Nemuro Corsets Feature Friday
With 20 years of corsetry experience, the work of Nemuro Corsets is a testament to the power of practice and devotion to one's craft, and Evgeniia Molodykh, the owner and designer behind the brand, has spent the last two decades polishing those skills.
Fully boned 18th century stays, 2020, with @mademoiselle_zhuzhu
Like many of us, Evgeniia started small, creating that first corset from budget materials and a lot of enthusiasm. “I started exactly 20 years ago—as a cosplayer (nicknamed Nemuro). I needed a corset as the part of costume I was making. I could not afford ordering it from a seamstress, being an unemployed student. So I got materials, some online tutorials, advice from a friend—and made something really poor. But it existed! And I decided to make another one, stronger and better, as an undergarment that actually holds its shape. And did it much better!”
That drive to refine those corsetry skills led to making them for friends, and eventually, to creating them professionally. “Even when I graduated and started my office career, I continued making corsets as a secondary source of income. In 2019, I got laid off and could not find a new job for almost 6 months—so I decided to start an Etsy shop. I already tried remote fitting with customers from other cities and was confident in my patterning skills (joke’s on you, I was anxious and ready to be the worst corset maker ever).”
Creating for customers has become one of the central focuses of Evgeniia’s creative life, and it has helped expand the boundaries of Nemuro Corsets’s offerings. “I love when my regular customers push me forward to try something new" Evgeniia explained. "That’s how most of my styles appeared, including the Natural Form corset that was posted on LiveJournal by me back in 2011 and has been wandering the internet since. Or my Ventilated Victorian design—dream project that made me search for materials for years. I needed a natural non-stretch mesh base, durable enough to become a corset layer. I ended up with cotton embroidery canvas—and the result became the most comfortable of my styles, often ordered as pain relief back support corsets for those who struggle with chronic pain (medical advice required!)”
“I started experimenting with light but dense materials, studied mesh corsetry and lingerie making, and combined it all into the collection of customizable styles I offer today,” Evgeniia continued. “And I strictly insist on customization and made to measure, because when my clients have freedom of choice, even the most basic corsets become completely unique.”
Yet modern corsetry hasn’t been the sole inspiration. Many of Evgeniia’s designs, and early loves, have been influenced by historical examples. “I absolutely adore historical corsetry. Being raised in the ’90s, surrounded by those weird, poorly made fashion abominations, I always wondered how the authentic garments from past centuries were so much better looking and worn daily. I did not believe the scary tales of the dangerous and painful corsets—women were never dumb. I read a lot, I checked online museum collections, and I was absolutely astonished when I visited a V&A exhibition in St. Petersburg in 2017.”
“But the main waypoint was my visit to Anton Priymak and his private collection of authentic corsetry from the 19th–20th centuries,” Evgeniia continued. “I spent hours holding them in my hands, touching fabrics, investigating details and techniques and understanding how it actually worked. Those paper-thin corsets, handmade, often imperfect, but worn with love and care for decades—they made me understand what I want to bring back to modern corsetry.”
Rainstorm art corset project, 2024, with @holly_haurelia
Evgeniia has taken that research and experimentation and used it to challenge the often-quoted idea that corsets, particularly historical ones, are uncomfortable and restrictive. “My dream project—the Rainstorm outfit, modeled by my wife Holly—became real in 2024. Its centerpiece resembles something very familiar to any corset history enthusiast—that viral iron corset museum item, often used in media to tell about ‘the horrors of corsets.’ I recreated the same design using only thin leather and one layer of corsetry mesh, with just enough boning to make it work. My message here is pretty clear—corsets are not meant to be thick or heavy; they can be thin like spiderweb and still be able to support the body and shape the outfit.”
And those discoveries have lead the business into a whole new direction. “While historical corsetry is my all-time inspiration,” Evgeniia commented, continuing, “I would not be here without modern corsetry. And especially my burlesque customers that literally fed me and my family for the past years. One of my most popular designs is Corset Bodysuit, that is perfect for stage wear and was developed with many features that help the show go on. Made for any gender and body size, in silk, mesh, vinyl, or all sorts of wild prints—you can see them on stages from Australia to Canada.”
You can find out more about Evgeniia’s work on the Nemuro Corsets website, nemuro-corsets.com, and follow the shop on Instagram, @nemuro_corsets.