McQueen and I

Did youtube change how they make suggestions to you recently? Because it used to be that my suggestions were full of crap I'd never watch but recently I've been getting some pretty cool documentaries in there.

This one is particularly fantastic, though it did hit a nerve and make me cry all over again, I was in my second year at University when Alexander McQueen passed on, I was actually in the middle of a project that was inspired by him, it hit all the weirdos in Gala really hard at the time because he was a big inspiration to us.

Inspirations: Luisa Casati

Painted by Zuloaga in 1922

"I want to be a living work of art"

The famous words of Luisa Casati, 1920's It Girl, artistic music and fashion's marvel.

One of Erte's takes on her look.

It is said that in her heyday she would walk the streets wearing nothing but a fur coat, walking her precious pet cheetahs leashed with diamond encrusted collars, she certainly knew how to make an entrance!

Her plan was to "commision her own immortality" and she certainly achieved it, photographed by Man Ray, sketched by Martini, painted by Dongen, she was a Muse to many of the greats of her day, and still having been buried in Brompton Cemetery for over half a century, still she continues to inspire people today!

In this Dior collection for example John Galliano cited her as an influence!

Lolita 52 Challenge - Week 32 - My best deal

Well there's no price better than free! My sepia overblouse started life as a white cotton hand-me down from my Mother :)

From plant pot to plate :)

Sunday dinner with home grown potatoes and broad beans :)

The Secret World of Haute Couture. - BBC Documentary

These clothes are so beautiful!

Sunglasses and sandals!

Four weeks until I go camel trekking!

Yummies from the garden!

A little disappointed to pull up my purple radishes only to find them full of maggots :( Plenty of other Yummies up this week though :D

Made myself a new tartan bolero!

Inspirations: Rosaleen Norton

Rosaleen Norton and one of her cats

The infamous Witch of King's Cross, Sydney, Australia, Rosaleen Norton has been (and still is) a big influence on my textile art.

Timeless - One of Rosaleen's pieces that experiments with layers.

Rosaleen was a very brave woman, openly calling herself a Witch at a time when it was still illegal to do so in Australia, her artwork too was very risque for the time and was seized by Police from galleries and cafes under obscenity laws and was hounded by the press who liked to imply that she dabbled in the black arts and animal sacrifice (something she was very much against).

One of my own prints inspired by the flow of Rosaleen's art

Lolita 52 Challenge - Week 31 - Impulse buys that were totally worth it

Not a Lolita picture obviously but it's the best picture I have of my birdcage necklace I bought a few years back in Whitby, I often wear it with Lolita.

Ooooooooh!

Some rather snazzy fabric I picked up yesterday... Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet :)

A lovely day of sewing

Had a lovely day of sewing with Queenie and have taken in my Dracula corset so it's no longer too big :)

Lolita 52 Challenge - Week 30 - How long it took me to build a complete wardrobe

I don't have a complete wardrobe, I genuinely don't think any lolita does have a "complete" wardrobe, we're all endlessly addicted collectors.

In other news I appear to be up to date with this meme now.

Lolita 52 Challenge - Week 29 - Lolitafying things in my everyday life

Is it me or are some of these questions well a bit crap?

Lolita is a fashion aesthetic to me, I don't lolify anything other than myself YMMV.

Lolita 52 Challenge - Week 28 - Bloomers or no bloomers?

Gosh I'm three weeks behind on this meme... How did that happen?

Anyway I wear bloomers, they're comfy and stop perverts looking at your bum.

A few pictures from the weekend!

So here are just some tourist snaps I took, I'm still sorting through the pictures I took for Twisted Edge and I will let you know when those go up.

First of all is my outfit from Saturday, I wore Pirate Lolita, unfortunately my Dracula corset is now way, way too big for me and looks kind of tube-y in this picture, fortunately I will be visiting Queenie on Friday so hopefully we can re-cut it so it will fit me now I'm a little trimmer around the tum! 

Alea der Bescheidene of Saltatio Mortis crowd surfed right past us!

They were probably my favourite band of Saturday, in fact of the than the one on my arm that came from Ost Front pelting me with chicken, I am fairly sure that most of my bruises came from bouncing up and down to Saltatio Mortis, at points it felt like their set was an Aerobic Class haha! 

I got to see The Cruxshadows twice in one week, I saw them last Monday at Legends where they were fantastic, however seeing them in a festival is a whole new, rather snazzy experience for me!

I'm now pretty convinced that Rogue is some kind of Teleporting, Weeping Angel, Spiderman or something as he started from within the crowd and nobody noticed him until just as they were about to start! Ninjas 'aint got nothing on Rogue!

Also while dancing to The Cruxshadows I bumped into Adora BatBrat and some of her friends, so we became the unmissabley bouncy section of the crowd haha!

Adorable Kevin is adorable! :D

Quite chuffed with this picture that I took of Linde from HIM. My inner teenager squee'd at them a lot! They played a very odd yet enjoyable set, mostly tracks from Love Metal, although only one of those tracks was a single (Buried Alive By Love), I kind of wish that they'd have done the acoustic version of Funeral of Hearts, but still I can't have everything my own way, and I did enjoy what they played!

Coppelius who I love and adore... Seriously I would really like one of the UK Steampunk promoters to have a huge lottery win or something because I would really like to see this band play the UK but there are six of them plus instruments so  it would probably cost quite a lot to bring them here... Someone do it! someone! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

I was way too far away from Nightwish to take a good picture, but they were also pretty damn enjoyable, even if I did have to sit out a lot of their set because my legs were pretty much broken by that point.

You know you've had a great day when...

Not only have your feet swelled, your whole legs have swelled and your sock ring has bruised!

Look at us we're classy!

Or not as the case may be... Who is Anja?

Wandering the streets of Hildeshiem

The old part of town is so pretty! We found a really gorgeous tea room full of antiques and curios, I wonder if Hildeshiem has a Lolita group because this tea room would be a perfect meeting place :)

Have arrived in Germany

Where is my bier und brot?

All Packed and ready to go!

I will be blogging from Germany this year, but I won't be able to live blog the festival or anything (far too expensive for me to do this at the moment because of network roaming charges), but you will get a few pieces of my adventures over the next few days :)

Artisticilcles

Sparkle Corset!

Classy bathroom shot in one of Forever in Black's new corsets!

Orphan Sounds

Was out dancing in Orphean Sounds's next music video today :) waiting to see who will be revealed as the next Dr Who :D

A rare moment when neither of us is pulling an odd face!

Taken by my friend Peter for his photography degree show, he's given is a huge framed print of it which is going on our living room wall :)

Inspirations: Kiki De Montparnasse

Glass Tears by Man Ray

Kiki De Montparnasse if one of those people who, while you may not know the name, you've most certainly seen pictures of her or inspired by her.

Model, singer, actress, painter and muse, darling of Parisian society, not bad for an illegitimate girl called Alice born into poverty.

Kiki de Montparnasse by Kees Van Dongen

She had "the look", the very idea of what we think of when we think of women from the 20's, short dark bob, thin pencilled brows and full lips with an exaggerated cupid's bow, she fell in to art modeling by accident, too afraid of STIs to consider prostitution she'd model at a Paris cafe in return for drinks and food.

Ingre's Violin by Man Ray

But most famous of all are her pictures for Man Ray, often copied (like the above image) but never bettered!

You can read more about Kiki here

There is also a graphic novel about her life available here