Pennsylvania shop and the revival of the corset

Weekend Edition - Sunday (NPR); 2/10/2002; LISA SIMEONE

Weekend Edition - Sunday (NPR)

02-10-2002

Profile: Pennsylvania shop and the revival of the corset

Host: LISA SIMEONE
Time: 8:00-9:00 PM

Ms. JOYCE BERGER (Owner, Le Chateau Exotique): This is the sound of a corset being laced.

(Soundbite of corset being laced)

Ms. BERGER: We start at the top, usually, and just work our way down.

LISA SIMEONE, host:

As stores like this tiny shop in New Hope, Pennsylvania, called Le Chateau Exotique, corsets are back. Owner Joyce Berger spends more and more of her time these days lacing up customers.

Ms. BERGER: This particular corset has a back flap, so that it protects the skin from the strings. Just like you would get rug burn, you can get string burn.

SIMEONE: But this is not your great-grandmother's corset, and it's definitely not a bustier or any other kind of sexy undergarment. The corsets in this shop--some 400 of them in 52 styles--are meant to be seen. Royal blue, emerald green, petal pink, burgundy gold, silk, satin, velvet, organza--a dizzying combination of color, texture and patten hanging from racks and displayed on mannequins.

Joyce Berger is a big woman. She went ga-ga over corsets about eight years ago, started her business and has never looked back.

Ms. BERGER: I'm on a mission because it really did change me. When I started corseting, for the first time in my life I felt beautiful. And I've been skinny and I've been fat, but I never felt feminine. I was always an athlete when I was younger, so I had a very boyish, muscular figure. And I put this on, and all of a sudden I had a shape. I looked more like Marilyn Monroe than James Monroe.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMEONE: But aren't the things just too darn tight?

Ms. BERGER: A good-fitting corset is not uncomfortable. It's tight, but it's not uncomfortable. I don't think it's a contest--and a lot of people think it is--`How tight can I wear this?'--so that your skin is bulging out over the top, or you've got cramped ribs. That's not the goal here. The goal is to look good.

SIMEONE: Now do you ever have women say to you, `Oh, my goodness, I thought we finally got rid of this idea that we had cinch ourselves into this hourglass figure, which is not the way women are really built. We're not supposed to look like that. It's anti-feminist. It's anti-biological. How can you sell these things?'?

Ms. BERGER: Well, the truth of the matter is I'm an ardent feminist. I happen to believe that feminism includes the choices to do any of the things you want to do, whether it's to be very feminine or to be non-feminine. I take care of myself. I'm independent. If I want to wear a corset, I can do that. That's my choice as a woman and as a feminist. You don't have to like it. You don't have to buy it.

SIMEONE: But enough women do want to buy them, enough to keep Joyce Berger in business. She sells about 1,200 corsets a year at anywhere from 150 to 700 bucks apiece. And that, Berger says emphatically, is because a true corset is a very particular garment. It is structured and meticulously crafted.

Ms. BERGER: Corsetry is a very complicated thing to make. Not everybody can do it. So you really have to be careful. There are certain things that you should be looking for when you're buying a corset. One of them is the quality of the fabric, of course, and the stitching. You want to find out what kind of boning you...

SIMEONE: Whale bone has been replaced with metal, but otherwise, today's corsets are pretty much like those you'd find in the 18th century. What's different, Berger says, is how they're worn. Most women today are looking for something to pair with a skirt, say, for a black-tie event. But some of her customers wear their corsets with business suits.

(Soundbite of store noise)

Unidentified Woman #1: What size is that blue one with the gold? I mean, is it a...

Ms. HEATHER PURVEN (Shop Employee): Well, that one's a 28.

SIMEONE: This customer has never tried on a corset before. She walked into the store with an already slim 24-inch waist. But that's before employee Heather Purven(ph) helped her slip into something a little less comfortable: a corset of turquoise patterned with gold butterflies.

(Soundbite of customer trying on corset)

Ms. PURVEN: What I'm doing first is loosening the back of the corset with all the lacing. I'm opening the back panel all the way up so that we're going to be able to adequately get the garment around her torso.

(Soundbite of woman giggling)

Ms. PURVEN: So I'll just gradually start tightening the laces.

(Soundbite of woman giggling)

Ms. PURVEN: No, it's...

Unidentified Woman #1: I mean, it's comfortable.

Ms. PURVEN: Her waist gradually gets tinier and tinier.

Unidentified Woman #1: I want to see what it measures out to when you're done. (Laughing)

Ms. PURVEN: So you're down to probably about a 22-inch waist right now.

Unidentified Woman #1: Wow. I didn't know it would look that slim.

SIMEONE: Although it takes some practice, you can lace yourself into a corset. It's just, says Joyce, like fastening a bra; easy enough to bring some customers, like this one, in for their second or third corset.

Unidentified Woman #2: They are wonderful, wonderful things to have. Everyone should have at least one.

SIMEONE: Why do you like them?

Unidentified Woman #2: It forces you to stand very straight and to present yourself in a more sophisticated way. I think you can't slouch. You're forced to be, I don't know, more feminine, I think. It changes your perspective. I mean, it's you, but it's not you. It's you Victorianized, or made to look very beautiful, no matter what. I mean, you see women of all shapes and sizes--I think they look phenomenal.

(Soundbite of store noise)

Unidentified Woman #3: Yeah, I will take a measurement for you.

Unidentified Man: Oh, that's pretty. Dragons--that's nice. Very pretty.

SIMEONE: Corset shopping at Le Chateau Exotique in New Hope, Pennsylvania.