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!
As an avid wearer of corsets I was thrilled to have the opportunity to model for the company Love, Poetry Corsets. Their unique designs come in a beautiful array of fabrics and their shapes hug the body and flatter the figure. I got to model this steampunk inspired, overbust corset with a sweetheart neckline and back lacing.
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!
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!
I had a blast this past saturday at the Peepshow TO Late Night Toon Tease Nerdlesque show!! Performers stripped as their favourite adult cartoon characters such as Leela from Futurama, Jane Lane from Daria, Gimpy from Undergrads, Molotov Cocktease from Venture Brothers and so many more. The show was amazing, with so many creative costumes, acts and song choices. The stage, which was set with old school televisions, created such a lovely atmosphere to witness these cartoon characters coming to life. Congrats to Peepshow TO on another wonderful show!
When it comes to curvy burlesque beauties Dirty Martini takes the cake!
Based in NYC, this burlesque performer/pinup model/dance instructor’s style of performance is a combination of classic glamour and raunchy humour. She holds the title of The Reigning Queen of Burlesque – Miss Exotic World 2004, first runner up to Miss Exotic World in 2003 and best fan dance at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in 2002. She was featured in the John Cameron Mitchell film “Shortbus” and the Scissor Sister’s video for the song “FIlthy/Gorgeous”. Dirty Martini is truly a wonderful representation of the curvy girl body-type in burlesque. She has curves for days and proudly shows her figure in the most glamourous burlesque costumes and routines. Dirty Martini is such an inspiration to me as a big girl in burlesque and she really proves it that beauty has no size!
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
Photos by If You Fall Photography
Part 2 of my Bettie Page inspired striptease! This week the clothes come off…
Part 1
Photos by If You Fall Photography
CLASSICALLY CURVY 