I recently had a wonderful photoshoot with the talented photographer Geoff Larkin. We got a lot of awesome shots in a couple different outfits so I will slowly be releasing photos from that shoot over the next few weeks! The first set features a dress and bandana that I made out of this beautiful red floral fabric I bought when I was at Mood in New York City back in April. I fell in love the with colours and designs in this print and knew I needed to make a pinup dress with it. I kept the design pretty simple to keep the focus on the pattern but added a little pinch at the bust for a bit of sex appeal. Enjoy this photo set and stay tuned for more from Dolly and Geoff!
Once again the lovely and talented Laura Desiree dominated the stage in her Rock n Roll Red Fringe outfit created by me! This time it was at the Toronto Burlesque Festival’s opening show where she strutted her stuff before a packed house of burlesque enthusiasts and performers. Since the last time I blogged about this outfit we added another piece which is the flowing red satin skirt with fringe detail from waist to hip. I love what the skirt added to the overall outfit and I think it finishes the look perfectly. Check out these wonderful photos from photographer Ruth Gillson of the gorgeous Laura Desiree at the Toronto Burlesque Festival!
Last weekend the outstanding performer Aviva the Mirage took the stage at the Toronto Burlesque Festival. I was lucky enough to get to dress this blue-haired beauty for the festival! I had so much fun working on this outfit that included a long flowing robe, tiger print one shoulder leotard, panel skirt, bra and panties. The combination of the wild tiger print with the rich raspberry purple skirt and robe was so elegant with just a hint of Bettie Page sass. I look forward to making more outfits for this burlesque babe in the future!
Last weekend I had a wonderful time exploring the insanity that is Atomic Lollipop which took place at the Ontario Science Centre! For those who don’t know what A Pop is, it is a convention that brings together cosplayers, ravers, nerds, gamers, larpers, lolita fashionistas, celebrity guests and so much more. It’s really hard to describe what exactly A Pop is, so I’m going to let this video explain…
Personally, I had a great time going to panels about Gender, LGBT comics, Burlesque, Crossplay and Lolita fashion, seeing performances from Pizza Underground, Illuminair Entertainment and Boylesque TO, performing for Peepshow TO, checking out the amazing vendors, participating in a lightsaber battle and so much more! Check out my insta-photos from last weekend’s Atomic Lollipop Con!
Myself and the amazing Leelando Calrissian who was crossplaying as Catwoman!Pizza Underground played on Friday night. They play Velvet Underground covers but change the words to be about pizza. Oh and Macaulay Culkin is a band member.They gave out free pizza!Then I bought an Alpaca and I named him Al.Bre Poisonne blew everyone away with her amazing Aerial Hoop performance!Scarlet Black did a fire routine as Sailor Mars!After obtaining our free lightsabers, we proceeded to the lightsaber battle outside!So many lightsabers!Brittany tried on a Red Panda Kigurumi!And we saw Macaulay Culkin buy a Gloomy Bear Kigurumi!To end Friday night the Boylesque boys did a little stripping for us. El Toro has a mighty fine behind!On Saturday I returned to hang out with these lovely people.Meryle Trouble, Sevvy Skellington, Leelando Calrissian and Charlie Quinn did an amazing panel about Crossplay and gender swap.Leelando and I make a cute couple! 😉On Saturday night I became my alter-ego Batwoman for the Peepshow TO show!I had to get a photo in the red tunnel!Harley and Batwoman post-showOn Sunday we were a bit more casual with our outfits.We found Zilly Lily!Betty Quirk and Sevvy Skellington did an awesome panel on the ABCs of Cosplay Striptease!Finally I concluded the weekend with a gang of Alpacas! So Kawaiii!
Last wednesday I had the pleasure of seeing one of my favourite photos from my collaborations with If You Fall Photography displayed in the Art Vs Alt show at Rosie the Rebel! It was a wonderful show filled with lots of very edgy, dark and musically inspired paintings, photographs and sculptures. I had a wonderful time taking it all in and was honoured to be included in the show. Thanks to Alex from If You Fall for making me look so damn cute!
This past weekend I had an absolutely fabulous time celebrating World Pride in Toronto!
As an openly bisexual woman it is so important to me to celebrate Pride and show my support as a member of the LGBT community. I feel empowered being a part of such a humongous group of not just Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Trans people, but also all the weirdos, freaks, and artistic creative types like myself who were celebrating. It makes me feel like I am part of a much bigger community when I see such vast crowds of like-minded people declaring that they are proud to be who they are. I was so happy that Toronto got to be the host for World Pride 2014 and I feel lucky to live in this great city where I do feel safe to be openly, genuinely ME!
The party started on Thursday evening. I lined up early and got into the Starry Night event at the 519 Green Space where I had the pleasure of seeing Ru Paul’s Drag Race’s top 4 Queens from this season, Darienne Lake, Courtney Act, Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio, doing their thing on stage. On Friday night I joined my friends at Exicted Mental State (aka EMS), the Toronto Rocky Horror cast, at their pride show. The main event was the parade on Sunday, in which I strutted the parade route in my new self-made mermaid ensemble!
Hanging with my mermaid friend Brittany watching Drag Queens!
Darienne LakeA surprise from behind! 😉Courtney ActAdore DelanoCourtney ActAdore DelanoThe headliner Bianca Del Rio, she was hilarious!Hanging with my friend Meryle Trouble before she played Trixie and Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show!Waiting for the Pride Parade to start on Sunday with BrittanyReady to celebrate!I found some beefy Trojan men!Photo by Moxy FruvousPhoto by Vanessa SargesMy gorgeous gal pals!
Today I bring you part 2 of Sam’s Style, featuring dresses custom made for my beautiful friend Sam by her personal designer; me! Part 1
Phineas and Ferb While out fabric shopping together Sam spotted this amazing cartoon printed fabric with characters from the show Phineas and Ferb and instantly fell in love with it. We decided it would be the perfect print for a new summer dress! The colours in this fabric are fantastic and the comic book window style with graphic text and action posed characters bring so much life to it. Because of the loud fabric we kept the design simple on this one. Just a plain black sash with bow at the back and a short t-shirt sleeve. Sam looks stunning in this creation!
Romantic Red This red dress was the first one I created for Sam. We began with the trim fabric, which is a delectable blackberry print, and then matched the red highlight in the print with a red fabric for the main body of the dress. I love the way the rich red and the purple blackberries balance each other. The cuffs on the sleeves have a little wing with a button that matches the buttons on the bust area. This dress also has some sweet pockets to keep your cell phone and your lipstick in! At the hem of the dress I added a couple of blackberry hearts and matched them on the fascinator that I also made to add to this look.
My super cute, super stylish friend Sam commissioned me to make her a series of dresses over the past year or so that encapsulate her fun, colourful style! Each of these whimsical creations is created from the same base pattern, with slight alterations to each, and the choice of colour, pattern and print in the fabric is what really gives each dress it’s own unique feel. Recently Sam and I adventured to a local park to snap some pinup shots of Sam in her very own line of dresses. Today I will share 2 of the styles I created!
Banana-Rama The Banana dress might be my favourite of the set. The contrasting banana and blueberry fabrics are so fun, fruity and look good enough to eat! This dress has a peter pan collar and long bow in the back. We did a bit of a longer sleeve on this dress with the lovely blueberry fabric again as a cuff. Sam is a knockout pinup queen in the dress!
Button-Up The Button dress was commissioned by our friend Rena for Sam’s birthday. She found this amazing button fabric and let me run wild with it. For the design of this dress I kept it a little more simple, no collar or tie, but the fun detail is the real buttons I sewed to the front of the dress. They blend in so well that they are a fun little surprise when you see them up close!
This is the final set from my Bettie Page inspired Striptease photo shoot that I will be posting on this blog. The last few images. which feature a helpless Dolly in bondage, have been deemed too racy to post here but fear not! If You Fall Photography and Classically Curvy are currently working on a gallery show of the full Bettie Page set! Stay tuned for more info and for now please enjoy these final shots! Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
I love making outfits for Meryle Trouble because she always has such wonderfully creative ideas! About a year ago Meryle came to me with the psychedelic 60s floral fabric and let me run wild with it. The result was this fabulous, fun dress! I love the way this look turned out and Meryle is totally rocking it!
CLASSICALLY CURVY 