Beautiful corsets pin-up girl’s dream
Toowoomba’s Lorraine White started Whitelane Textiles after discovering that teaching wasn’t for her. She spoke to reporter KATE DODD about her love of corsetry and the QUT 2017 Fashion Accelerator program.
THE word corset conjures up images of Victorian-era women fussing to get into contraptions laced up so tightly they can’t breathe any more and faint.
Nowadays, though, a corset is more likely to been seen on a burlesque dancer or a pin-up beauty - and they definitely would not be so uncomfortable they’d pass out.
Toowoomba woman Lorraine White, who owns Whitelane Textiles, is inspired by the beauty of a gorgeous corset and the shape they give a woman.
Her interest in corsetry was born out of her time at the University of Southern Queensland where she studied fine arts.
She took up a career as a teacher after her university studies, teaching geography at Mt Morgan.
The 34-year-old decided that teaching wasn’t for her after 18 months and started Whitelane Textiles.
While she does a lot of sewing, millinery and knitting, corsetry is really where her passion lies.
The majority of her customers were part of the pin-up community, she said.
“From a technical perspective, when you get a seam perfect, it’s just beautiful,” she said.
Ms White, whose day job is at Murray’s Art and Framing, said she enjoyed working with gorgeous textiles such as silk and being able to tailor a garment to an individual.
She said she was able to draw patterns and inspiration from an archive of Victorian Corsetry in the United Kingdom that had more than 50 years of patterns.
Ms White is one of five students accepted into the QUT Creative Enterprise Australia 2017 Fashion Accelerator program.
The intensive accelerator mentors aspiring fashion start-ups and entrepreneurs,
❝From a technical perspective, when you get a seam perfect, it’s just beautiful.
giving them access to a wealth of knowledge and business experience from real-world industry mentors.
Graduates of the 2016 program pitched their business models and collections to a panel that included global retail advisor and former David Jones chief executive officer Paul Zahra and Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann.
Ms White started the program last month and she spends a day in Brisbane each week, learning new skills and making garments.
At the end of the six-month program, Ms White will showcase six outfits during Brisbane Fashion Month.
“It’s very interesting. I’ve learnt so much already,” she said.
She said she was finding the business side of things particularly helpful.