Shop with Dark Garden for Pirate Fest this weekend!

Image © Summer Makovkin

Goodness, this one snuck up on us this year!  This weekend, June 15 and 16, is the Northern California Pirate Festival, in Vallejo, CA.  In short, Pirate Fest!

© Joel Aron
Model: Jason

© Kristin Argue
Model: Lauren

Not sure what to wear to a pirate festival?  We've got a treasure trove of corsets in all sizes for ladies and gents to outfit you for your adventure.  That includes plenty of stock in classic black, to match your wicked pirating heart or the background of your jolly roger.  To complete the ensemble, why not top off with striped bloomers and a handmade tricorn hat?  We've also got stockings and garters to help you wench it up if that's more your fancy.

Image © Summer Makovkin

Stop by the shop (at 321 Linden St., San Francisco) for great styling suggestions and wonderful wardrobe staples; today we are open until 5pm, tomorrow 11-5, Wednesday by appointment, Thursday 11-7, Friday and Saturday 11-8, and if you are truly the last minute sort (a schedule means nothing to a pirate!), Sunday 11-5.

© Max Johnson 

~Marianne
Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

Dark Garden Presents Our First Fashion Friday!

Anthea magically transformed her outfit into a Peter Pan/Robin Hood style getup with the addition of a feathered cap by Kalico Delafay Millinery, fringed capelet, and our bestselling black poplin Cincher.

Anthea shaking her tail feathers.

 This dress is probably the gothiest thing I own (yeah, I'm not goth) - it even has thumbholes in the extra-long sleeves!  My teal Waspie with fishnet overlay was clearly the perfect pairing, accentuating the figure flattering cut of my dress.  I topped it off with a gold-shot fascinator by Pop Antique (available here at the shop), playful printed tights, and a red leather cuff.

Come visit us at the shop for more outfit inspiration and style tips!

~Marianne
Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

~Anthea
Shop Girl

Autumn on the go! Miss Dark Garden visits Paris and London

This is Autumn's last day in town before she sets off for travels abroad.  Autumn, AKA "Miss Dark Garden," will be gone for three weeks, visiting England and France.

Catch her with Tricia Rousch of House of Nines at Ascot on June 20, or at the Bal de Versailles on June 14.  I know she's got at least one new outfit made for this prolonged excursion!

Looking for an international corset delivery or in-person fitting?  Autumn is willing to take on a few business appointments during her travels.  Email autumn@darkgarden.com to make arrangements.  If you're inquiring after special deliveries, check with the shop today at 415-431-7684, as she's flying out tomorrow.

-Marianne
Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

Thank you, San Francisco: Dark Garden voted "Best Lingerie" in the SFWeekly!

SFWeekly Best Of Award: Best Lingerie 2013

How to start this post? Yay! Maybe woohoo? Perhaps my personal favorite: huzzah!

Yes, let's go with huzzah.  Thank you for voting us the Best Lingerie of San Francisco this year.  We couldn't have done it without you.  Not the voting itself, but YOU, our clients, coming into our shop, inspiring us to make beautiful things, proving that corsets aren't just for special occasions (though they have the power to make those even special-er), they are for dancing and lounging and living.  They are for you, to make you feel special.  You inspire us to make corsets and couture clothing based on your real bodies, like our winning new Valentine designed for our extra-curvy clients.

"Risqué" Waist Cincher and leather glovelets
Model: Kali
Photo: Falconer Photo

Also, thank you to other wonderful lingerie designers who sell through us, such as Honey Cooler Handmade.  We realize that we were voted Best Lingerie, not just Best Corsetshop, and I would be remiss not to mention the other designers with whom we have the pleasure to work, including the jewelers and milliners who make Dark Garden such a singular place to shop.  After all, woman cannot live in corset alone.

Not that we'll stop you if you'd like to try, of course.  Visit the shop and see what Dark Garden can do for your summer wardrobe, inside or outside the boudoir.  If it's lingerie you're after, we currently have some beautiful limited stock of vintage stockings.

Grable corset and custom garters.
Model: Victoria Dagger
Photo by Joel Aron.

-Marianne

Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

PS: Congratulations to the Vau-de-Vire Society, the Best-Looking Show on Earth.

Annual Rummage Sale: July 14!

Save the date!  Our biggest in-store event is coming up: the Annual Rummage Sale will be on Sunday, July 14.

If you've never been to the rummage sale before, you really don't want to miss it.  It's an all-hands-on-deck event for us, often with a line of early birds lying in wait outside before we open the doors.  We're also staying open an extra hour later, from 11am to 6pm.

Photo: Herm Pugay
Models: Anastasia Vladimirovna, Hailey Johnson
Hats: Kalico Delafay Millinery

We'll be taking new orders and selling stock of course, as well as peddling archive corsets, fabrics, trims, coats, garments, etc.  Stay tuned for info on a special event discount on new corsets and orders.

Unique to the rummage sale is our corset bazaar, where you can get a great deal on a gently used Dark Garden corset, or sell your own.  Consignment corsets (Dark Garden make only, please) will be accepted for two weeks prior to the event and kept for two weeks after.  Please email boutique@darkgarden.com with, "Rummage sale consignment," in the subject line.

Photo by Herm Pugay
Kalico Delafay Millinery,
Dollymop for Dark Garden

-Marianne
Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

Flash Sale for Memorial Day!

Today and tomorrow only (5/26 and 5/27), we are having an in-store sale for Memorial Day weekend!  The bestselling Wild Card bloomer pants and shorts are 20% off.
We have quite an array of sizes, colors, and stripes to choose from so stop by to check it out!  Stock up early for Burning Man or just for fun summer styling as our weather continues to warm up.  We are open from 11 to 5 at 321 Linden Street today and tomorrow, and look forward to seeing your lovely faces.

-Marianne

Multi-Purpose Corsetiere

Recommended Reading: This Week in the Corseted Blogosphere

This week two blog posts were written about such very opposite corsets that I thought they merited their own post together.

Victoria Dagger is ready to love this ready-to-wear Dollymop for Dark Garden bridal corset.
Photo by Chris Gaede.

Chronologically, the first was my piece for The Lingerie Addict, where I write a twice-monthly column.  I kicked off May with, "In Defense of Ready-to-Wear Corsets."  Dark Garden is a business that got its start, and still specializes, in fully custom corsetry, as evidenced below.  But all that custom corset experience gave our fearless, peerless leader, Autumn Adamme, a lot of great information about real (and modern) human bodies, which she used to create what is quite likely the curviest and most comfortable ready-to-wear line of corsets on the market.  Lady could write a dissertation on "Ribcages of the World," I tell you what - it's always fascinating to hear her speak of the common skeletal proportions of different nations.  But I digress.  In Defense of Ready-to-Wear discusses the validity and value of ready-to-wear in a market that often emphasizes a "bespoke or bust" philosophy.

Shopgirl Euphrates with very happy client Bob in her new custom maternity/chiropractic corset.

Shopgirl Euphrates started waist training just before she started working for us back in December.  Last month, she launched Lacing Liaisons, a blog that details her waist training adventures and tips.  Yesterday she did a write-up on a particularly special custom order we just completed, otherwise known as The Most Interesting Corset Ever.  Bob, one of our long-term clients, needed a chiropractic maternity corset and she needed it STAT, lest her changing body literally fall apart at her joints.  Autumn worked with the lovely Bob to design a supportive, adjustable exoskeleton in patent leather, and whipped it up herself as quickly as humanly possible, staying late to stitch it up before skipping town for a well-deserved vacation.  (I myself witnessed her in our atelier as late as midnight, after I wrapped up our most recent corset boudoir evening.)  Corsets like this are the reason our full name is Dark Garden Unique Corsetry.  Be sure to read all the details over at Lacing Liaisons, and keep Bob's story in mind the next time someone tries to tell you corsets are terrible for you!

Custom or ready-to-wear, why not stop into the shop at 321 Linden this weekend for a corset consult?  Our sale on Kalico Delafay accessories ends tomorrow, which is also the date of our Red Hot Mamas Day sale!

-Marianne
Multi-Purpose Corsetiere