Victorian Fashion Plates, if you please!

Godey's Lady's Book was a popular publication in the 19th century. It provided women with articles about etiquette and domestic life and the latest fashion plates from them to model their own homemade clothing after. You might say that it was the forerunner of publications like Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Most of the fashion plates I've seen have been mid-century, with huge skirts and intricate details. It was very cool to find these Victorian versions. For your home inspirational pleasure...

Made by Nikki F2011

Just got back from a week and a half in the heart of Mexico. It was a very interesting week full of ghosts and orbs and very old churches. Been slogging through all the emails that have built up in the interim, and I came across this preview of the Made By Nikki Fall 2011 Collection. Simply gorgeous! Brought to you via  Le petite-coquette.

Edwardian Ball and Fashion Plates

In honor of the upcoming Edwardian Ball here in LA this weekend, I want to share some cool fashion plates and catalog pages from the turn of the century. I'll post pictures of what we wore later on :)

I just love the details and the moody colors....

The original vamp

I've been going crazy ordering books from Amazon.com lately. I've discovered that there are so many books out there that I would actually love to read, that I would otherwise never find in the neighborhood bookstore or Barnes and Nobel. I was recently reading a book about the history of Arab dance (belly dance, whatever you want to call it) and Theda Bara was briefly mentioned.

According the this book, she was the original screen Femme Fatale and the studios went out of their way to build an elaborate (if false) myth around her. Her name is an anagram for Arab Death, and the studios claimed that she had been born in the shadows of the pyramids and she bathed in snake blood. They provided for her a Nubian driver, who drove her round Hollywood in a white limo, while she pretended to not speak a word of english. I love it. I now have a date with a friend to bar hop round LA pretending we only speak arabic. It'll be a challenge, especially once we start drinking, to maintain, but damn it! We'll give it our best!

Bearded Corsets!

Well, not really, but I do have beards and corsets....

I've had an epiphany. I always have so many projects in the works that my room has become a dangerous cave full of bags of half finished ideas just waiting to trip me. Its a health liability. So, I'm going to do something revolutionary, and just work on one project at a time. Yeah, yeah, I know, obvious, right? But I never wanted to have to structure my free time like I do for work, because it might feel like..... work. But times they are a-changing. And I, really want to finish something once an awhile.

In the future I want to post pictures of my works in progress, but since everything right now is for Christmas presents, I have to keep it all secret. All I can say is that there are a lot of leather studs involved. And flowers :)

And now for the mustaches!!!

Via Anna Fischer's Flickr

I re-found one of my favorite corset makers, Morgana Femme Couture Corsets. They were originally based here in Los Angeles but have since picked up shop and flown across the pond. London does seem to be the place to be to make fantastic lingerie.

They always used my favorite pin up models here in LA and now they're using one of my favorite from London. I'm not sure what her name is though...

Morgana Femme Etsy

And lastly, I love this jewelry!!! From Heron Adornment. Find more here