How much should a corset cost?

I hate doing this. I hate nitpicking on small details and giving a fixed price on everything. If I could, I would just make an average of everything and enjoy the process without worrying about the time. But I do have a business. I need to keep making a living out of this, so it is my job to also create educational content that helps highlight all the work that is behind all of this.

Why aren’t those prices the ones in the shop?

Generosity? A good heart? The fact that the actual price of a corset is work won’t sell enough to keep my business alive and the fact that I have been a penniless girl wanting a corset, saving for it, and despairing over ready to buy ones.

Also, the fact that I enjoy doing this makes me lower the price with little to no regrets, in some cases.

I have to be honest: sometimes I get supplies in bulk, sometimes I get vintage fabrics that cost less than coutil, for historical corsets. I sometimes get bargain prices for some supplies, by going to closing shops and I also have solar panels.

Despite the fact that every piece is custom, I do my best to make things in bulk, in order to do the same task for two pieces without having to set the lab for a different one, and I try to keep the content creation very small: I have made several of each type of corsets, I have happy customers, but just a handful of pictures. I sometimes trust that I will see stories and pics of the final piece on the customer, and that I will be able to share them, but half of the work us artisans selling online do, ends inside a black hole of “well, I got the money, right?” and never hear back again. Spend a couple of days worrying about something going wrong, then let it go. Until the person pops up three years later for another piece, and only then you know of their enthusiasm.

Leonardo and Alice posing for www.historicalreverie.com. Alice is wearing a corset made by me, from an Atelier Sylphe modified pattern and lingerie by et.quette.

*This was a piece I made for myself, but in my experiment I ended up making one measurement too different, so I exchanged it with her. I do not offer for sale pieces made from commercially available patterns, I usually make them for myself to learn and offer you the knowledge on a full custom pattern!

I am also keeping the prices of these two down for two reasons:

• As a cosplayer myself, I know cosplayers need corsets. And that few of them know the difference a custom piece makes from a commercial one. And I want to be helpful and change the world, one corset at a time. I wanted to keep the price as little as possible, while providing the MOCK UP service and the bespoke pattern.
• Same for historical things. The world is full of white and cream corset replicas. And simple ones without flossing and frills and that are kept at a minimum because of budget. I compromise by asking for the freedom of being creative, while offering you something realistic, opulent, one of a kind. Something you don’t see in someone else’s reel and something you know will fit, as you have been through a mock-up. You won’t get the surprise of finding out the measurements you’ve given are a bit off at the end, unable to return a custom piece, or finding out that that specific pattern is uncomfortable for your ribs or does not give all the waist reduction a different pattern would have given.

Supplies

Let’s start with supplies. A long time ago, when I was a beginner and my prices were very small, I had people still complaining to me, because they thought the price should just double the cost of supplies. So I will say that no matter the price, some people will be willing to buy, others will deem it too expensive, half of it. Some will not be able to afford it, but will understand the value and save for it, others will just get the cheap version and regret it later, others still will just not “click” with the way I am writing this article and just walk away and that is fine. My job is to provide the information for those who may be interested.

And remember: not being able to afford something, does not mean it is expensive. I could not afford a lot of what I created.

Supplies are easy:

• busk 16 euros
• boning 7 euros
• fabric 30 euros
• tapes (bias, herringbone, grosgrain) 7 euros
• eyelets 3 euros
• cord 4 euros
• embroidery thread 6 euros
• thread 2 euros
• needle 0,7 euros
• shipping cost for the supplies and unavoidable customs fees 23 euros

This is an average. And it includes purchasing everything in corsetry-specialized shops, ordering everything for that single corset. I do my best to order in bulk, so this may slightly decrease by a few euros. I also only included coutil fabric or corsetry-specific fabric. If you got here for the Cosplay Corset, that fabric is needed. But I won’t need the embroidery thread. If you got here for the Historical Corset, I may be able to use a less expensive fabric. But I may also have to double it with coutil. So for some corsets I spend a bit less, for some a bit more.

98,7 euros just for supplies.

Let’s also say at least 30 min of time to order everything.

Tools and energy

Who pays for electricity? To run the sewing machine, the pressing iron. Who covers the cost of sharpening the shears and repairing the sewing machine when it breaks? And the thing to close the eyelets. And all the pliers for the boning. Some things last a lifetime, others need repairing and replacing.

These are things that need to be spread into every order one gets. So you either add them in your hourly wage, or make an average per order. These are not part of your income, and need to be calculated separately.

I will say 10 euros, just for the sake of easy calculations. It is sometimes more, sometimes less, I usually do more complex math, but I need to keep things simple here.

Pattern

We have supplies for pattern drafting. Which is very little. Like 0,2 euros. But here the most important thing is time and research. I do not use commercial patterns, I draft all of the ones I use for each customer. It usually leads to better results in shorter time. But I have to do research and study. Books on historical corsets and formation. The cost of that needs to be absorbed in the cost of the articles they are used to produce. I will keep it very low, because I have purchased most of this material when I did things for myself only.

3 euros

15 minutes to find and study the original pattern.

1 hours 30 min to draft the pattern to the customer’s measurements

15 min to adjust the pattern after the fitting.

Mock-up

This one you really need. So let’s say 4 euros of fabric. The busk and boning you will use for the final corset, plus those two or three bones that will need replacing. And the tapes. Thread, needles etc.

If you want to know why I insist on mock-ups, and custom pattern drafting, even if they keep the price higher, READ HERE.

10 euros

2 hours 30 min.

Shipping

Shipping costs. Shipping hurts the pocket. And it also depends on where the piece goes. For outside the EU, I need to fill a ton of paperwork, even for a sample, like the mock-up is.

So counting the paperwork for both the corset and the final work, and making an average of the cost between EU and out:

50 euros

2 hours. 

Time- the income

I would like, at first, to underline that 8 hours and 30 min are just what is needed to prepare, without including the actual corset sewing yet, if not the mock-up.

This is where things vary a lot.

Calculating the time of a Cosplay Corset, without hand embroidery and hand sewing and the Historical Corset, leads to very different time amounts. The second one may also involve dyeing, purchasing more hard to find materials, washing antique cotton lace and so on. I did not add the lace to the supplies. Or the ribbons. Or the garters.

So let’s say I can make a cosplay corset, once I got the pattern and the fitted mock-up, in 20 hours. Let’s say for a Historical Corset I need at least twice as much. It’s again average. Sometimes things align, sometimes they need more time and detail.

The question then is: how much do I need to earn, per hour, to get to a living wage, here in Italy?

Mine is highly specialized work, but I have the nasty habit of my colleagues to price myself lower. In Italy the average income is 1500 euros per month. As your wage, without taxes and all of that. Let’s say in one month there are 4 weeks, each of 40 hours. So to make that, I need to price my time at around 10 euros per hour.

That is the price of an employee. How so?

Well, if I do not promote my work, if I do not create promotional content and don’t use social media, I do not have a job. So for self-employed artisans, like most corsets pros are, you need to add 30% to that.

Cosplay Corset

Pattern research: 15 min

Pattern drafting: 1 h 30 min

Pattern adjustments after fitting: 15 min

Mock-up construction: 2 h 30 min

Ordering supplies: 30 min

Shipping paperwork and administration: 2 h

Video fitting call: 30 min

Customer communication and project management: 1 h

Corset construction: 20 h

TOTAL: 28 h 30 min

Historical Corset

Pattern research: 15 min

Pattern drafting: 1 h 30 min

Pattern adjustments after fitting: 15 min

Mock-up construction: 2 h 30 min

Ordering supplies: 30 min

Shipping paperwork and administration: 2 h

Video fitting call: 30 min

Customer communication and project management: 1 h

Corset construction: 40 h

TOTAL: 48 h 30 min

Business costs

Not the taxes yet. Just the yearly cost of having an accountant managing your business (which is mandatory here), and being inscribed to the association of artisans (which is also mandatory) and such.

Let’s again pick an average of 7 euros.

Videocall and customer management time

This is like social media. Without, you don’t have a customer.

So we have an average of 30 min for the videocall. And 1 hour for emails and searching things and setting the time, the fraction of the time needed to create the measurements tutorial and update it on youtube, to script it, film it… and all the other things.

Taxes and total

Again, here I should dive into the deep, deep meanders of the complex Italian paperwork world. With the small business setting, I have rather little taxes to pay. But we have to pay social security on every business income, despite the fact that we can not get sick days like employees. That is not an optional like with private health systems.

Anyway, let’s set this at 25%.

Cost of the Cosplay Corset

Supplies: €98.70

Tools and energy: €10.00

Pattern drafting materials: €3.00

Mock-up materials: €10.00

Shipping and customs paperwork: €50.00

Business costs (accountant, artisan registration, etc.): €7.00

Labour: 28.5 h × €13/h = €370.50

Subtotal: €549.20

Taxes and social security (25%): €137.30

TOTAL: €686.50 

Cost of the Historical Corset

Supplies: €98.70

Tools and energy: €10.00

Pattern drafting materials: €3.00

Mock-up materials: €10.00

Shipping and customs paperwork: €50.00

Business costs (accountant, artisan registration, etc.): €7.00

Labour: 48.5 h × €13/h = €630.50

Subtotal: €809.20

Taxes and social security (25%): €202.30

TOTAL: €1,011.50 

This includes an average wage. Not a specialized one. Someone who can achieve a nicely shaped corset instead of a tube needs to be recognized as a specialist, in my opinion. You need years of experience to achieve nice results and all of that.