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In This Issue
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In This Issue
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What a great spring! I enjoyed a quick week-long trip to Amsterdam and Cologne in April...
FROM THE EDITOR
MAY/JUNE/JULY 2000
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and came back rested even after that whirlwind! I met a wonderful, friendly new client in Amsterdam and measured him for a corset order. I loved Amsterdam, my first trip there in over 26 years! Of course, the liberality and tolerance of that city astounded me. Such civilized attitudes towards sexuality and differences! I visited the famed Sex Museum, Red Light District, Coffee Houses, and not to leave culture out, saw Frankenstein performed by the National Dutch Ballet! It was a sterling performance! Of course hours were also spent at the Rijksmuseum but we ran out of time before we got to the Van Gogh Museum. Reason enough to go back and as soon as possible to meet our new friends, including Jeroen van der Klis, a fabulous corset maker!
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from Germany. |
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Although we had exchanged written greetings with Jeroen over the years, I had never met him. We spent a few hours at his tiny basement studio and I got to see some of his new creations for the up and coming young Dutch couture designer. I even spied a hide in embellished leather that tempted me to order one of Jeroen's great creations. How long I can resist is anybody's guess, but that would be a bet I would not recommend! I only regret that Jeroen has never been tempted to join ROMANTASY's distinguised collection of corset houses. His unique one-updesigns in leather and lately, of molded rubber, can be obtained by calling him at: |
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| After visiting Amsterdam, we took a train to
Cologne, where we attended Martina's corset tea party and fitted a corset
on Martina's customer, seen above. We met Clemens and many of Martina's
friends, and also met Melanie, our talented artist, for the first time!
Melanie was every bit as sweet and helpful as she has been over the internet,
and here are her photo and some of her products offered through ROMANTASY:
Everyone in Cologne was extremely nice to us, helpful and great to show us the less touristy wonders, including the small Rhine town of Zons, my favorite place of the trip. The ferry captain even gave us a free ride back and forth a second time across the Rhine! We love and appreciate all of our new and continuing Dutch and German friends, and hope it won't be too long before we can meet again in your home or ours! |
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(as shown $150.00; with buttons $195.00 plus $8.00 shipping, specify chest and waist size please, plus two colors you prefer.) <--Front view on left Back view on right--> |
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($10.00 in silver or gold metal plus $2.50 shipping) |
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(415) 585-0760 Or e-mail us |
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($10.00 a pair in silver or gold metal, specify clip or pierced plus $2.50 shipping) |
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($15.00 plus $2.50 shipping) |
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(415) 585-0760 Or e-mail us |
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($90.00 plus $2.50 shipping) <-- (left) (right) --> |
 Handmade paper box (2x2 $10.00, 3x3 $15.00) |
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specify two colors. |
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(415) 585-0760 Or e-mail us |
YOU'RE INVITED TO JOIN A SMALL GROUP (reservations limited to 4 couples or 8 individuals) FOR A TIGHT-LACED DINNER PARTY, SAT. EVE, MAY 13, 8 PM, at FARALLON RESTAURANT, GEARY BLVD BEHIND THE ST FRANCIS HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO
OPENING DINNER GALA A LA CORSETTE -- CALL IMMEDIATELY (415) 595-0760 AS THERE MAY BE SPACE AVAILABLE!
Here's Pandora (this photo and the one on the right) modeling Michael's lovely Butterfly Corset DressWe're also looking forward to a May return visit with Michael Garrod from London and we promise a very special, unique small gathering to celebrate on Sat., May 13. . For this special event, we are sponsoring a dutch-treat Evening Dinner Gala, a trip of tight-laced ladies escorted by dapper gentlemen (including Michael, of course!) to an elegant San Francisco restaurant. We have dinner at Farallon, the lovely underwater-themed restaurant just behind the St. Francis Hotel at 450 Post Street.. There is a private dining room but first....six corseted ladies walking in regal order, showing off their tiny waists and fabulous figures! Of course we need to find reason to parade through the restaurant every so often, don't we! Then off to the Starlight Room for some dancing and prancing afterwards. We intend to knock 'em dead as the properly outfitted ladies show off their gorgeous ROMANTASY creations...Michael will regale us with some stories from the fall Bal de Gracieuses and Millennium Bal in London! Tentative elegant prix fixe menu for $85/perperson with choice of dessert or appetizer, and wine at $15 per glass.
MELINDA ROYBAL of SAN JOSE, CA, INTERVIEWED AND PHOTOGRAPHED TRYING ON ROMANTASY CORSETS:
Our new customer Melinda, graciously consented to be photographed and interviewed by a reporter at a personal consultation with Ann on March 18. We learned that Melinda has a special reason to be drawn to corsets. Specifically, she has many artistic talents and plans to enroll in our local fashion academy this fall. Her favorite medium and art is actually life sculpture in bronze. Thus, she believes that by corseting, she is sculpting her own body and creating art by using an item of wearable art!
 SF Observer reporter Christine, and Ann. |
The San Francisco Observer is featuring us in an article on how small business thrives on the web, versus in the retail world. Ann hit upon the "angle" for reporter Jason, namely, the paradox of a futuristic technology creating a means to encourage realization of the classic American dream, namely, that individuals can start their own solo businesses and "make good" without millions of capital to invest. "Walmarts of the World" come on in, I say. They can't drive my web commercial rent up at all, and can only legitimize the web as a sales channel for my products, as well as theirs. |
TEXAS VISIT - EARLY SEPTEMBER? SHALL WE VISIT Y-O-U?
Our new customer, Diana from Ft. Worth, met with the Metropolitan CrossDressers Club MCDC, and apparently was so enthusiastic about her own corset order and information gathered at her recent San Francisco consultation, that the Club issued Ann a kind invitation to address their September 9, Saturday meeting. Ann and Robby are thus tentatively planning a visit to Texas and would like to hear from others who might wish to organize a seminar, private corset appointment or Home Corset Party for their freinds, for trying on and learning about the magic of corsets! Please call us if you are from Arizona or Texas, as we might even drive out from Newport Beach, Robby's home.
BRIDAL DRESSES....FOR $18,000!!!!!! BUT NOT FROM ROMANTASY!
Recently the inhouse newsletter for a large national department store seemed awfully proud of purveying not one, not two, but five of a name-designer's wedding gown, for the hefty price of $18,000 each! Unbelievable, but true. Consider that ROMANTASY can provide a tight-lacing, gorgeous wedding corseted gown in the neighborhood of $1000 to $3000, and our hand-beading goes for $35/hour. I think you could have a gown dripping in seed pearls and real diamonds for $18,000...from ROMANTASY Exquisite Corsetry of course!
Don't forget, brides, that corsets take about 3 months to deliver from order. If you need a dress you have selected, fitted to you, you must have your corset BEFORE that occasion, so do call us as soon as you book your wedding date. The corset will take your waist down from 1-2" for a fashion fit, or up to 4-5" if you have time to break it in and get used to wearing it. We are happy to advise on the proper amount of reduction for you, and also on the wear and care of corsets to insure long life (see article below).
-- Ann Grogan
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ROMANTASY'S COMMITMENT TO CONFIDENTIALITY:
Recently we received an email from a potential customer who heard about us on the email or from our many friends...he could not remember. One of his main concerns was our maintenance of confidentiality. He wrote:
"Ann, this business of taking my 'special corset interest' outside, involving a third party, is just huge to me. It is a struggle, as you put it on your website, to take my shyness in hand. I would, however, like to go to the next step which I suppose is an in-person consultation and measurement, but what can you tell me to make me feel a bit more secure?...I know I can count on your professionalism and discretion, but alas, like a child I need reassurance."
This was my answer, which resulted the next day, in a personal consultation and order...happiness for both of us, and a new found professional friendship with D.:
"D, Please read the above news journal article (March issue, "Progress Report on Gender Image Salons") as I feel that will make you relax a bit. Plus, I am of the opinion that were you not to have a little anxiety or excitement about it (dressing in a corset and being male), the practice of corseting and dressing would become boring. God forbid that in our lives we get bored; there are too many wonderful things to pursue with enthusiasm that can lighten the load of being human in this lifetime!
As for reassurance, it is an adult need as well as a childish one. I have prided myself in conducting my 11-year old business with the utmost discretion. I have some very famous people as my clients and no one, except my staff on a need to know basis, will ever, ever know their real names or identities. In addition, at a client's request, we will mail our corsets and communications in plain packages or envelops using only our return address on the label. We also honor requests for discretion in all telephone calls to specific numbers, and we never sell, rent or otherwise give away names of our clients. You may direct us in your preferred manner of communicating with you, with assurance that your wishes will be respected!
My favorite story is that a few weeks after opening my boutique, my girlfriend (and a local physician) came in and purchased an adult toy that at that time I carried--now I specialize in corsets. The next day, unbelievably, her 18-year old daughter came in and purchased the exact same toy.
To this day, I never revealed to either one that the other one came in! I don't know if they know what happened. I surely didn't tell them!
I hope this helps you understand my commitment to confidentiality. I look forward to hearing from you soon."
Shortly after his appointment, D. wrote: "Hi Ann, Thank you again for the very educational, fun and successful consultation. You made me feel very relaxed, open and generally at ease, while your guidance was exactly on point. I look forward to our muslin fitting, in about a month."
Figure Challenges:
How Corsets Can Help Our Readers Comment
In the last web journal (March 2000) we addressed specific figure challenges and the right choice of style or corset to make. Please stay tuned for replies in July web journal. corset maker's thoughts on this topic.
DAMAGE CONTROL:
THE WEAR AND CARE OF YOUR LOVELY AND VALUABLE CORSET
"I'VE JUST COME ACROSS YOUR WONDERFUL SITE AND AM RELIEVED TO FINALLY HAVE SOMEONE WHO MIGHT BE ABLE TO ANSWER MY CORSET CARE QUESTIONS. I HAVE BEEN INTERESTED FOR SOME TIME BUT HAVE BEEN HESITANT TO PRUCHASE ONE WITHOUT A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR WEAR AND CARE. PRICES ARE OFTEN PROHIBITIVE FOR ME, BUT I DO UNDERSTAND ONE HAS TO PAY FOR THE FINE WORKMANSHIP AND SKILL THAT GOES INTO MAKING ONE OF THESE BEAUTIFUL GARMENTS. MY FEAR IS THAT I WILL PURCHASE ONE AND BE DISAPPOINTED BY NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP IT CLEAN, OR WORSE, IN AN EFFORT TO CARE FOR IT OR WEAR IT, I WILL DAMAGE IT. I HAVE HEARD BOTH YEAH AND NAY ON HAND WASHING. CAN YOU HELP?"
-- C.B. 1/15/00
Michael Garrod/True Grace has some excellent answers for this customer and for our journal readers so please read on.
There are some basic rules on fitting and removal of a corset:
-- MPG MARCH 2000
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The Dread 'CORSET QUESTION' -- What Do You Think It Is?
We asked our readers in March If they knew to what the dread "Corset Question" refers. Here are some of the answers we received, with thanks and a few chuckles: " Absolutely love the way the fans on your new site...fan! Like I think I'm going to faint. Isn't that the dread question? Won't a corset make me faint?" Dr. Joan 3/8/00 From "100 Years of Fashion: From Corsets to Power Suits", Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, CA by writer Gina Horan for her column, Beyond Style. "Disappearance of the Corset: For this I say "whew!". After centuries of being bound and squeezed, women said goodbye to the corset and hello to breathing and digestion. It pretty much went right along with gaining the vote. Coincidence? I think not. Now, why we continue to pour ourselves into jeans, I'll never know." Obviously Ms Horan has never tried a modern day custom fit corset on, and has absolutely no inkling of the pleasures of a snug hug of the corset. Frotage, Ms. Horan, custom for perfect comfort and perfect fit, Ms. Horan, look around you, girl, and smell the corsets being worn on the street and in the suites, in high rises and at the opera. What ARE you missing, Ms. Horan? And how wrong can you be? Corsets "disappearing"? No corsets and getting the vote? Hardly.... |
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WHEN IS A CORSET A 'CORSELETTE'?
Never being one too shy to admit ignorance, I asked MP Garrod one day just what in the world WAS his corselette after all? After all, I had never placed a client order for one, although I knew it was part of his style repertoire. What I learned was fascinating, as I hope it will be for you. Unquestionably foundation wear (Ed note: no corset is 'unquestionably' anything to the club crowd and some fashion - forward corset enthusiasts...I wonder how a corselette would look out of purple brocade with a feather fringe trim...hmmmm), I usually make the underbelt detachable, lacing on both sides front and back, with hook and eye separation on the left side only. Fetish? Some are. Some of my customers have worn one most of their lives. I've made one for women from London to Iran, even for a man in Illinois. I asked why corselettes seem to be more expensive than plain corsets. "More construction time is required, typically 10 hours as compared with 7.5 for a standard Victorian. There is also considerably more materials and cost involved, and to some extent, more tedious labor. Add an underbelt to make it a corselette and the corsetier is facing a total of 12 hours of work!" Now you - and I - know. If you'd like to order one, just contact us!
I must admit to some ignorance here...But if I knew it all, how could I be human? And I hate to think of that day arriving when there's nothing more to learn?
"The picture I sent you (above) was out of a Vollers catalogue going back about 30 years. All the big UK firms were making corselettes in the 50s and 60s, and they date back pre-1920. They weren't necessarily fitted with underbelts, but as most women after several pregnancies suffer from prolapsed abdomens, the corselette with an underbelt provided an answer. Style TGC1 in my repertoire is a corselette!
A PROGRESS REPORT: THE WEB BUSINESS
The web business is a curiosity it seems, to many people. That's judging by the amount being written and researched on why business is flocking to the web in droves, to sell both products like corsets, and services. I've been approached during the past month by no less than two writers to plumb the depths of my businesë̀v;cision last fall to close my 10-year old small retail boutique and come home to a web-based business. The SAN FRANCISCO OBSERVER prepared an article on my web business growth and marketing strategy, as well as my writer friend, Walt Kleine, who is updating a book on putting your business on the web.
Well, it's not entirely true that my business is completely web-based. We like to say that ROMANTASY is now a "web-based business with a personal touch -- we take personal fitting appointments and corset consultations." In that manner I retained one of the most joyful aspects of my chosen career -- customer interaction and teaching. Each consultation is like a teaching session. I fancy that I compart a lot more than just measuring the body before me. At least one recent customer said so: "Hi Ann, Thank you again for the very educational, fun and successful consultation."
I remember being curious about three years ago when I heard that an upmarket jewelry store on the second floor of a chi-chi shopping area where my first boutique was located, went totally on the web. I was curious because at that point my already two-year old web site was doing diddly squat in terms of orders generated completely from the web. What it WAS doing was being a superlative marketing device to bring live human beings into my shop!
That initially amazed me, that someone from Lincoln, Nebraska would find me on the web and while touristing to San Francisco, look me up. Then I might try on a few corsets and make a sale, or not.
Today the situation is different, which led to my decision to put all my resources into the web for the forseeable future.
First, web sales have jumped significantly just in the past six months, three before I closed and three after. I attribute this to several things. For two Christmas seasons we have been innundated by media news stories about the millions and billions being invested by The Big Boys into websites, and their resulting over-the-top business success. Success not in terms of profit we are reminded, but capital invested. It about knocked me over to read one such story that said some $280 million had just been invested by a major book web site...
I must admit that ROMANTASY has not invested quite as much. In fact, it is of enormous fascination to me the stroke of luck that brought first a boyfriend, then customer Brian through my shop doors one day in early 1995. Brian was my first webmaster, the early techie who knew what "the web" was (some kind of spider I wondered?).
For the price of two corsets for his wife, Brian build my first huge website, most of which remains currently posted.
Unbelievable, considering the hourly rates now being quoted whenever I have unfortunately had to go in search of a webmaster or mistress: up to $150 an hour and I imagine more. That is, if a small business such as mine can even find a competent independent webmaster at all.
Then there is the problem of unbusinesslike behavior of the "independents." One solo practioner waited until 2 days before Christmas when I was in the terrible throes of moving my personal residence and totally short of cash, to walk out on me in a fit of egomanical pique, because I had dared to politely suggest that he might want to consult another computer-literate friend to solve some technical problem I can't even remember now. The trauma he caused, not to mention my website coming to a screeching halt during the holiday season and for four months after as I scrambled for a replacement, was substantial.
The trauma of volatile independents aside, I have indeed seen growth in sales such as to encourage me that my fall decision was a correct one.
The first reason is due to The Big Boys. I thank them for legitimizing the web as a sales channel, not just an entertainment center or marketing device. Come on in, I say, you can only help us small potatoes to thrive! They legitimize use of the web for purchases, they create desire (if not true need) to purchase computers and get on board with the internet-age, and even more importantly, by doing so they CAN'T drive up our commercial real estate rents! The web costs what my server charges, and no more or less. No more jumps from $3/sq ft to $6/sq ft overnight. No more leaky roofs the landlord won't fix as he contemplates big bucks selling a prime location to greedy developers. I'm completely in charge of my leaky, or dry boat at the moment.
Second, I was lucky enough about three months ago to finally hit on a competent, reliable, reasonably-priced and cooperative webmaster without an enormous ego, and one who can work easily with a woman 'boss'. With slow but steady changes, we have made our site more user-friendly and graphically unified if not yet flashy. We are working to bring forward buried information and re-positioned products to make it easier for visitors to find and purchase (not yet with secure services, which can be very pricey and unnecessary for small business with exclusive, personalized products to sell). After we commenced and started to see changes, the number of web visitors tripled in eight weeks, and orders almost but not quite, doubled. Amazing...and encouraging! And we confirmed that visitors go from our home page right to our web journal, proving once again that corset enthusiasts are hungry for information, and appreciative that ROMATASY features a lot of it, complimentary on our extensive website!
Third, I don't rely exclusively on long-distance and remote communication to fuel my business. I combine web communication with personal communication. For the moment, I answer my own telephone and my own email regularly, coping with volume problems and long hours processing huge amounts of paperwork accompanying every custom corset order, designed to minimize the risk of business error or buyer's remorse.
I schedule personal fitting appointments at local hotels, the airport or other locations of my choosing, for those who wish to be personally served. I receive and check the completed corsets, then add wear and care instructions, lacing instructions, and a corset gift and mail packages to my clients. Two Corset Dream Makers, Robby in Newport Beach, and Martina in Cologne, Germany, do the same for their customers. I am hoping to add other CDMs across the US and in other countries as well, to personalize and humanize ROMANTASY as a web-based business. We are especially seeking a representative in Seattle, Austin or Dallas, and in Wisconsin, from where many, many inquiries emanate.
I'd like to remain a web-based business for now, and enjoy some rewards of a now-legitimized sales channel, as more and more households become computer and web literate,and more confident in their purchasing power over the web, but -- with a personal touch!!
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AND IN CONCLUSION...
We're always surprised at how far our clients travel to reach us: we just made an appointment for a couple from Wisconsin who is taking a USA motorbike tour, and ordering her a ROMANTASY corset in June will be the highlight. Then Montana-based Allen wrote us after the March fitting with Sheri for his friend, Samantha: "I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful visit!...Samantha was just bubbling! I really wanted to introduce her to some elegant experiences -- and the visit with you after Sheri could not have been better. Thank you for showing us the other corsets and for all of the advice. It was so helpful to us; and she will never forget the nice treatment and being laced into all those wonderful garments!" Now we count a new Dutch friend among our distinguished clients, and so the world grows ever closer, and all for the good in my opinion! Until next time, we remain your corset-loving friends at ROMANTASY!
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Ms. "Geisha Girl" in BR Creations Basic Victorian embellished with iridescent bows and Busk Covers, (exclusive to ROMANTASY) at The Coronation. |
