This piece was inspired by a desire to create the optical illusion of lace against skin within a corset. It uses antique mantilla lace over sheer corsetry mesh. I chose to use black rather than nude coutil for the bone casings and front/back panels as I think this frames the lace beautifully. The name Albertine comes from the way this reminds me of Victorian era mourning wear (a saucier modern version, obviously!) and so I chose to incorporate the name of Victoria's husband, Albert, into the name of this piece.