La Magia

Almost daily we are contacted by a bride who is searching for the perfect off-the-rack corset to wear beneath her wedding dress. She wants it to fulfill so many requirements; a nipped in waist, a low back, the perfect cleavage, a smooth silhouette beneath her dress.... the list goes on. I am always careful to be sensitive when offering my personal opinion, which is that (generally speaking) ready-to-wear corsets are not suitable for wearing underneath wedding dresses.

I do not say this lightly. I handle corsets on a daily basis and I have hands-on experience of all the well known corsetieres and manufacturers, from the £30 plastic-boned basques that are passed off as corsets to the most luxurious and expensive creations. I have yet to find an off-the-rack corset that will work really well beneath a wedding dress. The fact is, unless you are wearing a wedding dress made from a heavy material, with a relatively high back, most corsets will show through and just look untidy. So as I see it brides have four main options:

1. Buy a beautiful, decorative bridal corset and wear it as 'the main event' with a coordinating bridal skirt. There are so many to choose from, we have a few suggestions in our bridal category and this option can often cost less than a traditional wedding dress, with the added bonus that you can have it made to measure and customised to your tastes.
2. Go for a dress that has a corset-style bodice built in that provides the support and cleavage effect you need. Be careful because some of them are purely cosmetic and do not provide any real support.
3. Have a corset made especially to wear beneath your wedding dress, ideally by the same individual who will know exactly how the corset needs to be made in order for it to disappear beneath your dress.
4. Wear specially designed 'invisible-style' shapewear beneath a dress. Not at all glamorous or luxurious, but probably the only option if the ideas above are not for you. You can add little feminine touches by choosing a beautiful garter and silk stockings, and of course you can always make up for it with some more indulgent lingerie for the honeymoon.

If you are determined to buy an off-the-rack corset to wear beneath your wedding dress, I do have a few tips:

• Match the colour of the corset to the dress you are wearing.
• Make sure the back of the corset is not higher than the back of your dress
• Match the bust line of the corset to the bust line of the dress. So if your dress has a sweetheart bust, go for a corset with the same shape.
• Take into account that your waist will be narrower than it is naturally if you are wearing a corset. Your dressmaker may need to alter your dress to make sure it fits well around your waist. Depending on how tight you wear your corset you can expect your waist to be 1-4 inches thinner!