When you receive your Starkers Corset, it will be laced up, but loose. We do this so when you put your corset on for the first time, it will be easy to fasten the busk closure. We strongly recommend that you always have the laces loose before you fasten or unfasten the busk on your corset to prevent damage.
It may help you to put your corset on a pillow at first so you can see how the lacing works in the back, before you put it on your own body and have to lace it behind your back. Begin by loosening the laces as far as they will go, so that you are not distressing the front busk closure when you are attaching it. Once the laces are wide, be sure that you have your corset the right way up. The Starkers! tag will be able to read properly when it is right way up. Wrap the corset around your torso with the laces in the back and busk closure at the front. Be sure that the back protector is lying flat in the back, under the laces. Begin attaching the busk closure by hooking on either the middle eye and pin, or adjacent ones. If you begin at the very top or bottom, it will be difficult to attach the middle eye and pin. This may take a bit of gentle bending of the busk to allow it to hook properly.
Once the busk is done up, you can begin lacing the back of the corset. Find the loop at the waist point and pull slightly so there will be enough ribbon to hold onto while you pull the slack through. Start at the top of the corset, grab an X and pull, working your way to the waist. Pull the extra laces through the waist loop, then begin again at the bottom, tightening your way to the waist, and again, pulling the extra through the waist loop. The top of the loop will tighten the bottom of the corset, and the bottom of your loop will tighten the top of the corset. Give the loops a tug to make the corset snug, and tie the loop in a bow. Wear your corset tightened snug, but not tight for about 15-20 minutes to give your body a chance to adjust to the pressure. After this time, you can repeat the lacing from top to waist, and bottom to waist and wait again. Repeat as necessary until you have your corset as tight as you would like it to be. Most importantly, if you feel at all uncomfortable, loosen your corset.
To remove your corset, untie the bow. Working from the waist to the top and the waist to the bottom, grab an X and pull. Be sure that your corset is very loose before you unhook the busk closure, or you risk damaging your corset.
To re-lace your Starkers! Corset, begin from the top, running the laces from the underside of the corset toward the outside, crossing them over to the other side and again, running them from the underside to the outside.
When you get to the waist point at the center (you can feel the stay tape in between the two grommets at the waist point), skip one grommet, and loop it towards the grommet directly above – now from the outside to the underside to create (into the one that you skipped) to create the loop at the waist.
Continue lacing (in reverse of the top) from outside to underside until you reach the bottom of the corset, where your lace ends should be on the inside of the corset. Tie this into a knot and trim the ends.