What is the difference between a bustier and a corset??

This is the question I get asked almost more than any other and to be honest I dont know how any first time buyer can figure it out. When you can actually touch them the difference is obvious but how can you tell online? A picture? Mentions of steel boning? Quite frankly you cant tell online and the amount of people buying cheap imitations thinking they are real corsets is mind boggling.

So we will start with basic explanations of what a bustier and corset is.

Corset - There are many different names for corsets depending on their size and shape, overbust, underbust, waspie and cincher to name a few. The purpose of a corset is to give women that ever covetted hourglass figure. To achieve this shape a corset needs to be made of strong, high quality materials and by nature is very heavy considering its size. The boning will be steel, either flat or spiral, and they will be in reinforced channels to prevent them tearing through. There will be several layers of material often with a cotton lining and waist tape. Sometimes corsets have modesty panels which are a piece of cloth which can be pulled across under the lacings to hide the skin. Some corsets have a busk at the front (steel hooks), some have a heavy duty zip and some are a complete piece of material. EVERY corset has lacing. Generally its at the back but can be on the front. This lacing is what helps give you the shape desired. It can be done as tightly or loosely as required and usually gives a waist reduction of up to four inches. Corsets are boutique items, they are hard to make and the price reflects this. Corsets can retail up to $500 and beyond, especially for custom made ones.

Bustiers - You know how you get fashion jewellery? Well a bustier is a fashion corset. You get the look (to a certain extent) without the quality. A bustier is boned with plastic or acrylic BUT can have steel boning! The busk at the front is often steel boning although no where near the same quality you would find in a corset. However this mention of steel is often enough to confuse first time buyers into thinking they are getting a proper corset. My advice is if it seems too good to be true it probably is. Bustiers are also generally only one layer of material, do not have lining or waist tape and mostly dont have modesty panels. Lacing is usually at the back. They are not strong enough to reduce your waist!! If you attempt to tighten a bustier too much it WILL break. The seams are not strong enough to put up with the kind of pressure required and tear out leaving you in a very uncomfortable position. The boning, being only plastic, cant give you the hourglass shape. Essentially a bustier is a piece of lingerie but these days can be worn quite easily as a top. As long as you remember its delicate nature a bustier can be a great cheaper alternative to a corset. Retail pricing can be anywhere from $20-90.

I am very VERY particular about the naming of these items on my page. If it says corset you can guarantee that a corset is exactly what your getting. I no longer sell bustiers but on odd occasion they do pop up so this is still relevant for me.

However your problems arise when you go elsewhere. 99% of shops I have seen on Facebook call a bustier a corset. Nobody knows quite what they are buying because you cant tell from a photo. Almost every bustier is a copy of a corset. The pictures they use to advertise the bustiers are actually the corset they copied it from. It looks steel boned because in the picture it is, but your not actually recieving whats in the picture. Your getting the fashion corset instead of the real corset. There is nothing wrong with bustiers but please be sure that your getting what you want because you get what you pay for.

Michal xxx

Lightening Fingers!!!

Ok ladies Im just doing a quick comp for those people who joined my blog :)

To enter you have to post a status saying "I want to win a voucher from Dark Cherry Corsets!". Dont post it on my page, post it on yours!!!! Its very easy but make sure you tag DCC using the @ button so it shows up on my page (it will turn blue). If it doesnt show up I cant count it!

I will assign each post a number and choose the winner using random.org. The prize is a $50 voucher which you can use on anything you like including sale items :) It will be drawn once my blog reaches 30 likers so please ask your friends to come along and subscribe!

*****Ladies for some reason your posts arnt showing up on my page even though when I tested it it worked. So instead please post your links and comment below to say you have done it.*****

Testing Testing 1,2,3...

Hello my lovely likers, how are we all today? Hopefully good so welcome one and all to Dark Cherry Corsets new blog :)

In an effort to comply with Facebooks rules about competitions I am trial running this blog and depending on the ease of use and success rate all future competitions will hopefully be held on here. After investing so much time and effort into my page I would hate to lose it all because of a comp!

I often get asked how I got into this business so I thought I would start with the beginning. So....IN THE BEGINNING THE EARTH WAS......ok maybe not quite that far back! In the beginning I was like a lot of ladies out there. I had a love of corsets but always believed they were much too expensive for me to ever be able to afford. I would look in awe at the online corset boutiques and the ladies pictured in their galleries with tiny waists and wish that I could have one...the tiny waist AND the corset ;) I could never justify spending $300-400 on one so spent many years just dreaming about them.

Then not too long ago I saw an advertisement for a Burlesque Ball coming to Perth. There were beautiful ladies in corsets everywhere I looked and I couldnt imagine not attending! Finally I had the justification I needed to buy a corset! So the hunt began! My sister and I spent weeks searching every lingerie store and boutique in Perth for the right corset and we found nothing. We did find lovely corsets yes BUT the sizes carried in those stores ranged from about an 8-12 which as we are both a 16 isnt all that helpful! This severely limited our choices which was upsetting because when I spend a lot of money I want it to be perfect! Which brings me to my next point, the price. For the most basic corset I could find it was $280. Yes this is a good price in the corset world but for someone like me that was huge! I ended up spending $400 on my whole outfit and while I love it very much I couldnt help thinking there had to be a better way.

Perth obviously had a corset deficiency (sounds like a disease) and just perhaps this was something I could help with. I began searching for corset suppliers and found that I could import these amazing designs in a great range of sizes and sell them for less than the most basic corset I found here in Perth.

So Dark Cherry Corsets was registered in April 2010 and a little Facebook page began with about 20 fans mainly consisting of family members. I was studying at Curtin Uni full-time and devoted the rest of my time to my little page, every email was exciting and I still remember my first non-family/friend sale! Gradually it began to grow and eventually I made the difficult decision to leave Uni to focus on making this business a success. Over a year later DCC now has almost 3,500 fans and has expanded our range into alternative clothing and brands such as Too Fast and Dark Side. Sizes range from an 8-28 Australian in some styles and new suppliers are constantly being researched.

Dark Cherry Corsets is a dream come true. I aim to make women feel beautiful because everyone has the right to feel that way no matter what their size or budget! My motto is Beautiful Sexy Confident and when I hear from my customers thats how they feel my work is complete.

Thanks for powering through my first blog, I know it was a long one! Hopefully it is a success and we can trial run a competition soon :)

Michal xx