About the company
Corsets-UK (C-UK) is part of a parent company that also runs Corset-Story, the US site, Corsets-AU, the Australian site and Corsets-FR, the French site, to name but a few.
C-UK has a huge variety of corsets in many different colours and styles. They are an innovative company who constantly bring out new styles, often themed for different seasons with Halloween and Christmas being the most common. They have an excellent range of sizes with fashion corsets running from a small (UK dress size 8) up to a 6X (UK dress size 24) and steel boned corsets from 18" through to 48". Along with their variety of lengths and necklines, C-UK also offer a number of different skirts, fake eyelashes, fascinators, suspenders, stockings and gloves.
All in all this a great source for beginner corset wearers. While, personally, I don't consider a lot of the prices they charge for their steel boned to be justified, the Corset Of The Day deal that they frequently offer and their sale corsets put them to a price that is highly affordable and reflects the quality and wearability of the garments.
Fashion Corsets
So let's start with the cheapest and most basic of their products. These are single layer, often polyester, some with acrylic boning and a variety of busk types. Some have basic plastic hook and eye clips, others use zippers and others still are the steel look busks that are common amongst most steel boned corsets. In this category also comes basques and they have a few dresses however they are not suitable for anyone with a cup size over a C. Most of this range comes in at around $30-40.
Acrylic boning is not capable of changing your body shape and is mostly there to keep the shape of the garment. If you were to try and tighten the laces enough to change your shape you would very easily damage the corset and start pulling the fabric away from the bones.
For this reason it's best to treat them as a shirt rather than a corset. You could also potentially wear them over a steel boned corset to get the corsetted shape as well as the huge range of designs. Fashion corsets are probably C-UK's largest range and they're great for going out shirts or incorporating into a costume.
I, personally, HATE fashion corsets. They're too fragile, they tend not to breathe very well and wearing them next to your skin soon gets hot and sweaty. Acrylic boning will also very easily bend out of shape and not bend back meaning you'll have boning poking into you whenever you sit or twist which gets very uncomfortable very quickly.
Fashion corsets are great for those who love the style and want a huge range to choose from, whether it be to add a little extra colour into their wardrobe or to finish off a costume with that little something extra.
Authentic Steel Boned Corsets
This category applies to everything that doesn't come under "Waist Training" or "Fashion corsets" in their range.These are made using flat steel boning and are designed to take in your waist by 4-5". To determine your corset size you simply measure your waist at its smallest point, usually above your belly button and you might find you have a natural fold like where your waist is, in inches and then simply subtract 4-5 from that number. So if your waist measures 28" you want a 24" corset. If your waist measurement is 31" then you want a 26" corset. This range sits at around $100 at full price but often come down to around $50 when part of a deal.
These are the corsets you want to buy to get that corseted silhouette. They give a very smooth curve that is not particularly dramatic and are great for bringing in the waist a little. The long length corsets tend to have an even less dramatic curve and many women will find the length uncomfortable. To give you an idea of the shape you can expect to achieve, here is a photo of me in one of the first corsets I got from this company.
This is the most curve that I can get from their overbust corsets. It's not really that much curvy than my natural figure, perhaps even a little less so. And their underbusts are even less dramatic.
This is significantly less curvy than my natural figure. You can change the lacing, readjust anything you like but you will not get more of a curve. These corsets also have the annoying habit of sticking out at both the bottom and the top and causing a rather unattractive bulge at the bottom where they push your stomach out. I was never comfortable wearing these corsets without a top underneath for fear of nip slips because the only way you can get them to sit flat at the bust was to lace them way too tightly at the top which just made the rest of the fit awkward. The only way I found to make the underbusts have more curve was to physically bend the bones where the waist sits. I was also lucky enough to be a person that is too tall for the normal length corsets to fit comfortably and too short for the long length corsets.
I took one of these overbusts apart one day and was surprised to find that the bones running over each of the breasts was spiral steel. It's not particularly good spiral steel otherwise I wouldn't have spend so long thinking that it was flimsy enough to be acrylic The idea behind this is to make the corset more able to bend over the bust and sit flatter but the design of the corset really just makes it worse.
Waist Training Corsets
These are made with double spiral steel meaning that at each of the boning channels there are two spiral steel bones rather than one flat steel bone as with the other styles. These corsets are much thicker and heavier and also more expensive. They tend to sit a little flatter over the bust but still not perfectly. These sit around $120-130 and can come down to $60-70 when part of a deal.
C-UK market these corsets for waist training but I would really not recommend it. Anyone that wants to waist train would be better off finding a company that can make high quality custom measured corsets. These will fit against your body perfectly and be miles more comfortable as well as specifically designed to gently decrease your waist. These waist training corsets simply do not have a shape sufficient for waist training.
While not all off the rack corsets are entirely unsuitable for waist training, these ones really are. After a few hours any of these steel boned corsets become very uncomfortable, if not painful, to wear for most people. And don't be fooled into thinking that this company can make decent made to measure corsets. I have a group of friends who received made to measure corsets and the fit was terrible, one of them was in a great deal of pain at the one 'designed' for her.
Overview
I honestly think that these corsets are great for anyone who wants to make a low cost buy to see if corsets are for them. C-UK is one of the companies that I recommend to people that probably won't wear them often or are looking just for something new to try. I'll also recommend them to people who want to incorporate a corset into cosplay as there is a huge range available at relatively low prices for corsets that generally aren't terrible.
For anyone that wants to wear corsets for any reasonable length of time, these are probably not for you. They're much more annoying to lace up than other companies I have corsets from. They also seem to be designed for people that are already a natural hourglass shape which means for most women they will fit somewhat awkwardly and uncomfortably.
I've also have too many bad experiences with having corsets lost in the mail and have refunds lost in the internet and I will never buy from this company again or buy any corsets made from the parent company. Lucky for me I've found another company that provides much better quality corsets in a similar price range. But that's a topic for another time ;)
Had any experiences with this company or one of its sisters? Got any questions or comments?
Good or bad let me know!
