Alison tells us how her lessons in clothes making helped her to get a dream work experience placement with a Paris fashion designer….

Name: Alison Culliford
Course: Corset Making
Institution: Wimbledon College of Art

‘I very much enjoyed the course and I am sure that it helped me to get a work placement with a fashion designer here in Paris (she is called Jasmin Santanen and does a prêt à porter and luxury couture collection).

You start by learning how to sew a non-period corset after drafting a pattern from flat. You can then progress onto learning the basic constructs of a period corset. You go step-by-step through the process to final fitting and completion of the corset. On the course I particularly enjoyed the chance to handle the original historic models.

Sharing experiences with the other students from their various backgrounds was interesting too. My group included a professional wedding dress maker, a burlesque dancer, two girls working in a theatrical costume department, people wanting to change their career and those who simply enjoy making things.

I discovered that corset making is a lot more difficult than I had ever imagined, mainly because of the thickness of the materials used. The corsets we made are not at all useable in real life, being stage or historical versions, but the techniques can be adapted for fashion.’