CoutureLust: Blasphemina's Closet

I'd harbor a guess that many of my readers are familiar with the Lolita style. If not, meet Samantha Rei, proprietress of Blasphemina's Closet. Samantha takes the girlish ruffles and neo-Victorian sensibility of Lolita style and makes it sumptuously couture.

(Image: Photosynthetique)
She curates the annual Schoolgirls and Mobilesuitsfashion show, and her luxe creations can be seen at New York's Dances of Vice. And good news for dandies... she's got a men's line, too.

(Image: Fairytale Vegas)
Samantha is based in Minneapolis, and along with previous CoutureLust featuree Heather Luca of Scoundrelle's Keep and Megan Bishop of Apatico, founded the Libertine Asylum, a "society for the spread of fanciness, hedonism, indulgence and beauty." Ah, ladies after my own heart. Let's see what's behind the flounces in Blasphemina's Closet...

(Image: Photosynthetique)
How would you describe yourself and your style of work?

I generally stick to classic and gothic lolita. Lolita fashion is a style that gained popularity in Japan and has taken hold as a relevant subculture worldwide. It has a lot of basis in Victorian and Rococo fashion as well as certain other influences like stories, sweets and other subcultures.

Two of the best sites for info are Avant Gauche and Lolita Fashion.

(Image: Photosynthetique)
I also tend to do neo-Victorian and aristocrat menswear and for fun and friends, wa-lolita.

Where do you find inspiration?

Books and movies. Usually, whatever I'm reading at the time or movies I've been enthralled with each season inspire my next line. Music, too. I'm not really into sweet style, and since that's what's in right now, I don't tend to be inspired by the Japanese brands as much as I used to.

(Image: Aesthetic Alchemy)
This year, I've been inspired by Snow White as illustrated by Arthur Rackham (he's a HUGE inspiration in my life), Little Red Riding Hood, Josephine Bonaparte, story book villains, the poetry of John Wilmot, the films Gangs of New York and From Hell, Japanese illustrator Mihara Mitsukazu, regency era fashion plates, Valkyries, and as always, Alice in Wonderland.

(Find more links to Samantha's favorites at the end of the post.)

What do you do besides design amazing clothes?

I make fascinators and jewelry. I love that! It's one of those things where I do it in my spare time, then sell it later. I can spend time making one piece pretty. It's like meditation. Also, I love to read. If I'm not working, which is most hours of most days, I'm reading or watching crime shows.

(Image: Scoundrelle's Keep Imagery)
What was the most challenging piece you've designed / made?

I had to make five bridesmaid and one flower girl dress out of bright red dupioni silk. They all needed to look the same, but be made to fit each girl. It was very tough, because half the girls didn't actually live in town. I was working on this while finishing a piece for my best friend to wear at her wedding and her sister's bridesmaid dress, all had to be done that week because they were both getting married on the same day. That was stressful, but everyone was beautiful!

(Image: Photosynthetique)
What are three things that please you the most in the world?

Books, history and family.

How did you get your start making clothes?
My mother taught me to use a sewing machine when I was about 13 (early 1990s). I got into design shortly after that. I used to hand sew clothes for my Barbies for something to do. I didn't really "play Barbies" right. But I really got gung-ho into designing when I was in early high school. I started with my own clothes, then with practice styles, then made prom dresses for friends. The first year I did that, I made two dresses for friends for like $100 each. I was so proud! Shortly after beginning college, I started my Web site :)

(Image: Erin Nicole Johnson)
What piece of work are you most proud of?

It's a tie between showing my collection PULP at Dances of Vice in Spring of 2009 and a black and blue silk wedding dress I made for a Halloween wedding this year. I was so proud of that collection, I hadn't done a gothic line in ages and it looked so cohesive and elegant. And the wedding dress made the bride look radiant. I love creative clients who just let me go! I can't choose...

(Image: Photosynthetique)
Where can we find your line?
On the internet, at conventions (check out my ongoing con schedule for 2010!) and every once in a while in spots around Minneapolis.

List some of the top books, music, and movies that you've enjoyed recently...

Books!
Monster Blood Tattoo
Valiant:A Modern Tale of Faerie
Barnaby Grimes
A Lion Among Men
Seeing Redd
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Spiderwick

Musical inspiration this year!
World Inferno
Rasputina (My favorite band since high school!)
Voltaire
Circus Contraption
Gogol Bordello
Amanda Palmer
Dr. Steel
Emilie Simon
The Builders and the Butchers

Movies!
Gangs of New York
From Hell
Quills
The Libertine
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Moulin Rouge

Thanks so much, lovely Samantha! We'll be off down one of those fabulous interwebs rabbit holes now to find more inspiration from your links... just like Alice.

...Read the full interview...

Don't Let Long Sleeves...

...get in the way of your adventures. New in the Adornments for Tarts shop - Zephyr Sleeve Garters.

(Image courtesy of Photomato)
The inventor tinkers away in his dusty workshop, deep into the night, sculpting fine wood, gleaming brass and supple leather into arcane treasures for amusement and edification. With nimble fingers and piercing eyes he sees the potential in a pile of mismatched parts, senses the adventures that await if he can just craft that perfect apparatus to help unfold his fortunes....

Suitable for both dashing gents and audacious ladies, Zephyr Sleeve Garters are made of dupioni silk, and there are five colors of garters available to match any ensemble - scarlet red, pewter silver, bronze gold, mahogany brown, and ebony black.

And yes, that's my much-adored and dapper husband Stache above, by his kinetic contraption, the Hennepin Crawler, at the Maker Faire.

Thanks to fellow Steam Teamer and brilliant goggle-maker BoilerGoth for inspiring the title of this dispatch.

Vagabond Opera Glory

Sublime Moment of the Week: dueling cellos, a guitar, and a clarinet, being played by various members of the indescribable cabaret band Vagabond Opera, while sitting on the Hennepin Crawler, in my driveway.

Last Friday night, my dear Amber Lee played a show with the fabulous vaudevillian roustabouts from Portland, to promote their new CD, The Zeitgeist Beckons. The performance was brilliant ~ complete with hypnotism, playing card tricks, toy chattering teeth, and oh so many sequins, hats and stripes...

Vagabond Opera is the kind of band that entertains you from the moment they step under the lights until the raucous finale where they jump off the stage and dance among the blissful fans. One song even compelled Lord Hopton to sweep me away into a vigorous tango number that left me completely breathless. Following the after-party at the home of the Mad Maggies, who had also played, Stache and I were thrilled to play local hosts to the travelers ~ half of them stayed at our house. And of course, we all realized we were cut from the same cloth and fell in love.

In the morning, after brunch, sax and clarinet player Robin (who also moonlights with my beloved March Fourth!) and Stache had a giddy dandy-accessory-trying-on party, and my living room became an internet cafe, as no less than five laptops were put to use. Before they departed for their next show, we tooled around town a bit on the Hennepin Crawler, much to everyone's delight. And soon half of the band was playing instruments in an impromptu interlude on the Crawler.

Full Flickr set here, with more to come (and look, here's video on Facebook!). And then they all drove away in their very large van, blowing kisses and with promises of future visits. Huzzah for the unexpected glory of having a magnificent band you love come for a sleepover at your house!

Dashing, Talented & Such

Tonight I must write a post of love and appreciation for Stache and Skyeboy, who have been working tirelessly to complete the Hennepin Crawler in time to take it to the Playa. You can follow the progress of their kinetic sculpture at the Krank-Boom-Clank blog. It's been nights upon nights of welding and bike grease ~ and all the while my boys remain ever cheery and dapper.


Last night they succeeded in getting it out for a test pedal, and though some modifications are still needed, they're in the home stretch.


I can't wait to see it in its full glory, blazing across the desert.

On a related note, we were delighted to see there is to be a Steampunk theme camp at the Burn this year ~ the Bomb Bay Tea Company. Tea and bikkies to be served every afternoon by the crew of the stranded airship Victoriana's Revenge... A visit from the intrepid Hennepin Crawler crew has already been promised.

Should be a bang-up year with plenty of dusty and be-goggled adventures before we return home to roost for the Handcar Regatta.

Dances of Vice

I'm thinking about taking out an ad for Atelier Choklit in the program for the next Dances of Vice festival. Being of the West Coast ilk, I haven't had the pleasure of attending one of their Manhattan events yet, but it sounds like it's right up my alley... a community of "elegant flappers, dandies, time travelers, artists & ne'er-do-wells."

If I wasn't going to be packing for Burning Man, I'd be seriously tempted to go - the theme is the Munchausen Time Traveller's Ball. Not only do I adore that movie, the venue looks amazing, and the dress code is nothing less than "18th Century, Victorian, New Romantic, Elizabethan, Carnevale, Edwardian, 1920-30s, Steampunk, Decadent..." Hello, Choklit heaven?

Is it just me, or are we experiencing a renaissance of events for the costume set? I'm thrilled. One can never have enough opportunities to look fabulous in dramatic uncomfortable clothes, I say.

100 Hearts and Garters

Last night I reached 100 hearts for my Etsy shop, Atelier Choklit. I must say it was largely due to my fortuitous first front page appearance in a treasury by CalloohCallay, which doubled my hearts in an hour...

I've also been quietly working on some adornments for the gentlemen, not least of which is a stack of silk sleeve garters, which, according to Wikipedia, were originally used to adjust sleeves on shirts that only came ready-made with extra long sleeves. Pictures soon - for now, you'll have to be satisfied with this one of Skyeboy getting ready for the Edwardian Ball, sporting the pair I made for him in a lovely silver silk.


I'd love to do hat-bands, as well, but I'm still figuring out how to make them adjustable enough to fit all sizes of hats while keeping the fabric-covered button closure.

I'll admit I'm also thrilled with the idea of a photo shoot featuring some of the dashing men in my life. Dandies on film, sigh.

A Civilized Outing

Will we never tire of costumed debauchery? Sunday was Lord Wizzbang Hopton Mahnkae's birthday, and we saw fit to organize a party to attend Bustles and Baseball, a event organized by the esteemed Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild, in concert with the Bay Area Vintage Baseball League, in full regalia. We had about twelve people dressed in neo-Victorian picnic gear - straw boaters, knickers, and parasols, and we waved our pennants vigorously for the home team. Seems much of the action was actually happening in the bleachers.


Ah, too much sun and white wine on a summer afternoon while strapped into corsets and waist-coats - does it get any better?


We all agreed that the Trockenbeerenauslese provided by dear Meester Ralph was delightful.


Afterwards, we took half the baseball team with us to the Alembic to carry on with the carousing. Several strong whiskey old-fashioneds later, this intrepid Victorian explorer had to be ported home by her more, ahem, sober dandies.


Happiest of birthdays, my dearest Mahnkae.

Lovely photographs by the talented M. Mendelson / www.InnerCamera.com - see more of them here.

Things That Please Me: Dandies

Okay, I'll admit it. There's something about a man in a top hat and silk ascot. Something about a man who is a fabulous dancer and a master of witty repartee. Something about that appreciation for all things refined and elegant in life. And especially something about meticulously sculpted moustaches. There's definitely something about a dandy that really makes my heart race.

Which is rather good because my husband, my brother, and most of my dearest male friends are all dandies. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.


I'm fascinated by the resurgence of the dandy as a cultural icon. I suppose this love of dapper men was inevitable given my penchant for neo-victorian and steampunk culture, but I can be entertained for hours watching them debating the relative merits of kid leather vs. cotton gloves on the Dandyism! Tribe, or reading the florid prose of Lord Whimsy, whose website includes downloadable pdfs for tie knots, pocket square folds and moustache care.

Precisely what defines the modern dandy is hard to pin down: a website called Dandyism.net lists qualities of a dandy as, among other things, "a skeptical, world-weary, sophisticated, bored or blasé demeanor," "discriminating taste," and "a self-mocking and ultimately endearing egotism."

According to the ineffable Lord Whimsy, "Dandyism is an elegance of mind that finds its expression in one’s physical presence: clothing, manners, speech, attitude, etc... The dandy of today is as much about his lifestyle as his wardrobe; the dandy is now an artist-philosopher who uses himself as a canvas and stage."


Or, as archetypal dandy Oscar Wilde said, "One should either be a work of Art, or wear a work of Art."

However you care to define it, my heart belongs dandies.