Each year, Melanie Talkington of Lace Embrace Atelier puts on the Antique Corset Exhibition and Historic Fashion show. This year, the third installment was held at Hycroft Manor and featured beautifully crafted corsets from Melanie’s personal collection.

Melanie designs and collects corsets; currently, she is the owner of the largest corset collection in the world, and recently outbid the Metropolitan Museum in New York for some highly coveted pieces. She mixes in her collected pieces alongside pieces she’s created in her own atelier. Melanie’s work is crafted both in her workshop in Vancouver as well as in Paris. She hopes to soon have her own museum to display her extensive collection, but for now, she collaborates with museums around the world, loaning out many of her corsets to different exhibitions.

Melanie is currently in Paris, helping assist with installing an exhibition at Les Arts Decoratifs located in Musée du Louvre. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is the biggest French museum dedicated to decorative arts and Melanie is loaning 40 pieces from her antique corset collection to the exhibit.