I can’t like it was a hard task narrowing thousands of images down to just twenty finals! Ten of which are behind the scenes of burlesque and ten live action shots. Looking through all the images it took e on a wonderful journey of just how much Burlesque means to me and how amazing it feels to be on stage – looking at the performers I could see the joy on their faces and got the buzz which you can only feel by getting up and giving it a go yourself. Rachel has this wonderful skill of catching performers during the most private of moments backstage taking time out, thinking about an act or getting read as well as on stage, she manages to get that cheeky wink or smile that other photographers would have missed.
This was a little personal project I'd been keeping under wraps for the past few months. My dear friend Rachel Spivey; talented photographer, super mother, gorgeous poodle owner and overall glamorous flame haired vixen! Gave me the superb opportunity and greatest honour of currating an exhibition that celebrated her work over the last couple of years. I can’t like it was a hard task narrowing thousands of images down to just twenty finals! Ten of which are behind the scenes of burlesque and ten live action shots. Looking through all the images it took e on a wonderful journey of just how much Burlesque means to me and how amazing it feels to be on stage – looking at the performers I could see the joy on their faces and got the buzz which you can only feel by getting up and giving it a go yourself. Rachel has this wonderful skill of catching performers during the most private of moments backstage taking time out, thinking about an act or getting read as well as on stage, she manages to get that cheeky wink or smile that other photographers would have missed. I myself was lucky enough to meet Rachel in March 2011 when I modelled at Pencils & Pin Ups in Leamington Spa at Rachel’s beautiful studio – any vintage lover and pin up lover would be envious of her collection [books nick naks and such] – since then we’ve kept in touch and I’ve followed her work via the power of the internet [www.raquelrouge.com]. Not only that but Rachel also took one of my favourite images I use here on my site and for some of my business cards. Rachel’s exhibition runs until tomorrow so please hot foot it over to take a peek it’s been running for two weeks and has been a lot of fun and a huge pleasure to have been a part of. There are also wonderful pieces of Rachel’s work to buy & Credit Card payments are accepted.
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I spent yesterday scouring Brick Lane for fabulous finds and came across a lovely little junk store disguised as a vintage store! The ownder was lovely and made me try on many, many hats! apparently I have the head for hats - I really enjoyed it and found three I really loved but sadly I was not about to part with between £85 to £110 a hat! The most gorgeous of all was a 50's style Harrods tilt tear drop hat with the original net still in tact - I only wish I'd taken photographs! I'm now on the look out for a fabulous 40's tilt hat or scalp cap so if anyone knows of any, ones to sell any or has a little incling of where I could find such a think for around £40 please let me know! After coming across a couple of lovely little bits and bobs - a cream beaded cardigan, fur collar, four pastel colour petticoats and a fewamzing vintage fur shawls! [all of which were too expensive apart from the cardigan which was pretty reasonably priced] I went to the Vintage Emporium and stopped for a chai latte, marmite on toast and a coffee and walnut cake! Finally I got to meet the marvelous Jessica Stark! she hot footed it across London after a hair appointment and we sat and nattered in the Emporium for a good hour! and then decided to move over to the gallery.
It was the perfect end to a perfect day! lovely meeting Jessica and the K&Q couple! can't wait for another London day!
The top and skirt I ordered from Tara Starlet turned up the other day! I love their speedy service! which makes me want to keep going back to buy bits and pieces off them. However sadly the skirt didn't fit the way I expected it to I thought it was going to be a full circle skirt but it was more fitted with a slight flare and the length just didn't suit me not only that but odly enough the material wasn't what I was expecting either. Then there was the bodice top which is currently on sale! it fits perfectly [little tight on the chest so looks like I'll have to go breless but oh well] the material is perfect and the worn union jack print is fab especially with the Jubilee coming up soon. After the skirt didn't meet expectation I had to find one to replace it to wear with my new top. I tried Vivien of Holloway, DEadly is the female, 21st century foxy, asos, topshop, missselfridge, river island, Debenhams and many many other stores and yet shockingly nowhere sells circle skirts - I have to say I was most shocked Vivien of Holloway don't sell swing skirts when they sell full circle dresses? go figre? So my solution was to create my own skirt! I've never made a skirt before and a swing skirt was quite the challenge but I wanted to give it a go. I bought 4 meters of Blue cotton, 4 meters of red cotton and 4 meters of cream cotton. Two zips [blue & red] and new tailors chalk. When I got home I measured my waist and the length I wanted the skirt to go down to from waist to just below the knee - I then lay my material out and started marking it up with the pattern in my head. My sewing machine worked wonders and I had to hand sew the zip in to place as I don't have the right style foot for my machine - the end result was just what I wanted! it couldn't have come out better! The only thing I had to do was take it in a little - a few tweaks and it was all done!
Yesterday was more than worth waking up at 4am to get ready and run across Birmingham to get a train to Euston at 5:29am! Getting in to London at 7:03am meant I had time to grab a Chai Latte and throw on some heels before heading over to Liberty London. I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited. As many of you may have read as I’ve mentioned before I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Dita a previous three times and this would be our fourth encounter. Liberty really knows how to organise an event! It was seamlessly planned & put together which really impressed me! The queue was sign posted and very friendly, they had everything planed to precision opening the door a little after 10am as Dita was running a tad late and ushered us with the use of signs to queue indoors. The first queue lead to purchase the perfume where you could get either the small bottle for £20 or the large bottle for £35 naturally at such a good price I bough both! You then got ushered over to the delectable Dita but just before reaching her Liberty had been smart and found a dashing gentleman to take a photograph for you, well done Liberty not many places think about these things. Well as soon as I made it to the table I was in awe as always, she is just so beautiful in person like a real life doll it amazes me every time. Before I’d even made it to the table to say hello she’d said ‘oh you look glamorous’ which is a delight coming from such a gorgeous creature. She posed happily for a photo and signed the card as well as my bottles after I asked cheekily – she assured me this wasn’t a cheeky request and had a little chat! While she was signing I went to take a photo of her and being such a sweetheart she turned round so I could take a full photo of her and it came out really well!! Look out for it in The Damsel as that’s where I’ll be featuring it for the first time in one of my articles and nowhere else till then! The rest of the day was just wonderful after that the men outside Hamleys toy store told me I was their Queen and saluted me, one of the really attractive male models who were with Dita at the signing came up to me after the signing to tell me I looked pretty & to let me know Dita was having lunch & doing press so she wouldn’t be out till later if I was going to come back. To top it off a lovely little lady came up to me and asked for a photograph with me!! I was truly stunned but very flattered. Just to add the cherry on the already fabulous sundae I was told by friends that my picture was on the official Dita site and it was! Eeeekk!! What a wonder May Day!
Books, Books, Books they finally arrived!! I am ever so over whelmed at how amazing each and everyone is after just flicking through the pages! Still waiting on one more would have been two more but the other was out of stock :( I must re order it asap! I also found another Must Have book but sadly it's a little ... or should I say way out of my price limit at £62!! geeeeee!! But talking to Foo Foo it seems we have a lot of the same books now! I've always loved books but after hearing about Foo foo's collection I decided to have a look online at which books I was missing out on .... now she's turned me in to a show girl book monster! tee hee and I love it! As I'm too excited about potentially meeting Dita for the fourth time this Tuesday! and buying her new perfume at the launch I've tried not to spend any money apart from what I need to ie. rent, phone bill, food and leaving gifts for ladies at work! but while shopping the other day I came across both these underwear sets on sale and for a total of £14 each I couldn't say no! I'm lusting after the Icon Marilyn dress I've seen too but £75 on a dress is something I currently can not spare as I'll be buying the beautiful Iona off Jessica Stark when I see her next!! eeeek far too elated about this! oh and heres a little behind the scenes pic for you of last Thursdays shoot in the dressing room!
The other day I thought I'd have a go at creating a bra - more of a traditional Burlesque Performers Bra. A while ago I had planned on making a new bra from scratch as I'd found a tutorial online but sadly I'd saved it on my phone which broke and therfore I no longer had it book marked. I decided however it couldn't be too hard to make a basic bra inspired mainly by Bettie Page and of course this centuries Bettie Page Anna Fur Laxis. After work I popped to the market and bought emerald stretch chiffon - gold & green fringe - two gold aplique patches - rhinestones gold ribbon and two different thicknesses of ribbon. I started by making my own pattern for the cups and then pinned it all up before using my wonderful Wanda to sew it all together. For winging it and creating my own pattern I am incredibly pleased with the results! However the plan was initialy to have it attach/ be able to open at the front but if I had used the curtain loops like I'd planned the gap at the front would have been far too big! The whole bra from pattern cutting to sewing it and embelishing took me 3 hours - not bad for a first go! I plan on re-making my 'Gentlemen prefer blondes' bra the same way so keep your eyes peeled! I then created a thong to match my bra and then got the chance to use my new costume for a shoot with Francesca Hancox on Thursday which we got some lovely shots out of which can be found in the Gallery!
As far as exciting news goes! I guess I should finally announce on my blog that I am the new monthly columnist for The Damsel!
The latest online vintage fashion magazine. My monthly feature is called Burlesqueapades and follows my life as a student, coffee connoisseur and burlesque performer so stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled as I'll announce the latest news as it comes in! I recently finished my main feature for the first issue as well as a review for the style section and a little introduction - sadly I can't give anything away just yet we want you to be happily surprised with the end result without giving away what I'll be contributing! If you'd like to stay up to date either visit the website www.thedamsel.weebly.com or find us:
One of my favourite things about new purchases is the packaging, I absolutely hate when clothes come in little plastic bags it loses its specialness in my eyes but Tara Starlet know how to do it right, my beautiful little dress was wrapped carefully in tissue paper and held together with a Tara Starlet sticker. They had also included a few promotional flyers [I also enjoy getting little extras like this with my garments] and inside it was lovingly folded! I was also incredibly impressed with the speed of delivery - it came within 3 days of clicking that little 'buy this item' button online.
However it wasn't till about a month ago I thought 'Hand on a minute, What Katie Did is only in London I should really visit the boutique!' So that's exactly what I did. Booking a week off work I'd planned to see friends, gets some burly stuff finished and maybe, just maybe fit in a cheeky little trip to the What Katie Did boutique. After a lovely lunch with Luna & Tiffany in Green Park the ladies had to head back to there day jobs while I had a few hours to kill before my train this was the perfect excuse to get on the tube and head to WKD! It was so much easier than I thought it would be and thanks to some lovely Police officers I was pointed in the right direction to the boutique - I think if your an out of towner like myself asking for directions is a good idea because you either don't know where the cut through is to the arcade or like my darling friend Eliza you walk right by it! The boutique is so much more beautiful than I ever imagined and the service is top notch! I was served by the delectable Vicky who was a complete doll I can't express just how helpful and lovely the little lady was. I tried on a few corsets with the Cry Baby soundtrack on in the background [great choice ladies] and although I'd planned on just trying the Morticia to see if I preferred it to the Mae I managed to end up leaving with a new corset - The Morticia spoon busk in a size 24" yes 24"!! I can't thank Vicky enough for persuading me to try on a 24" corset even though I was adamant I was a 26" so that was the cherry on top of a fab visit! - I was also ridiculously happy with getting a WKD tote bag I've been wanting one for a while! Due to the wonderful customer service I recieved at What Katie Did within a week I returned to buy some suspender clasps for my new Morticia corset! and would you believe it WKD were having a 50% off sale of some of there corsets and I hapeed to see the perfect underbust Morticia white raw silk corset in a 24" which I had to try on! Again Vicky was working and remembered me which is always lovely! She got me the six black suspender claps I was after and of cours eI ended up leaving with another new corset .... it would have been rude not to with it being 50% off I'd have only been kicking myself the next day if I hadn't bought it. My white raw silk Morticia corset in action used for a photoshoot a few weeks ago! - No doubt I'll be back very soon ladies I have my eye on some white suspender clasps, the Marlene longline suspender belt and maybe even a satin pink underbust Morticia for my Gentlemen Prefer Blondes routine!
The Champagne Pop has been performed all over the UK it is my all time favorite routine out of all of the ones in my repetoire. It certainly gets a lot of tears, crystals coming off and beads snagging as bits of the outfit get flug off but it surely does stand the test of time - I have also recently added a corset to the ensamble which has been showcased in the new images Francesca Hancox took of me for her new piece of work. Francis took these images on a medium format camera so these are some lovely negatives she scanned in. More can be found in the Gallery !
It was a really fun shoot and I have a couple more coming up with Fran so hopefully all my favorite costumes and rouitnes will have some brilliant images by the end and a few swiss ones Fran can use in her exhbition. Costume Revamp: Cage Bra bought off Banbury Cross Thong - Custome Made Bustle - Custome Made Gloves - Vintage Corset - What Katie Did raw silk Morticia underbust 24" |
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February 2014
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