Mary again brought more paper dolls to VTDL last month, and I only got around to processing the pics today. Below…more fashions clearly designed by people who were having fun exaggerating the traits of current trends. Continue reading Paper dolls from VTDL part II — late Sixties and early Seventies styles!
Posts tagged signature style
Outfits for Jo and Carol — inspired by 1970s paper dolls
I’m making 1:6 scale versions of two of my favorite Doctor Who characters, Jo Grant and Carol Bell. In my universe, they’re a couple who end up flying around time and space, notable for embodying the groovy spirit of the Seventies, whatever that is. They play to people’s expectations by rotating through endless closets of flamboyant period clothes. This is all hilarious because neither of them are fashionable…or they weren’t when they lived in the 1970s. But now they’re totally groovy!!
I went through the paper dolls that I saw at the last VTDL meetup and selected outfits that I thought would work for Jo and Carol.
Continue reading Outfits for Jo and Carol — inspired by 1970s paper dolls
Paper dolls from VTDL — the glory of the Seventies!!
Mary brought hundreds of pages of paper dolls to the VTDL meetup earlier this month, but I just processed the pictures tonight. All of them capture the bright colors and enthusiasm for prints characteristic of 1971. And they were all so playful and exuberant that I couldn’t select a few favorites. All the [crappy] photos are below the cut. Continue reading Paper dolls from VTDL — the glory of the Seventies!!
All this stuff is the absolute shit, and Jareth would wear most of it.
Nicolas Jebran’s fall 2017 collection features strategic use of multicolored embroidery, holes, partial transparency, high necklines/short skirts, and voluminous tails of fabric to create an elegant, opulent look that seems to cover most of the body while also revealing it. O_O
Dia de los Muertos mermaid or what?
I have come across an utterly cool embroidered patch of a purple-grey skeletal mermaid writhing around an anchor. I really really really want one, but all the marketing I have found for this patch associates it with Dia de los Muertos. Despite the recent fashion trend for appropriating sugar skulls and other trappings of the Dia, I refuse to co-opt the holiday’s imagery for my own use.
However, I remain uncertain about this mermaid. Does she represent actual Dia tradition? Or are all the advertisers of her jumping on the sugar skull trend and using keyword spam? More research is needed. Either way, I really wish this trend would fuck off so I can find colorful, skull-embellished things without the risk of committing cultural appropriation.
Damn, Jareth. Just…damn.
Sometimes I find things in the Daz catalog that translate with little alteration into Jareth’s aesthetic. Case in point below. Continue reading Damn, Jareth. Just…damn.
Pete Burns est mort.
57. Cardiac arrest. My heart goes crack crack crack crack…
The Guardian’s obit says the following:
Burns became famous for his androgynous style and his progressive approach to gender. He often wore women’s clothes and, speaking to the Guardian in 2007, said: “Everyone’s in drag of some sorts, I don’t give a fuck about gender and drag. I’m not trying to be a girl by putting on a dress – gender is separated by fabric. I was brought up with an incredible amount of freedom and creativity. Society has put certain constraints on things.”
I find this quote curious because it’s not quite true. He evidently gave a whole bunch of fucks about gender…or at least his, since he defined his own and performed it with great joy, consistency, and relish until the day he died. More precisely, I think he didn’t care for the inevitable labels [crossdresser, drag queen, transsexual, f****t, etc.] that I’m sure accompanied public notice of his gender. I think this quote is more about him saying, “Y’all are so hung up on what I am or am not. You think I’m some weird deviant pervert. Well, I’m me, and you’re the weird deviant perverts for being so obsessed about it.”
Also The Guardian’s comment that he “often wore women’s clothes” doesn’t make any sense either. Reminds me of the Gender Aptitude Test in Kate Bornstein’s Gender Workbook. One of the questions was as follows:
Have you ever worn the clothes of “the opposite sex?”
a. Hey, give me a break. No way!
b. Yes, but when I wear them, they’re for the right sex.
c. What sex in the world would by opposite of me?
d. Several of the above.
I think D would apply to Pete here.
P.S. The Gender Aptitude Test has lots of entertaining answer choices, but I especially like this one:
Which of the following statements most nearly describes your feelings about gender?
a. My what about gender?
b. I guess my feelings range anywhere from anger and frustration to happiness and exhilaration.
c. Gender confuses me. I don’t know why it is the way it is.
d. I feel… I feel… I feel a song coming on!
Makeup = paint!
No one ever taught me how to use makeup. I therefore have always approached it as FACE PAINT. I don’t believe in makeup that idealizes one’s features subtly and does not advertise its presence. I believe in makeup that screams, “Look at me — I’m paint for your skin! Look at my nifty colors and specularities and textures and special effects! Aren’t I awesome?!” I also believe that, as long as you’re painting your face, you should put paint all over it. None of this dusting of eyeshadow and slash of lipstick business; I want layers. I want lipstick and lip liner and lip gloss and lip sealant [which, if it doesn’t exist, should] AND foundation and blush for the highlights and blush for the lowlights AND mascara and eyeliner and eyeshadow AND eyebrow pencil. Show off the PAINT!
NB: I also don’t use makeup on myself. I seem to really like designing it for my characters, however.
I have a sewing machine! I can do this!
Instructables instructions on how to make a clip-on tie.
These do not seem to take much fabric, so they would be a perfect use of some of those meretricious pieces of fabric that I got for Isabel’s shirts and have not yet used.
Obviously I need to make clip-on ties with all my skull fabric [especially the flowery skulls!], my spiderweb fabric, and possibly my graveyard fabric. Those will definitely look business professional. :p
Time for new work clothes…
If I could afford to replace my entire wardrobe at once, which I can’t, I would probably get a bunch of the following: dress shirts, clip-on ties, vests, and pants. Ideally all the pants would be in tan, navy blue, black, and all the shirts would be in loud solids, like magenta, bubblegum pink, blood orange, carmine red, that sort of thing. If I could find a source for loud dress shirts for people with breasts, that would be a start…
EDIT: Someplace like this, Six Star Apparel and Uniforms, might satisfy my need for dress shirts and vests for people with breasts. Prices look reasonable too, and they even have plus sizes! Hmmm…
EDIT 2: Oooooh, I’ve just discovered Six Star’s mother lode of tacky, affordable vests!!!!!
Basic black! …And with a triangular pattern because it looks cooler!
Shiny gold floral with notched collar!
Dark red jacquard “symphony vest,” whatever that is!
Simple vest that comes in a variety of more and less obnoxious colors!
And my favorite, shiny purple stripes and polka dots!
Also dress shirts in a variety of colors!
Cakeland!!!!
If you put a gingerbread house, the feast scene in Pan’s Labyrinth, and any sort of Barbie furniture sets made by Mattel into a blender, something like like Scott Hove’s Cakeland would emerge. It’s a dizzyingly bright and confusing milieu of artificial sweets, flounced and swagged with endless curlicues of fake frosting. It’s — sniff! — so beautiful! This is definitely my aesthetic, though I feel that there need to be more skulls [human and avian] and switchblades.
P.S. That chandelier is making me HUNGRY!
Thalia, latest exemplar of my signature style
My signature style takes inspiration from gesture drawings and caricature. Gesture drawings reveal a quick, loose line that nevertheless finds a strong, organic flow. I like to capture this rough, sketchy, open-ended, expressive quality in my paint jobs. In other words, they’re messy. :p
I also, as I have repeatedly noted, take design cues from caricature, in which salient features are exaggerated to the point of ostentatiousness. Limited palettes with bright colors appeal to me. The darks need to be darker, the lights lighter, the sheens shinier. MORE IS BETTER.
Finally, my signature style has a sarcastic, silly sense of humor. While I seriously like the “more is better” concept, I also find it hilarious. The sheer weight and boldness of Sardonix’ indelible eyebrows amuse me. Yamarrah’s ice cream earrings, ice cream sweatshirt, and creemee props become even more entertaining when I juxtapose them with her flaming eyebrows, head-on-fire wig, and speed-flame shoes. The clothes I commissioned for Jareth, with their indiscriminate proliferation of layers, ruffles, textures, and gradations of the same color, take coordination [or lack thereof] to a laughable extreme. Thalia’s morbid Gothic skullface makeup and phalanges tattoos on her hands become a source of comedy when paired with her flowery skull shirt and skull-and-crossbones loafers. Bold, messy overkill is a gas.
And here are some pictures of Thalia’s faceup in progress, illustrating exactly what I mean. I wonder if she should have eyes that match her tongue in color…Continue reading Thalia, latest exemplar of my signature style
Lana Wachowski has hair like Anneka’s!
Her vibrant pink, knotty hair looks like the 1:1 equivalent of my 1:6 scale action figure Anneka’s. As cool as I find the color of Wachowski’s hair, I seriously query her white woman’s appropriation of dreadlocks. >_>
This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1670820.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.
Awesome hair with integrated cornrows and bows [made of hair]!
Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!
This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1665190.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.
Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz
I just found a cool new podcast, 99% Invisible, and kicked off my listening with the ep "Feet of Engineering," all about high-heeled shoes.
Oh look — Weird Al made a parody about my signature style!
The clothes, not the rude behaviors. 😀
See here.
All of those outfits are RAD!
This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1655402.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.
If only putting on real makeup were this easy…
…then I’d be about as happy as Jareth is now.
Continue reading If only putting on real makeup were this easy…
Leg-o’-mutton sleeves! Feathered cape! Dramatic swoopy skirts!
The new Dragon Keeper for V4 outfit hits all my aesthetic buttons. Well, except for pinkness and sparklitude, but I can add those. The feathered cape looks like the larger sibling of AprilYSH’s Calais Ruff, seen below looking fabulous on my standard model:
Continue reading Leg-o’-mutton sleeves! Feathered cape! Dramatic swoopy skirts!
I’ll take this in 1:3 scale please.
The outfit, not the dude, as much as I think he’s hot. My Jareth doll would rock these duds.
This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1619296.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.
The Excessive school of decoration
This is how Jareth thinks:
If pink hair is good, fluorescent pink hair is better!
If two leather collars are good, two leather collars and a locking bolero/pauldron thing with chains and dangly accents is better!
If calf-high platform heels are good, knee-high platform stiletto heels are better!
If a black cape is good, a sparkly black cape is better!
[P.S. I’m not really sure what’s up with the glasses, but he seems pretty attached to them. :p ]
Behold him below in more clothes created by the inimitable, fastidious and brilliant Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions:
1:6 scale examples of my signature style
I approve of this outfit.
139%!!
Definitely something Will would wear.
I want this in 1:6.
This, right here. Reminds me of Zinnia Pascale.
So delicately sculpted, so poorly constructed
So I got a 12″ Character Options Martha Jones doll in a trade from corsetkitten today. She has a marvelously molded face with a welcoming, neutral expression, a simplified and realistic paint job and a passable likeness to Freema Agyeman. Actually, the doll has a longer, wider face with larger, less classically beautiful features than the person it’s supposed to represent. I think that only adds to her realism, however. Furthermore, her hands are small, proportionate and intricately sculpted in useful relaxed positions, including the character’s jewelry. I love her face and her hands.
I really hate the cheap, poorly constructed body, though. It completely lacks aesthetic appeal. The upper arms and upper thighs are not perfectly cylindrical, so any use of the swivel joints shows how the upper and lower parts of the limb do not perfectly mesh. Furthermore, the double-ganged knees and elbows have horrible notches at the tops and bottoms, making the bent limbs look unrealistic and hideous. In fact, I have no idea why the Dr. Who dolls have double-ganged limbs because, unlike other double-ganged limbs with better joint designs [e.g., Obitsu, CG, DML…heck, pretty much anything], the double joints actually add nothing to the poseability. You can’t see the nasty articulation under her clothes, but trust me…you don’t want to.
Anyway, may I now present the latest character in LHF? I don’t know who she is, but she’s certainly not Martha Jones or even Alicia Simms [who I had originally planned to enplasticate with this fig]. She isn’t even finished because she lacks Pink Hair of Awesomeness. However, she is quite adamant that her FQ [Fabulosity Quotient] is astronomical already!
She’s wearing a dress by Andrea, stockings from a BBI Goth Angel, shoes from a Mattel My Scene horror and a 1:1 stained glass earring dangling in her cleavage. Believe it or not — I actually spend quite a bit of time deciding how to dress my characters in the LHF style [whatever that is]. Continue reading So delicately sculpted, so poorly constructed
Will’s lack of fashion sense in 1:3
I have learned from my survey that clothes for male dolls, just like mainstream clothes for male people, tends to be boring and conservative. According to most designers, black is about as edgy as it gets.
CheeryDoll white ruffled transparent blouse, black leather vest with corset back, black leather pants $152.00
CheeryDoll collared floral orange shirt with detachable sleeves $17.00
Iplehouse weird brown floral long-sleeved button-up shirt $24.20
Iplehouse black net shirt $30.80
Iplehouse baggy black jeans $55.00
Iplehouse black baggy zippered cargo pants $57.50
Iplehouse black leather jacket, pants and hat with many belts and ties $160.00
And some stuff from DollMore, which I can’t order, but which may provide ideas:
DollMore wrap long pants
DollMore black shirt with bell sleeves
DollMore leather trench
DollMore black leather tank top
DollMore basic black tank
Other:
jessicadolls high-heeled boots in many colors, fit uncertain
Dollovely wine broomstick skirt $10.00
Dollovely aqua lace crop top $25.00
Hot pink suede lace-up pants [for 45cm dolls]
Red silk blouse [for 45cm dolls]
Dollovely three-toned pink broomstick skirt for Model Doll girls $25.00
Lycra dress [for skirt inspiration]
Simple tank top [for midriff shirt inspiration] $15.00
Fuschia peasant dress [for blouse and skirt inspiration] $65.00
Ideal purchases:
red, orange or pink lace crop top in the style of Dollovely aqua lace crop top
black bellbottoms in the style of Hot pink suede lace-up pants [for 45cm dolls]
silk blouse [color not important] in the style of Red silk blouse [for 45cm dolls]
black tank in the style of Simple tank top [for midriff shirt inspiration]
Dollovely three-toned pink broomstick skirt for Model Doll girls $25.00
Will’s [complete and utter lack of] fashion sense
A quick survey of LHF reveals the following instances:
Hair
pink with bangs
brown with bangs
pink spikes
white spikes
orange spikes
red spikes
Tops
tank with vertical pastel stripes
lime green muscle shirt with lavender trim
transparent pink paisley midriff top with bell sleeves
baggy black tank
white mesh short-sleeved top
black mesh long-sleeved midriff shirt
transparent pink diamond printed midriff top with 3/4 sleeves
olive drab muscle shirt
one-strap violently pink midriff tank
white short-sleeved pinstripe button-up shirt
black T-shirt
black leather corset
Jackets
sleeveless black pleather trench
black pinstripe blazer
black leather trench
leopard print long coat
Bottoms
silver low-riding bell-bottoms
brown low-riding curdoroy bell-bottoms
dusty rose low-riding stretch bell-bottoms
purple pleather pants with pink and gold flames
denim surfer shorts
black pleather hot pants
burgundy leather pants with white racing stripes
red, white and black camo bell-bottoms
olive drab cargo pants
wide-legged blue denim skater jeans with patches
grey nylon gym pants
pink miniskirt
tan shorts
Accessories
multiple golden bangle bracelets
black fishnet arm warmers
violently hot pink arm warmers
pink paisley sash
black leather belt
black fishnets
Shoes
black platform high-heeled Mary Janes
gold high-heeled boots
black calf-high high-heeled leather boots
red thigh-high high-heeled vinyl boots
black leather boots
Gear
plastic fuschia camera bag with shoulder strap
lavender cell phone
Other
Frank N. Furter costume
Wow, this survey makes my brain hurt. Will clearly favors red and black, although he’s very partial to shades of pink and green as well. He has a frightening affinity for midriff-baring, transparent shirts, as well as an affinity for bellbottoms, especially when paired with the midriff-baring, transparent shirts. Since he likes trench coats, wide legs and bell sleeves in general, I assume he likes clothes that move loosely and dramatically. [I can just see him as a wizard practicing his robe-swirling maneuvers.] If I had gone any further in the story, I would have had to find some loose, long, light skirts for him. Anyway, it’s absolutely impossible to miss him when he walks by, what with the brain-hurting clothes and the racket made by his high heels and his bracelets. What a fun character to make a doll of!
Do not harass the characters.
Those of you who follow (un)real life know that Will used to be a dandy when he was alive [about 100 years ago]. Though no longer a slave to fashion, he still cares about style in some idiosyncratic way, which is why this situation would severely bother him. Continue reading Do not harass the characters.