CoutureLust: Black Lotus

I'm ever so pleased to announce a new interview series: CoutureLust. I'm constantly amazed by all the enchanting indie clothing designers I find online, and I wanted to take the opportunity to show them some love.

First up, Christina Molcillo of Black Lotus Clothing. I found Christina at a Tribal Bellydance festival a few years ago, and have been avidly watching her work evolve into a jaw-droppingly gorgeous fusion of tribal-grunge-gothic-carnival-Victorian beauty. Not surprising that I lust after everything she creates. Prepare for serious WANT.

How would you describe yourself and your style of work?

First thing that comes to mind is that I'm a dork who just so happens to make pretty things. Well, at least I think they're pretty.. Nothing wrong with liking your own work, right?

My current style is kinda like a Grungy Tattered Beautiful F^&*d Up Mess... (excuse the language, but that's the best way I know how to describe it). I'm drawn to texture, layers, and sparkle... antiques, feathers, flowers and other found objects. I somehow manage to rip them all apart and put them back together in a fashion that pleases me. It's actually quite a therapeutic experience really... kinda like finger painting, or digging in the dirt while gardening. There's no precise way to do it... you just do it....
Where do you find inspiration?

Everywhere. I know that's really vague, but it's true. I can be walking down the street and see a leaf and go "Wow, look at the veins in that leaf, kinda looks like a stitching pattern," or I'll be sitting in traffic and stare at the dingy old commercial truck in front of me and think "Hmm... if that truck were a garment what would it look like?" Then I'll look at the colors, detailing and feel of the vehicle and actually form a costume in my head to match it. Do I really go home and make that costume? No... ahh... probably not. But it's a good creative exercise! Normally I just dig through my fabrics until I find one that I like, and go to town with it... that's usually how all my pieces start.

Or... unless I'm creating for a customer... I have a specific person in mind. I love to use certain dancers as muses, they can give me creative boosts as well.
What do you do besides design amazing clothes?

Nuthin'... Hehe... I don't know, just normal stuff I guess. I love traveling, hanging out with my friends and my amazing husband (he's really funny). I read books, watch movies, take baths, collect things, dance, oh, and I just got off a 2 week raw juice fast. That was a pretty awesome experience... I love learning about health and nutrition.

What are three things that please you the most in the world?

The People Around Me
Being Creative
Shopping

How did you get your start making clothes?

To sum it up I've always made stuff... After high school I studied Fashion for a minute then quit about halfway through the program... I didn't touch it for five years until I discovered Tribal Belly Dancing, and that's when I started making my own costumes.

In all honesty, I hated performing, so I decided to choose to stay in the game by being a costumer.

Pretty much all I knew was that I wanted to be a designer sooo badly, but didn't know how to get started... I was also under the impression that everything had to be mass produced, so I tried to go down that route, but just couldn't connect the two. Eventually I just sat down in front of a machine and taught myself how to sew... one costume at a time.

What piece of work are you most proud of?

Good question. Nobody has ever asked me that. I guess it would be this one. I loved that combo of bluish grey and silver with the red. Some lady in Spain owns it now, I hope she's taking care of it...

...and I love these new things I'm working on in my studio right now... lil' skirts, neck corsets, bras and crap that nobody will probably ever see. Most of my work is sold at shows, and never goes online. I don't think people realize how many things I make...

Where can we find your line?

Various shows, events are posted on my website... you can always add me as a friend on mySpace or Tribe too. I always upload my new work (there) simultaneously with the site.

Thanks Christina!

...Read the full interview...

Seven in One Blow

I tend to avoid blog tagging... it feels too much like a chain letter, and those give me hives. So I heaved a great sigh when Down & Dirty Designs tagged me - I knew it was inevitable. I decided to succumb, so - seven random things about me, but sorry, can't abide by ALL the rules.

{one} I still make hand-made valentines for everyone in my family and my dearest friends.

{two} At six years old, I tap-danced on the table at my grandmother's well-attended 60th birthday bash and sang Comedy Tonight.

{three} I was on a team of about 8 people that built a 35-foot-long, 15-foot-tall glowing blue iceberg stage/chill lounge/bar/DJ booth with a life-sized polar bear on top, and drove around in it in the desert.

{four} When I was a senior in high school, I wrote my college entrance essay on the benefits of having seventeen grandparents.

{five} Less than four years ago I was in the countryside outside Bucharest, trying to organize a staged battle between Romanian extras dressed as Celtic warriors, led by a warrior queen, and British Roman re-enactors, complete with chariots, horses, weapons, and armour.

{six} I was in a TV ad for a menswear at the age of three. I sat in an over-sized armchair and said to the camera "The men in my life wear Rochester Big and Tall." No copies exist that I'm aware of...

{seven} And in honor of Valentine's Day: I had the best, most colorful wedding in the world to the most amazing man ever. During the ceremony, he wore an electric blue vintage suit, I wore my grandmother's wedding dress, and my one and only "bridesmaid" didn't decide what to wear at the wedding until the night before ~ and she ultimately chose a traditional dress from Afghanistan that had been hanging on my mom's wall, and was only a little faded. She was also barefoot. I loved it.

Happy Heart Day to you all!!

A Most Curious Menagerie

The work of Chicago artist Jessica Joslin always makes me feel as if I've stumbled upon a strange and beautiful alternate reality.

Gustave, Clockwork Circus, 2008
With her scientific attention to detail, Jessica has the most enchanting way of melding together the mythical, the mechanical, and the anatomical to create whimsical little beasties that are hauntingly life-like.

Lupe, Flights of Fancy, 2005
She uses found objects to make each oddity like a relic from a natural history museum that never was, in glorious juxtapositions that make magic out of the workaday world's detritus: brass meets fur, leather meets glass, velvet meets bone...

Lartet, Flights of Fancy, 2005
And I simply adore the names she gives her creations, names that somehow impart a sense of purpose and the promise of a breathtaking story - Odette, Leopold, Callisto, Lautrec...

Figaro, Curiosa, 2007
You can see more of Jessica's creations in her new art book, Strange Nature. And read Coilhouse's excellent interview with her if you're as intrigued as I am.

Add this to the list of Things I Must Have One Day When I Am Rich - a Jessica Joslin familiar to keep me company in my golden years.

Sweet Coraline

I'm simply giddy with excitement about Coraline ~ it's like a fantasy-obsessed animation-loving post-goth craftista's dream come true.

Everything meticulously hand-made? Check. Voices by comic heroes French and Saunders and John Hodgman? Check. Sassy little girl with blue hair and striped stockings? Check. A toy squid? Check. Miniature sweaters knitted with sewing needles? See for yourself!

Though I'm an avid Neil Gaiman fan, I haven't read the book - I purposefully avoided it so I wouldn't face the disappointment I had with Stardust. So it will be a treat now to read it.

I can't really say much beyond this: you must see it, and you must see it on the big screen. Go now.

Joy Overload

It seems enquiring minds want to know how the Ball went, and truth be told, my dears, I still haven't quite recovered. January has truly been a month of too much goodness. From the Animal Masquerade on New Years Eve to last night's stunning Yard Dogs Road Show, it's been feathers, frolicking, and far too much whiskey for this tart.

First - the Edwardian Ball. Friday night was the World's Faire, and it was incredible. So many fabulous people, in so many jaw-dropping outfits... and exhibits with all kinds of mechanical wonders. All my favorites were in attendance. I made a fabulous sale to a lovely can-can dancer from Le CanCan Bijou, who had a corset that looked like it was made to go with the Juniper set. The talented Mr. Nightshade snapped a picture of her later in the eve... and you can just catch a glimpse her finery.

See Mr. Nightshade's spectacular array of Edwardian Ball weekend photos at his Web site, The Blight.

Stationed at my Adornments for Tarts table, I didn't see much of the evening's performances, but I heard they were amazing. I was content, however, to simply stay in my parlour and admire the lovelies as they paraded by. You can see I managed to lure Industrial Fairytale out at the last minute.

We took Saturday night off but I heard the Ball was beyond imagination. We went back for Sunday Gorey Sunday, where only the truly die-hard costume and circus freaks turned out ~ still not tired of dressing up! ~ and it had a decidedly more goth-y feel to it. Besides the wonderful Vau de Vire acrobatics, my favorite part was, of course, the endlessly amusing antics of Fou Fou Ha. We managed to sneak in some back-stage marauding of our own with Mama Fou and Floufer.

See my love Stache's full set of pictures on Flickr.

Having had only one night to recover from the Edwardian Weekend, last night we couldn't resist going to see the Yard Dogs Road Show for the first time after years of wanting to see them... and we were floored. Sword-swallowers, burlesque wind-up dolls, confetti, the sultriest trombone player ever, feather fans, and even a magical chicken! Here's the magnificent Samsa Asylum playing her accordion.

And it's not over yet... this weekend we are all going to see DeVotchKa! And then hopefully in February I can catch my breath.

The Edwardian Ball!

Things are going to be a wee bit quiet here for a few days as I remain hunched over the sewing machine to make stock for the Edwardian Ball this weekend. This is the first year with vendors, and I'm ever so delighted to bring my Adornments for Tarts there!

If you haven't been to the Edwardian Ball and you're a Bay Area local, you should scamper to get tickets with all due haste. I myself will be in attendance on both Friday and Sunday nights. It's one of my favorite annual events ~ decadant costumes, shameless debauchery, lovely performers like Rasputina, Vau de Vire, and Fou Fou Ha!, and enticing exhibitions by Kinetic SteamWorks and Dark Garden make it a must-attend.

One of my favorite pictures ever was taken before my first time at the Edwardian Ball. I've always called the picture "I Dare Say!"

Causing trouble from left to right, Fudo, Stache, Choklit, and Lord Hopton. In the picture I'm wearing the first period costume I ever made. In fact, the Edwardian Ball was where the idea for Adornments for Tarts first sprouted, so it seems only fitting that I'll be vending there in a few days.

Things That Please Me: Enchanted Dolls

You may have guessed, faithful readers, that I have a deep appreciation for meticulously detailed work. So you can imagine my excitement upon discovering Enchanted Doll, and the exquisite art of Marina Bychkova. Here is her most recent work, a vision of Alice.


I am transfixed by these dolls. Painstaking bead-work! Miniature accessories! Hand-cast porcelain! Anatomical correctness! For many of them, Marina crafts phenomenally detailed costumes, with actual gemstones and precious metals, and the finest velvets, furs and silks... as for Dunyazade's and Scherezhade's lustrous dresses.

The steampunk in me fell head-over-heels for this one ~ the helmet she wears is actually cast bronze.

Marina sometimes goes to elaborate lengths to photograph them in creative environments. On her blog she details building a miniature lotus pond so her boyfriend can photograph Kia, her russet-haired, henna'd, water naiad doll.


I'm absolutely floored by Marina's work. These are more than just dolls, they are high art. They are at once sensual and innocent, disturbing and stunning. As someone who began my journey in costuming by hand-sewing tiny Victorian dresses for my dollhouse dolls as a child, I have nothing but admiration for someone who can elevate my childhood passion to such heights.

If you're intrigued, read this interview with her. And of course, take some time to get lost in her world. You'll be blown away.

Furry Formal Masquerade

You can now cease wondering, my dears, what your Choklit was up to on New Year's Eve. We hosted a Furry Formal party, and it was ridiculously entertaining.

Exciting vintage cocktails with names like the Bull's Eye and the Bees Knees were skillfully served up by Cheshire Cat Meester Ralph and Skyeboy, who reprised his Angry Bunny costume to dashing effect.

My personal downfall was the Lion's Tail, an intoxicating blend of bourbon, bitters, allspice dram, lime juice, and simple syrup (recipe courtesy of the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails).

The loveliest part was how little overlap there was in the animals represented. We had the sexiest yak ever...

A three-toed sloth for our DJ (although he's exposing extra toes in this photo)...

There was a late arrival of a rather elegant chicken...

And a perilously amorous red fox who wore a Victorian fox-hunting jacket without irony...

And I shunned feathers and fur to be the only reptile in attendance - some sort of Cobra Flash-Gordon Enchantress. Here, surrounded by confused white furry things.

Photos by my love Stache and the ever-fabulous M. Mendelson. See more of M's party pics in her Flickr set.



The idea was partially inspired by these amazing collage portraits by artist Charlotte Cory - she published a book called The Visitors, where she added animal heads to found Victorian carte de visite.

I couldn't resist making them into an invitation where I wrote a little poem to lure in the beasties...




Scaled or feathered
beaked or clawed
waving-tailed
or gentle-pawed,
Softest fur
or forked of tongue
hoofed or horned
or poison stung,
Creatures creeping
great and small
bedecked in finery
for the ball...

Happy New Year to all my animal friends!