Mallison started making corsets about a year ago for a pop-up for the arty, downtown store Café Forgot. 

She was already surrounded by upholsteries and tapestries and knew that these fabrics could stand the test of time. She have been working in interior design for the last two years, and those fabrics are geared towards things that are supposed to last for a long time. The idea of clothes with that kind of staying power appealed to her. “Unlike most fashion...home furnishings last 30 years or more.

 

When she began to make tapestry-based pieces, Mallison would scout flea markets and thrift stores. She also started to use Etsy and eBay as sources. “It is easier to find weird and oddly specific materials that way than to go to 20 different thrift stores and not find anything,” she says. Rarely does she find enough fabric to make one corset, so instead, she will patchwork multiple parts of tapestry together, which adds a fresh twist to the pieces.