Stellar Wellington historical costume event coming up: Grandeur and Frivolity. Lush and epic! For a good cause! To give you an idea of the splendour that awaits check out The Dreamstress – if you haven’t already.
Bwahahahaha: The Modern Meanings of Flowers.
I’ve been in the mood for Sei Shonagon and her Pillow Book – completed in 1002 A.D., this Japanese courtier’s voice from the Heian era is strangely blog-like. I prefer Shonagon over Murasaki – and Thackeray over Austen, too.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Sketchy Wellington photographer John McGavin.
On July 9th I had the privilege and pleasure of emceeing Dr. Sketchy in Wellington. The featured models were three of the beauties from Miss La Belle’s House of Burlesque. From putting the music together to flirting with lovely door babe Crystal Mischief to seeing the art take shape, I had a wonderful time, plus I got crabs (you had to be there.)Â My cup of burlesque joy was full and I look forwards to being in the audience next time and sketching.
If you don’t have any interest in sewing, you can stop reading right here. Believe me, it’s for the best.
Two emceeing events in a row, and I’d blown my costuming budget on Frolic Lounge on July 2nd. For Dr. Sketchy,on July 9th, I hit up my pattern and fabric stash to make something. This is what the fabric stash is supposed to be for. (Quick, everyone, run out and buy more fabric for your stash! Because you never know!)
I’d wanted to make a dress from this pattern, New Look 6912, for a while. The eternal question with evening wear patterns is, “Where will I wear it?†Emceeing a burlesque event with a cast dress code of “sleek and elegant†was the perfect opportunity.
This is the first sewing post I’ve done here, so, a word about where I am on the seamstress continuum. After several sewing classes, my sewing skills are mediocre to average. I take up pants, nip in waistlines, and make the occasional skirt or dress. I’ve tended to specialize in knits, because I like wearing them. No, I don’t have an overlocker. When it comes to sewing, I always think of something I read in the Sloane Ranger Handbook: “Slightly wrong things look better on people than on furniture.” Yep, that’s the stuff I make! I’m looking to up my sewing skills over the next year.
If you want more than “I made a dress, here’s the picture!”, below I review measuring, cutting, and making; the pattern fit; and what it was like to wear this dress for an active event.
Now for a much more seasonal post: vintage fur. UPDATE! After oodles of queries I have created a new post, Selling Grandma’s Vintage Fur. This includes a vintage fur price range list for the winter of 2012/2013. You may find answers to fur price questions. I have also created, in January 2015, a second post, Furs You Can’t Sell: what to do with vintage endangered fur pieces.
Another image courtesy of Digitalpix!
I am dealing with a spate of questions from people about vintage furs. I love both taxidermy and vintage clothing – the stuffed dead animals in my retroish living room make me a go-to person for this.
I know that fur is not a neutral topic! People have strong feelings about it! One time, my fur-clad stepmother had paint thrown on her by anti-fur protestors outside a New York furrier. But, still, the old furs endure, and they are emerging from closets as my friends’ grandmothers pass away, and what do you do with them?
I’ve put together some vintage fur basics, compiled from what I have seen online, what I have seen selling and not selling at vintage clothing stores around the world, and the furs I’ve had through my hands lately.
Lots of information behind the cut about what makes a vintage fur valuable, how to keep your fur, ways to recycle it, and how to sell it.
It’s the heart of winter here, so I wanted to think about mermaids for a while. Mermaids basking on warm rocks, mermaids swimming through phosphorescence-bright night waters, mermaids lounging around with their pet manatees.
Turns out I’m not the only one with mermaids on the mind. Mermaids: they’re a THING. The natural range of mermaid subculture is the East Coast of the United States, swimming between the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and the Weeki Wachee mermaid sanctuary in Florida. It seems to be like burlesque with a dash of piracy, New Age fairy dust, and really fun tails.
Photo by Sameb, used courtesy of NCND 2.0 Creative Commons.
Along with their swimming abilities and ocean conservation interests, mermaids have a regrettable fondness for Flash web site introductions. So please be patient with some of these sites.
I Am A Mermaid has the best articles and interviews, and the author describes her experience at Mermaid Camp at Weeki Wachee.
Mermaid makeovers in California with Mermaid Shelley.
You’d be convinced you were a merperson, too, after putting on a custom-made hand-painted silicone tail from The Mertailor. These are just jaw-droppingly amazing.
We seem to be strangely short on mermaids in New Zealand waters. Weta Digital is trying to fix that with their own mermaid tail project.
It’s not all sweetness and light amongst the merfolk. Freaky mermaid anatomy (take that, Ariel), the history of the bizarre “Feejee mermaid” sideshow construct, and an artist doing a new take on Feejee mermaids.
NZ “new vintage†purveyor Oops Oh My seems to be a local distributor of Chic Star, a popular Chinese “new vintage” manufactory. And that’s good – I just wish they’d sell the full Chic Star range. The clothes have good reviews online. On Oops Oh My, prices are good, delivery/returns for those of us in NZ are easier with a local distributor, and they have regular and plus sizes. Oops Oh My is looking for NZ models wearing the clothes, too.
Mineral makeup divas Dollface Mineral Makeup have created an eyeshadow color to honor Wellington burlesque teacher, dancer, and leading light Miss La Belle. Ask them about it at their web site: http://www.dollfacemineralmakeup.co.nz/
The New York Times hosts a cerebral discussion about “wild nail polish”.
A reminder that Frolic Lounge is on tomorrow, and I’m the lucky emcee. After the dress rehearsal, I can tell you this is one naughty and different burlesque show.
Can it be, another burlesque event in Wellington, so soon? Yes! Next Saturday, July 9th, at Mighty Mighty bar on Cuba Street, is Dr. Sketchy. I doodle and sketch myself – just finished a cartooning class– so I am WILDLY EXCITED to be helping out as the hostess for a Dr. Sketchy featuring Belle’s Beauties! There are three beautiful girls, who will be dancing, then posing for drawings and paintings. Plus chocolate, plenty of tables, and prizes for Best Dressed and for the victors of two drawing contests. The bar staff at Mighty Mighty is happy to provide water glasses for brushes to gouache and watercolor artists. All that, and this may be the best-lit burlesque event you’ll ever attend.
I’m not the poster artist for this one; the girl on the poster, the lovely Chantal, is one of the models you can expect.
I’m on my way to a burlesque dress rehearsal after a rather serious week – politics, work, health issues for my Little Old Lady. But there’s a time and a place for a little frivolity, yes? And with that in mind I was irresistibly reminded of a favorite Nell Brinkley drawing and text. Sentimental as all get-out – perhaps this is why the Victorians and Edwardians, living in grim times and the shadow of industrialization and the workhouse, found consolation in sentimentality, too. The text below the picture is typed out for your reading pleasure.
Butterflies go with the ending of summer – butterfly girls go with the ending of the gay night that is their lives. Butterflies grow rare and at last do not flicker gold anywhere, when the sumac turns scarlet and the aspen on the far hills changes into little golden coins; butterfly girls are no more dimples and sparkle and laughter when there is no more fun to have, when the lights are out and real work comes. But I love a golden butterfly in the sun, and who doesn’t enjoy to watch the butterfly girl dance her way through the sober faces and the earnest!
Somebody said, “A butterfly lives but a day – AND WHAT IF THAT DAY IS RAINY?” So, little butterfly girl, whose day is so short, may it be sunny and clear.
Technically public domain but known to me thanks to Trina Robbins, writer, cartoonist, artist, and herstorian!
Another lovely photo from http://digitalpix.co.nz
Contrary to what this blog might indicate, I do not spend 1000% of my time faffing about with vintage clothing and burlesque fripperies. There are also the hours reading 1930s novels, nibbling bon-bons, painting my nails, and…volunteering.
It’s NZ Volunteer Awareness Week, the perfect time to mention that there are two volunteer things that I do. One is with a major professional association, and the work I do there produces many benefits for me. The other is different. I wanted to do something that would Help Someone and Make A Difference. After mulling over various possibilities, I am now an accredited visitor with the AGS. What do I do? Once or twice a week, I visit a lovely senior lady. We’ve been having our weekly dates for about two years now. When she was living independently I would bring a hot homemade dinner and we’d chat over that. I showed her how to use her computer and email, and we went out on excursions. Her health and strength have declined, and she’s living in a retirement home now, but I still visit. We still do the occasional very gentle excursion too, like driving to the seaside to watch the waves.
People get a bit shy when I tell them this. Their minds flash onto the fact that they haven’t called Grandma, or they haven’t volunteered since they were building up to apply to university. Then they blurt out, “That’s a really amazing thing that you do. She’s lucky to have you!†I’m not that amazing, as a visitor. Being an AGS visitor takes me two, maybe three hours a week. But I’m there. If you ever feel like volunteering, somebody would be really lucky to have you, and you would make a real difference.
Last time I went to visit the retirement home, a senior man on crutches stopped me in the hallway to chat. After a moment’s pleasantries, he said, “I just wanted to say, you have a lovely face. Really lovely.†There was something else about my husband or boyfriend being lucky, but I was blushing so hard my ears stopped working. It was all I could do to stammer out a thank you.
So, there you have it. Volunteer and be beautiful!
Very busy over here doing some freelance work, wrapping up a project for a cartooning /illustration class, and getting ready for a July burlesqueathon (more news soon). This would explain why I saved three draft posts as “Published” instead of “Draft.” If you were wondering why my ruminations were so unpolished, that’s why. So, as a filler post while I perish of mortification, have some cakes that I made. I also recommend reading The Hectic Eclectic by the delightful Mrs. C – she’s boosted her posting about crafts and cuisine lately and is working on a frock coat.
Cakes! I baked this one for a burlesque travel fundraiser. Was she inspired by Arthur de Pin’s Peches Mignons characters? Mais oui! (Link here, NSFW). I didn’t make it to the fundraiser myself, being hammered by the flu, but I am told she was delicious. Red velvet cake and vanilla buttercream inside.
The other cake was my birthday cake this year, for my steampunk-retro-burlesque-dinosaur birthday party. Orange cake and chocolate frosting underneath the chocolate fondant.
As you can see, I come from the Ed Emberly school of fondant use. Each of these needed a custom-made cardboard mat which is simply heavy cardboard from a clean, food-grade box, cut to size and wrapped in shiny baker’s paper. The baker’s paper allows you to wipe off frosting mistakes easily.
Where to get those Korean fleece tights? I ordered them from this eBay seller. Note the free shipping. That’s the way I like it.
Leona Edminston is an Australian designer who does lovely dresses, many with a retro feel, in both standard and plus sizes. And their international shipping is either a reasonable $10 or, for orders over $100 US, free.
I’m emceeing another burlesque show! These dancing dames have some refreshing new acts planned for our delectation. The venue has seating for the occasion. I cobbled together this poster for the event:
I love it when a woman achieves her dreams – expresses herself, starts up a business, gets creative. And this blog is going to have occasional interviews with talented women like this who I am fortunate enough to know.
Our series debut is an interview with Toya Heatley of Digitalpix Photography. She is a prizewinning photographer in the Wellington area. Her photography website is www.digitalpix.co.nz, and her wedding photography site is www.dpphotography.co.nz. Is she available to take pictures for you? Yes, she is, especially over the winter season.
This delightful interview includes photographs, what it feels like to win competitions, and a behind the scenes look at wedding and glamour photography, so click below to Read More![Read more]
