12.5 inches. At the princess seam from under the bust to the top of the lap here is 10 inches. 5.5 of those inches are from the waist up, and 4.5 are from the waist down, measured from the bottom of the waist tape. At the side seam here, it is 11 inches, and in the center back, it’s 12.5 inches once again.

For the circumferential measurements, today I’m wearing a size 22. And when I took this corset right out of the box and measured it before being worn, it did measure 22 inches in the waist. The underbust here measured 29 inches, so it has a 7-inch rib spring. And the hip here measured 32 inches, so it has a 10-inch hip spring. Do keep in mind that mesh corsets, especially the open weave mesh like this, does tend to expand a bit over time. So if you’re in-between 2 sizes, I recommend going the size down and wearing it with a bit of a gap.

The Lara Corset in Mesh is surprisingly still very conical through the ribcage. But one reason that I think that’s the case—whereas other mesh corsets tend to bubble out a little bit at the ribcage—is that, this corset is double-boned, with the solid cotton twill all throughout the corset. So if you look around, there’s surprisingly very little space that’s left only with mesh. It’s maybe an inch or so, in some cases, much less—like, this is about less than half an inch, maybe about a quarter of an inch right here. So a lot of the solid cotton boning channels are taking the strain of the fabric. And so, the less space there is, the less wide the mesh panel is that’s supporting the majority of the tension, the less it has the opportunity to warp over time. Now, keep in mind that this is the size 22. So for instance, the size 40 corset might respond a little bit differently to the tension.

So let’s go the tabletop portion of this review—and I can show you the other details of this corset close up. So here is the Lara Mesh Corset laid flat, and for the materials, it’s obviously a single layer on the mesh panels. It’s the open weave fishnet-style netting with a hexagonal weave to it. And the boning channels, as well as the center front and center back panels here, are a double layer of cotton twill to sandwich the bones. This is what the Glamorous Corset label looks like, and here is the fabric cotton and cleaning instructions. And the sizing label is actually at the top of the corset, sewn underneath the binding here.

This corset has a 6-panel pattern, just like their other Lara Corsets. So here’s 1, 2, and 3. That makes the front. 4, 5, and 6 make the back. As usual, it’s kind of hard to see with the mesh version—but the bones still do converge towards the lower tummy in the 1st and 2nd panels here. And in panels 3 and 4, you can see that there is more ease over the hip. And panel 5 is relatively quite narrow. A lot of the panel itself is covered by the boning channels themselves. And panel 6 is relatively straight. This corset was technically not constructed using the welt seam method because it is a mesh corset, so because it’s a single-layer corset, it’s very easy to assemble the panels 1 through 6. And then, the seams of the panels were straddle by these double-boning channels here. So this is a strip of fabric, and they put another strip of fabric the exact same width directly on top of it, so that mesh fabric is sandwiched in-between the boning channels. And it obviously gives you a place to put the bones as well. So it’s a fairly straightforward construction, and as you can plainly see, there is a waist tape in this corset. It is 1-inch wide on the inside of the corset, finished in grosgrain ribbon, and it goes right from the center front here all the way to the center back.

The binding on this corset is made from bistrips of black cotton twill, machine-stitched on both the inside and the outside. So you can see on the outside, they stitched in the ditch, and on the inside, it has a necessary seam allowance. Like with their other all-black cotton corsets, this one was surged, so it creates a more flat interior compared to folding it under and creating a double layer on the inside. So it just makes the binding a little bit less bulky. Additionally, there are 6 garter tabs in this corset, 3 on each side.

The modesty panel in this corset is 5.5 inches wide, so it would cover a lacing gap of about 3.5 to 4 inches. And it’s unstiffened, sewn to one side of the corset here, which you can remove if you don’t like modesty panels and you want your back to breathe a little bit more. But if you do remove this modesty panel, the tags will likely come off with it as well. This is finished in 2 layers of black cotton twill here, and there is also a modesty placket extending out from the knob side of the busk here. And this is also made from black cotton twill, unstiffened. And it’s about a quarter-inch wide.

The busk in this corset is 11 inches long, and there are 5 loops and pins. The last 2 are a little bit closer together for more control over the tummy. It’s a standard flexible busk, so it’s half-an-inch wide on each side. It’s about standard stiffness. Additionally, there is a steel bone on either side of the busk here. It is actually a quarter-inch-wide spiral steel bone, by the flexibility of it. They could’ve put in a flat steel bone, but for whatever reason, they decided to use a spiral steel bone on either side of the busk here. And there are a total of 26 bones in this corset—13 on each side, not including the center front busk here. So it’s double-boned on the seams, with quarter-inch-wide spiral steel bones. And you can see it very plainly attracts my magnet here. Additionally, there is that spiral steel bone on either side of the busk, and there are also 2 flat steel quarter-inch-wide bones sandwiching the grommets in the back here. Now, this attracts my magnet marginally, but a little bit less than the spiral steel bones. Like with all other corsets made by Glamorous Corset, they use stainless steel for their flat steel bones. Stainless steel prevents the bones from rusting so much, because it contains less iron. But of course, because it is less ferrous, it will attract the magnet less.

And here’s a close-up of the grommets. There are a total of 24 of them, 12 on each side. They are a size 00 with a small-to-medium flange around them and finished in silver. A few of them are a little bit loose after breaking this corset in—so you might be able to see a couple of places where the grommet has cut into the fabric a little bit. And here at the waistline, there’s quite a lot of stress. So it is pulling away. I tried to compare the mesh corset compared to some of the other Glamorous Corsets where the grommets had stayed in. And one reason could possibly be the fact that this mesh fabric, if it goes right to the end of the corset, it is less thick, and it is more flexible compared to all-cotton or say, the Velvet Lara Corset, for instance. And so, there might be less of the grommet to bite into, and less friction to help it stay in place. Another possible reason is just the fact that the mesh itself is more flexible. It’s more easily able to warp and contort a little bit when it’s on the body. This type of mesh is known for expanding, and that is not a slight against the brand or anything. All fishnet-style corsets that have this type of material, regardless of the brand, will warp and expand over time. So if the mesh being more flexible allows the back of the corset—these bones here—to warp or to bend or bow in any way that’s inappropriate, that could cause extra stress on the grommets as well. And here’s the underside of the grommets, so you can see nice big washers are present. Many of these grommets have rolled nicely on the underside. There are a few splits here and there—but the laces tend to not catch on them because they are fairly abrasion resistant. And right here is what it looks like when there is the start of damage of a grommet on the underside of the corset. So the fabric here has split or frayed a little bit, and the washer is kind of going underneath it a little bit. The whole grommet itself is being pulled towards the center back. And the laces are your standard workhorse, and they are your quarter-inch-wide black flat nylon shoelace-style lacing. There is a little bit of spring to them, but it’s very difficult to break. It’s abrasion resistant, so it doesn’t catch so much on the grommets if there are any splits in them. They’re definitely long enough, and they hold the knots and the bows fairly well.

The Lara Mesh Corset is available in closed waist sizes 18 inches up to 40 inches. And it’s available currently only in the black that you see here. It’s $84, and this is the same prize for all sizes. As of last year, Glamorous Corset no longer charges extra for the plus-size corsets. They just made it the same price throughout. If you’re in America, you’re lucky, because you get free 2-day shipping anywhere in the US. And if you are an international customer, they do ship worldwide, but it does come with a shipping fee.

So this concludes my review of the Lara Mesh Corset made by Glamorous Corset. I hope you enjoyed it, and you learned something new. If you did, please remember to click that Like button down there, as it helps support this channel. If you have any questions about this corset or Glamorous Corset in general, feel free to leave your questions down below. I’d be happy to get back to you or forward your questions over to Rachel. And if you own this corset or a different mesh corset—or a different Lara Corset—feel free to leave your comments down below and let us know what you think of it, because I’m sure many of us will be curious to know your thoughts as well.

Thanks again for watching, and I will see you all next week for another video. Bye.

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