The corset is custom-made and fully-boned. It is completely functional, and is overlaid with 4 sheets of dragonscale chainmaille (1 front, 1 back each side). Since this weave is very dense the sheets ended up 1/4" thick! Combined with all the layers in a corset, it becomes nearly 1/2" thick in places.

I wanted a very clean look for this corset, so I hand-stitched faux boning channels to secure the maille and hide the raw edges. This was the most time-consuming and frustrating part of the process, as it was very difficult to cleanly pass a needle through 5 layers of cotton and 1/4" of dragonscale. Close-up view

The rings I used were 16g 3/8" and 1/4" aluminum, nearly 5000 total. Even with the relatively light weight of aluminum, this corset still weighs over 5 pounds.

It took about a year to complete, and at least 200 man-hours - probably longer but I didn't keep track. 2/3 of the time was spent attaching the faux channels. Throughout the year there was one muslin fitting, one final corset fitting, and 3 fittings to be sure I wasn't going to stress the chainmaille once the corset was cinched.

The skirt, also custom, is a wool-blend fabric with color-matched satin lining. It doesn't happen too often, but in this case the color matched the rings *perfectly*. The styling is very simple, hanging straight from the hips with a dramatic slit at the side-front seam.

The matching jewelry is a pair of half-persian 3 in 1 earrings, and what turned out to be a very elaborate choker with a single spike in the center (more on the choker here)

I'd definitely like to try other ways of meshing corsets and maille, but I will probably never do it again in dragonscale because of the staggering time needed.