Ms. Antoinette Liberates the Corset Set
Long before corsets became a mainstay of Paris and Milan runways, Jeannette Luther (also known as Ms. Antoinette) was sewing the sensuous undergarments in her bedroom and selling them through a catalogue of snapshots she took of herself modeling her creations.
Sixteen years later, sales of Versatile Fashions by Ms. Antoinette corsets are, in her words, “exploding,” with gross receipts expected to hit $700,000 this year and the $1-million mark in 1995.
Luther finds it easy to explain the enduring romance of the corset, a close-fitting undergarment worn from the hips to the breasts.
“It has to do with making women feel beautiful outside; then they work on feeling beautiful inside their soul,” says Luther, a woman with red ponytail cascading down her back, silver flecked eyelashes and two-inch-long black fingernails drizzled with gold and silver nail polish. “Eternal youth comes along with that.”
Versatile’s customers include comedian Roseanne and singers Madonna and Pat Benatar. Most of the company’s clients are in their 30s or 40s. “They’re so excited about finding a new fashion statement,” says Luther, who says she’s in her 50s. “This is elegant; this is strong.”
Women often experience an adrenaline rush when they see their waistlines reduced, Luther says. “It’s exciting to see them change something.”
Today, most of Luther’s designs are worn over clothing. That wasn’t the case until a few years ago, when clothing styles became more form-fitting and brought the undergarments out of hiding.
About one-third of her business is mail-order through her catalogue, with the majority of sales to specialty shops across the United States. Victoria’s Secret in January will begin carrying her designs. “I can’t make shipments fast enough to Japan,” Luther adds.
Luther began experimenting with corsets in 1976, after contacting John Sutcliff, owner of Atomage, an exotic fashion house in London. Sutcliff introduced Luther to a cross-dresser and designer of corsets who had his boutique near Stratford-on-Avon.
“I saw corsets in the fabrics I had dreamed about, in silks and brocades,” Luther says.
The designer, who dressed as Marilyn Monroe, taught her some of the basics of corsetry and served as a role model. “He was living his fantasy. That gave me permission to live mine. It gave me a safe haven to express myself.”
Today Luther works out of a 2,000-square-foot factory in Orange. There’s also a retail store in Anaheim and a separate space where corsets are assembled. “We’re pushed way to the max,” says Luther, who’s scouting for a space to consolidate her operations.
Versatile’s most popular models are the Ribbon ($109) and the Majesty ($289). The ribbon corset of polyurethane with Lycra and satin, which comes in lengths of eight to 11 1/2 inches, features webbing in a material similar to that used in seat belts. With tapering around the hips and back lacing, it resembles a Renaissance-style belt.
The back-lacing Majesty has sweetheart form cups and 36 stays, the greatest number of any of Versatile’s corsets, resulting in the most figure-shaping, Luther says. Stays are 1/4-inch wide, lightweight steel bars that run the length of the corset.
Madonna models a black satin Majesty in one of the photographs in her “Sex” book.
The Majesty of Chinese silk brocade each comes in hues of red, burgundy, sapphire blue, white and off-white. Corsets of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a shiny fabric resembling patent leather that’s machine washable, is gaining in popularity.
The Venus model in waist sizes up to 38 is popular with large-sized women. Similar to the pipe corsets of the past, it creates the illusion of being taller and longer-waisted. And, Luther says, often the corseted effect is more dramatic on Rubenesque women, such as Roseanne, who picked up a black satin Venus at a Chicago boutique and was so pleased she wore it for a recent People magazine cover shoot, Luther says.
Luther’s stays were originally whalebone, but she later switched to steel stays custom-made in Europe. In the Victorian era, whalebone stays were extremely stiff and sometimes poked through the fabric. But the fancy and expensive undergarments, “did mean you were well off,” Luther says.
In fact, well-bred girls from the age of 4 were fitted with juvenile corsets, and, by adulthood, their back muscles had atrophied so they could not sit or stand for long unsupported. It also made it impossible to draw a deep breath, leading one 1929 correspondent to the fashion magazine London Life to insist tight lacing “gives a numbed buoyant feeling, which in time becomes a delight, in spite of the discomfort and in time acts much as a drug for it cannot be done without . . . “
“That’s a perfect example of abusing corsets,” says Versatile’s manufacturing supervisor, Cecilia Echeverria. “We encourage people to wear them but to learn to wear them.” They have an instructive video tape and a brochure on how to corset.
Corsets do reposition internal organs and compress the ribs but, Luther says, they are safe as long as laces are not pulled too tightly. And Luther says an orthopedic surgeon examined her creations early on to make sure they wouldn’t damage the wearers. The doctor recommended a satin guard be inserted beneath the lacing to cushion the spinal column which she did.
Versatile’s corsets range in price from $49 to $379.
It appears corsets’ sentimental value leads some loyalists to hang onto them even when they’ve become a bit tattered. Every so often, Luther receives a well-worn corset in the mail. “It looks like World War II, but they want me to re-brace it,” Luther says.
