CoutureLust: VECONA

I nearly wept the first time I saw a VECONA creation. It was the now-legendary tentacled corset, featured on BoingBoing, that brought me tearfully to my knees. Upon visiting the Web site of VECONA creator Janet, who lives and works in Germany, I felt I had fallen down the rabbit-hole of brilliant costuming. Every image is a fantastical wonderland of beauty and intrigue, every model tells a tale of scintillating decadence.

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Viona / Model: Bérengère)
Janet collaborates with amazing talents like Shien Lee and Lucas Lanthier, the masterminds behind Dances of Vice, and she traveled with Emilie Autumn on her Asylum tours for a few years, performing as a Bloody Crumpet and doing all the costume design. I'm ever so delighted to feature VECONA. Be sure to check out her beautiful new Web site!

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Matt Frederick / Model: Ulorin Vex)
How would you describe yourself and your style of work?

I'm a wanderer between genres, eras and worlds, and this is how my styles look like. I love picking particular parts from different influences and mixing them together to create my very own universe. I love inviting guests to be part of it and bring their personal taste to make it even more colorful and unique. This is why I started working with other artists like musicians and photographers. My work shouldn't necessarily meet the requirements of a certain scene, but for sure I'm glad when people can identify with my creations. And in the end I just do what I love. ;-)

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Viona / Models: VECONA & Shien Lee)
How did you get your start making clothes?

As almost everybody in that business, I started with sewing as a hobby and for a long time it was only that. It took me a while to find out that this is what I really love to do in my life.

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Silent View / Model: Fräulein von Rosenfelde)
In the meantime, I studied computer science and as my first project in that field I made the VECONA website to present the costumes and clothes I made in my free time. It turned out that many people were interested in what I showed in the gallery and in getting their very own VECONA piece. So after finishing my studies, I screwed up my courage and decided to follow this sewing passion. What can I say, since then every single day I enjoy this privilege to have a job that satisfies me and gives me the surety that finally I found my destination.

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Annie Bertram / Model: Drastique)
What do you do besides design amazing clothes?

At the moment I'm pretty much interested in the era "Weimar Berlin“ and do a lot of research about that. In this context I started swing dancing a while ago and I really enjoy it!


Where do you find inspiration?

Honestly, I find inspiration just everywhere. It comes to me seeing a fabric, watching a movie, reading a book and pretty often while driving my car. But - the best inspiration I do find just working, because with every single piece I start, I get ideas for three more.

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Annie Bertram / Model: Ancalime)
What are three things that please you the most in the world?

My beloved family and friends, a warm day outside and coffee.

What piece of work are you most proud of?

Usually the last one I made. ;-)

(Fashion: VECONA / Photos: Annie Bertram / Model: Drastique)
Where can we find your line?

Since I do all pieces as custom orders you should just write me an email to janet(at)vecona(dot)de! Besides these special orders I also offer an accessory and jewelry line in my online shop. Besides the VECONA creations I just established a second label together with a friend, it's called VeconaVintage. Our collection for men and women will come out at the end of the year, so watch out and stay curious. :-)

Many thanks to Janet! I am most certainly staying curious ~ here's a little wish that one day she'll bring her brilliant imagination back to the States so I may be astounded by her work in person.

...Read the full interview...

The Sinners' Circus

Sometimes you just have to run away with the circus, you know? Along with co-conspirators klown-fi band GOOFERMAN, the Sisters of Honk, Circus Metropolus, and a whole slew of other moderators of mayhem, my band Baby Seal Club hosted a 3-ring sinfest called the Sinners' Circus at a local brewery last weekend.

Glorious moments were plentiful, but here are a few top ones: seeing my beloved Stache go-go-cage dancing in a vintage band jacket and a Lucha Libre clown mask... joined shortly thereafter by my brother in a bear suit.

The stunning 10-cent Absolution Booth confessional hand-built by one of our dear friends and local mad genius Muir... you confessed your sins into an antique telephone inside, and they were broadcast out to the surrounding crowd.

My beloved band-mates getting theatrical for the Seven Deadly Sins theme... Wizzbang as a gorgeous and aloof Pride, 19 as the avaricious banker Greed, Doc as a terrifyingly wicked Lucifer, Fudo as a powerful preacher named Wrath, and your own Choklit, of course, as the harlot of harmonies ~ Lust.

The brilliance of the wanted posters Stache made for us to put up around town and in the venue... See the full set here.

Amazing performers on both stages, outside and in, including a mesmerizing show by fire-eater Monique, who absolutely embodied an enchanting swamp priestess.

Once again, we pulled off a spectacle of epic proportions - complete with tent revival faith healing, fire-dancers, carnival games, stiltwalkers, jugglers, and an oversized bear. And plenty of klowns, of course.

We worked all day Saturday to transform the venue into a red velvet big-top, performed, stayed up being debaucherous with the clowns until dawn, and tore it all down the next day. More pictures are coming from the fabulous Miss M - check back here.

Ah, sweet ephemeral events... so fleeting. And now we start the planning for the next one!

Aural Goodness

I've been consumed with putting on a circus for the past few weeks ~ which I'll be writing about as soon as I have some good imagery. In the meantime, for your various and sundry entertainment needs, here are a few tidbits of aural goodness from my music world.

Three albums that have been garnering my attention as of late... first, My Maudlin Career, the new offering from the luscious Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura. Not unlike my other favorite Scottish band, they spin a lovely web of stories and sounds.

The shimmering, tambourine-rich, sixties candy-pop sound reminds me of the soundtrack of my early college years ~ that would be Mazzy Star ~ but with a horn section that gives it a more soulful flavor. The singer, Tracyanne Campbell, has an endearingly human voice - not seductive or terribly powerful, but lovely in a vulnerable way. If you're in the mood for perfect pop charm, listen to this.

On another end of the indie spectrum, NYC-based Grizzly Bear has been intriguing me with their much-lauded new album, Veckatimest. The band pushes the boundaries of indie rock with slightly dissonant harmonies and unexpected rhythmic changes, but somehow it all comes together in a surreal and mesmerizing stew of dense textured beauty.

I find myself at a loss for words to describe this album well, and it keeps growing on me. There's nothing simple here; many of the songs disperse and regather like oil on water, moving you from folky chamber-pop to epic wall-of sound rock with ease. But if you have a soft spot for complicated artistry and risk-takers, like I do, you just might fall in love.

The last album on my playlist is Dark Night of the Soul, the phenomenal and mysterious collaboration between renegade producer Danger Mouse and reclusive genius Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse. This project is noteworthy for a variety of reasons - first, their third collaborator was David Lynch, who put together a collection of his photography based on the music. Even more intriguing was the unconventional release ~ because of a legal dispute with industry giant BMI, they were unable to release the album, and instead published the book of Lynch photos packaged with an art-printed but blank recordable CD-R.

Best of all, though, is the music itself, which is dark, lush and surreal, and varies as greatly as the all-star cast of guest vocalists, including James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, and more.

Read more of the story, and hear the whole album, on the NPR web site.

Literate Smut

In my various travels on the Interwebs the past few months, a few enticing morsels of the saucy variety have caught my wandering eye... shall we say, a more discerning brand of erotica.... pretty enough to make me want to feature it here. And this post is oh-so-not-safe-for-work, lovelies ~ especially the links.


The ever-flowing fount of alternative cultural goodness that is Coilhouse first lured me to the sumptuous Web site of Coco De Mer. Founded in London by Sam Roddick, daughter of Body Shop proprietress Anita Roddick, Coco De Mer started as an ethically-sourced high-end erotic toy shop. I found an interview with Sam about how this came to be.


While many well-intentioned feminist-owned sex toy shops tend towards the well-lit and clinical in an effort to make their clientele feel safe, Coco De Mer is dolled up like a Victorian boudoir. There's nothing unsavory about the shop - it appears an oasis of luxurious unabashed sensuality and revels in the range of pleasures of the mind and flesh. The shop has since blossomed into a virtual community, complete with startlingly gorgeous photographs...


...arty explicit short films, user-generated dressing-room images, and an online storefront filled with delightful, if expensive, treats. Longing for a $170 sustainable silk organza blindfold? Or handmade Paul Seville custom leather restraint gauntlets? Coco De Mer provides.


After having my senses thoroughly tickled by my visit to Coco De Mer, I wandered over to Filament, the site of a brand new ladies' magazine out of the UK, on the recommendation of Seattle artist Libby Bulloff. I was intrigued by a line from the editor's note... "We stand at the back of the male strip revue on a hen night, looking past the oiled, muscle-bound hunks, checking out the narrow-hipped lads behind the bar." I ordered the magazine straight away.


I found the publication to have a refreshingly candid air, with blush-inducing stories and alluring photo spreads alongside articles about atheist parenting and alternative history. Creatrix Suraya Sidhu Singh used a Livejournal community to research the female gaze ~ and so the mantra of "what women think is hot" guided her image choices, and common sense guided her content choices. Her promise: no fashion, no diets, no celebrity gossip. What a relief ~ I'll definitely be looking forward to Filament #2.

A little cheeky diversion is always a good thing, in my humble opinion.

Dark Sirene

Every sailor knows there are certain places you just don’t take a ship… mysterious and gloomy corners of the earth where one cannot predict the wickedness one might encounter. And every sailor knows that if you have the misfortune of finding such a corner – and if you hear the dulcet tones of a certain kind of voice - you are forever doomed to a watery fate, for you will fall in love with a siren from the deep.


Sitting on her rock, she waits, always singing her ancient song, always searching - her glistening salty skin and beckoning turquoise eyes both an offer and a warning to those who will listen. I'm ever so pleased to share my first new design listing in ages ~ Sirene.

Absolutely luminous model photography is by Lex Machina. If you'll recall, I've been giddy with anticipation about this collaboration, and I'm delighted and thrilled with the results. Lexie did all the styling and makeup artistry as well. Go give Lexie and this image some love on Flickr, and visit the model, Elise XY, on Model Mayhem.

You can find the listing for the cuffs here on Etsy, and I'll be posting the necklace and earrings as soon as a few more pictures come in - Lexie captured dozens of breathtaking images, and is currently working her magic on them.


Lure them in with the Sirene adornments.

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!

Le Scaphandrier ~ The Giant Diver

I'm thoroughly enraptured by the work of French performance art and puppetry troupe Royal de Luxe. Their May 2006 performance in London, The Sultan's Elephant, was nothing short of genius ~ I can't even imagine the glory of being in attendance at the event, which included a little girl Giantess, a wooden rocket-ship, and a 50-ton mechanical elephant.

Photo by cocobeloeil
And now I've just heard that they've done it again... Writer R.J. Evans posted a blog about a new performance that took place starting June 6th in Nantes ~ the birthplace of Jules Verne ~ that involved a giant deep-sea diver, Le Scaphandrier in French.

Photo by chilirv
I've always been a lover of puppets and marionettes, so to see a 30-foot-tall diver hauled out of the water by a team of frock-coated puppeteers, and then sent out adventuring, just blisses me out.

Photo by Stéfan Le Dû
And there's a beautiful and complex mythology, too, for these amazingly emotive characters, that's been unfolding around Europe for years in various performances - about how the Diver is searching for his niece the Little Giantess, a character from the Sultan's Elephant performance. With the help of Google's nifty translation engine, you can read more about the back-story on Stéfan Le Dû's blog.

Photo by Stéfan Le Dû
The company is rather mysterious and rarely releases information before a performance, adding to the intrigue. But you can find some jaw-dropping YouTube videos, along with a Flickr pool filled with lovely images from the performance.

Photo by Stéfan Le Dû
It's one of those things that makes me happy to be alive, that there are people out there creating such things. We humans may be making war, and reality TV shows, but we're also making street spectacles with grand mechanical creatures, simply for the sake of wonder and magic and art.

Photo ©2009 by Stéphane Lerouge ~ Nantes
Also keep an eye out for the off-shoot company of brilliant fabricators La Machine. They built the original sultan's elephant, and they were also the ones who sent a massive wooden and steel mechanical spider called La Princesse marauding around Liverpool in a post-apocalyptic frenzy, to the delight of onlookers, for week in September 2008 before moving on to Yokohama.

Photo ©2009 by Charlie Charlton
La Machine also built the permanent exhibition Machines of the Isle of Nantes at its workshop, which is open to the public, features the elephant giving rides, and includes a mechanical squid.


Glorious. Simply glorious.

Love at the Maker Faire

You may have noticed my conspicuous absence in the last week or two... I have not been negligent, dear readers, but in a frenzy of activity ending in last weekend's glorious Maker Faire. This post will be doubly long to make up for it!

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
I was vending my Adornments for Tarts as part of the Steam Team, in the Carnivale Mechanique area of the Faire. The crowds, the wind, and the long days not-withstanding, my experience at the Faire was incredible. I'm still exhausted, but it was worth it, to be part of the single most concentrated gathering of creative, gorgeous, and debaucherous mad-people short of Burning Man.

Photo by Bonnie Burton
Being delighted by some of my beloved Etsy Steam Teamers for the first time in the flesh - TotusMel, AlliesAdornments, and Clockwork Crow - and reuniting with old friends - Nullalux, Industrial Fairytale, Tom Banwell, and 19Moons - was glorious, though admittedly we were so busy we hardly had time for chatting... Nullalux in particular was juggling like mad to take care of all the mail-in items.

Photo by Pip R. Lagenta
I was really excited to see everyone's work in person, particularly Tom's Pachydermos Gas Mask.

Photo by Bonnie Burton
The weekend was filled with those kinds of magical peak moments that happen when you're in bliss... Drinking Irish coffee in the shadow of the Neverwas Haul with her brave and tireless crew, and then careening about on the little trolley...

Photo by Jake Von Slatt
Following the Golden Mean Snail Car and her brilliant gang of vagabonds from bar to bar in the sleepy suburban town, in full costume, confusing and delighting the locals...

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
Meeting some of my brilliant friends from the Interwebs in the flesh, most notably Molly "Porkshanks" Friedrich in her showstopping costumes...

Photo by Rich Dahlgren
...the resplendent Libby Bulloff, whose outfit on Sunday nearly made my heart explode with joy... shown here with Qais Fulton of Ectomo fame, who I failed entirely to meet...

Photo by David Dowling
...a beaming Tom Sepe and his splendid Whirlygig Emoto...

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
...and beautiful Theremina of Coilhouse ~ who stole my heart and serenaded the crowd with her antique Stroh violin, perched atop the Hennepin Crawler... she played violin for the beautiful dancers of Deshret, as well.

Photo by Jake Von Slatt
Another giddy moment was having my portrait drawn by the talented and sparklingly beautiful Suzanne Forbes...

Original Art by Suzanne Forbes
And of course, watching my beloved Krank-Boom-Clank boys ride through the hordes of people on the Crawler, getting cheers everywhere they went.

Photo by Shel and Nate
And amidst all that madness, I still found time for drinking beer with the Boiler Bar crew under the propane glow of art by the Flaming Lotus Girls...

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
And not to forget kissin' on my beloved Stache.

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
Beautiful new friends and treasured longtime ones, your creativity and passion filled my heart to the brim this weekend. I fell in love all over again with the ragtag band of tinkerers, costumers, musicians, artists, and freaks that I call my community. This is a love letter dedicated to YOU.