Uprising by Lady Effulgent

I've been involved in Copenhagen Burlesque for approximately a year by now, helping out at the shows and sewing for one of my favourite performers there: Lady Effulgent. 

It is a load of fun, and a way for me to make costumes that are more elaborate and showy than even my ordinary 'larger than life' dresses.

This fall we had the event "Dark City, Dreamy dystopia" and the Lady and I had out first collaboration in the show 'Uprising'.

 Photo by Maxmarkov.com

For the show I made a corset, a bumtail bow, a fishtail-skirt that could be transformed into a pencil-skirt and a dress to cover it all up in the beginning. Combined with a few bought pieces, a shitload of rhinestones and some handsome blokes, we had a nice setup for her act:

Lady Effulgent: The uprising

The nude underbust

After making the NYE dress, I decided to modify the pattern from a 6 panel piece to a 7 panel, making it possible to create an even more dramatic silouette with a stronger hip to waist curve.

The nude underbust is a test run on that pattern, with a single layer of coutil, cotton twill tape for waisttape, spiralsteels and flatsteels as boning and cream satin for binding and lacing. Now, I did get a rather amazing figure from the corset, as I had modified it to reduce the waist 2,5 cm / 1 inch extra compared to the NYE dress. And it did fit as a dream.

...I just didn't take any pictures at the time.

I planned to make a photoshoot with it, with loads of cream and white colors, and I even started collecting nice accessories. And then I got pregnant.

Now, 5-6 months later (still rather pregnant btw), I'm not seeing a photoshoot happening for this little thing any time soon. So, in order for it to at least be shown, you get a picture of it on my mannequin. Unfortunately corsets just don't look as good on a non-squishable mannequin, so there are some rippling in the fabric around the waistline and the silouette is not as marked as it was in person.

Looking at it now, so many months later, I can see the potential to bring it to a new level, as I got some pretty lace in cream lying around and just got some new rhinestones that will match the color theme quite well. 

So this piece might just be my motivational treat to get my figure back, once everything calms down.

Victorian winter

I have not been very active with photoshoots this winter, so instead I have a little treat for you from last winter: A pair of well to do victorians, posing to the photographer.

The photo was taken by Rene Bang at Christiansborg on a cold December day in 2012. Both outfits were made by me, Jacob is wearing a set made specifically for him, and Sascha Norsbo my promenade dress.

It was a very odd thing seeing another person wearing one of my dresses, but I think that Rene, Jacob and Sascha together created such a good picture, that it was quite worth it.

50'ies trainride

In early summer 2013 I finished a 50'ies dress for myself. By now I've made a few of them like the yellow dress and the striped dress, and I got the basic shape down quite well. This time I thus focussed on the details of the dress: A wide standing collar, matching cuffs, scarf and belt. I had my trusted white petticoat and a matching pair of shoes, that although not vintage did the job quite well, so I was ready for a little trip.

At 'Græsted Veterantræf' a weekend filled with vintage vehicles of all kinds, I was so lucky to find a nice matching train, with the same gray tone as my dress and a red stribe to match my lipstick! How lucky can you get?

'Sølvgrisen' (the silver pig) is an old lady from 1952, that used to work near where I grew up in Lyngby Taarbæk municipality. She is currently living in Græsted, where the nice people from Nordsjællands veterantog takes good care of her.

Photographer: Anders Hansen

An old dress in an old garden

My very first victorian dress from back in 2006 got to come out and have a little fun in the spring. The botanical garden in Copenhagen had allowed a group of photographers to come and use the beautiful garden as a background for their photoshoot. I had the pleasure of working with Nik Skjøth from Infinitive studios.

The dress got a minor makeover some years ago, when I covered the majority of the bodice in black lace and added a black veil (also used for other photoshoots). I tried to use my new bustle for it, but alas, it was to big. A 1880 bustle is not meant to go under a 1870 dress, -it is simply not the right shape. So for the major part of this photoshoot I used an Ikea pillow, and ended up cutting myself on the safetypins that held the pillow. -So I really need a new bustle soon. Oh well, one more project to the wish-list.

Taking the NYE dress for a spin

I showed you my new years eve dress earlier this year, but alas, only as snapshots from the party itself. Photographer Zafar Iqbal (zafariqbal.dk) was up for a photoshoot, so the dress came out again and we had loads of fun. 

 

 

The black victorian underwear

Durring winter I managed to finally make my long wanted black victorian underwear. It consist of a black corset with white details, a white chemise with black details and a pair of long black stockings.

All pictures by  Henrik Jensen:

The corset is a modified version of the Truly Victorian corset that I have used for so long. I have long since started to use a selfdrafted pattern for modern corsets, but for historical wear I still use Truly Victorians pattern.
For materials I used a single layer of black coutil, with handmade castings for the spiral steels, attached on the outside of the corset. For a visual effect I used a thick white tread for the bonecastings and flossing, and along the top of the corset I used a white bobbinlace that was left fron the chemise.

The chemise is made from cotton satin bedsheets from Jysk (a Danish store), as they are very soft and the price is no bigger than for regular plain cotton cloth. I used a simple bobbinlace for the neckline and sleveholes, but a appr. 4 cm wide bobbinlace for the bottom edge. All lace was decorated with black satinband, woven into the lace. The band at the neckline can be used to adjust the height of the neckline.

All in all this is a set I am very happy with, and I look forward to using it underneath all my victorian clothing.