The 3 polen graces...

Following my "insect-inspired" phase I-m going through at the minute....It's spring!, I created more jewellery featuring bugs.
I hope you are going to like the next item, I made it weeks ago, with antique brass chain and I dissmantled and rebuilt with czech glass in metallic hues. The main focus of the necklace is the 3 graces, as I like to call them. They are bees! I made them with black polymer clay and then I dusted them with gold powder to recreate the brass effect of the chain and also I like them to have that distressed look as well, very typical of vintage items, so as you may be able to see, the surface is not sleek but slightly textured. The czech glass are beautiful! Incredibly shiny but being such shiny colours it is always tricky to capture them by camera, so the best picture that shows them came out blurred. Sorry...
What do you think?
Oh by the way, I re-opened my etsy shop (I'll still have my website, though). In the next following weeks I'll try to populate it with my polymer clay jewellery as well as the romantic brass stuff I make.
Do you usually buy stuff on Etsy? I haven't bought anything yet...
Here is the link: http://www.theblackwardrobe.com/Shop/product.php/32/vintage_inspired_3_bees_necklace

Victorian Gothic literature - "The Grave - A Poem"

I came across this beautiful blog (Graphicsfairy) through another very inspiring blog called jasminstudiocrafts. If you are an artist/designer who works with mixed media, it is always very grateful to find people who collect amazing stuff and don't mind to share it for free. I have seen people on places like for example etsy, charging for images that
a. have not been manipulated or "worked" by themselves
...and B. they are clearly free and copyright-free because I had already seen them somewhere else before.
Anyway, among beautiful "halloween" and lots of other victorian pictures, engravings and illustrations. The following two got my attention.
They belong to a book published in London in 1808. Titled "The Grave, a poem", it features pictures depicting dead bodies with their respective souls. The one below, it says:
"The soul hovering over the body reluctantly parting with life...how wishfully she looks on all she's leaving, now no longer her's"
I have to point out that the cover of the book has been slightly "photoshop-ed" by the the blogger (She covered the genitals of the man with a leaf, as he was completely naked in the original cover) I don't mind her doing that but I have to say, I find that strange, very un-typical of victorian times actually, as they used to cover anything they could....
I wonder how many celtic carvings have been sabotaged in the name of "modesty"!.

Have a look at these two blogs, they deserve a visit.
http://jasminstudiocrafts.blogspot.com/
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

New items! "Bee brooches"

Hello! I have posted lots of new items on my website (and more are coming soon as soon as I finish them and take the photos) so I will be posting them on the blog in the following weeks.
First, I want to start with my bee-shaped jewellery, specially after my post about insects. My beautiful spiders have always been very popular so I always intended to grow my insect range to more beautiful insects such as beetles, ladybirds, and bees! I soon want to start to make beetles as well... I just need to find those glorious metallic powders I have in my mind....

My beautiful bees are made in the same way as muy spiders, from scratch, without the hlep of moulds. I shape the polymer clay and before it gets fired, I embellish it with rhinestones, laces, powders..etc. These bees have taken more work to do than the spiders as I have space out the different layers of embellishment. The lacey wings have been applied in a second round of firing, so have the stripes and my varnish always goes through a round of fire in order to enhance its gloss.
There are some few more pics on my website, let me know what you think. Which one do you like the best, by the way?
So far, people have loved the plain black and gold (4th on the pic). I love the one completely covered in rhinestones. I just can't resist bling...specially against a black background!
http://www.theblackwardrobe.com/Shop/section.php/8/1/brooches

My Versatile Blogger Award

And the award for "Most Versatile Blogger Award" goes to.....me!
I want to thank Blanca from Madame Macabre for the award! It is always nice to receive a compliment, either being a comment or an award! Madame Macabre won the award herself too, if you speak spanish, you'd love her blog, full of fashion tips, reviews and anything that is gothic related.
Keeping up with "the tradition" or "the game" (lol) I have decided to "transfer" my award to another blog I follow and in my opinion, is very versatile, "House of Harps". I hope she'll be pleased.

madamemacabre.blogspot.com
houseofharps.blogspot.com

How to take measurements

When shopping online is very important to understand the sizing charts as well as the fit of the garments as it is not possible to try it on before the purchase. After years of working in retail, I am still amazed that there are people who are still unsure about how to take measurements and where!
For this reason, I have decided to write a post about it, based on the way I was trained to take measurements, in my fashion degree and my designs, as most of them are fitted garments, designed to achieve that gorgeous hourglass shape.
I always recommend to take measurements wearing a bra and a fitted cotton t-shirt (I'll explain that below).

BUST
Measure loosely around the fullest part of your bust, that means placing the tape over the nipples, keeping the tape measure straight all the way around your body. Always allow a spare ccntimetre of ease as you'll need that extra space when wearing a fitted top or blouse. There is nothing more unaesthetic than wearing a blouse with your bra peeking between the buttons' gaps.
WAIST
This is the trickiest one. The waist is the narrowest part of your torax. If you look carefully at your figure, you'll see that your body is slightly straight below your bust, it goes in and then it goes back out gradually to its fullness around the hips. The narrowest part or natural waist, is usually just above the belly-button. You should place the measuring tape on here and again, allow 1 centimetre or 1and half for ease.
All my garments are designed to sit on the waist, which for some people it might be referred as "high-waisted".
HIPS
Hips are the wider part of your bottom half. It is the place where your jeans get stuck when trying to put them on. :)
It is roughly around 23-25cms below the waist line (remember, just above the belly-button).


For the next two measurements it is important to wear a cotton t-shirt as these measurements are taken from the shoulder and wearing a t-shirt makes it easier to know where to place the tape.
DRESS LENGTH
The length of the garment can be measured two ways: from the centre of your back neck or the most reliable, in my opinion, from the shoulder. So, place the tape on the shoulder seam of your t-shirt, ALWAYS FROM THE BACK OF YOUR BODY. If you place the tape at the front, you'll add unnecessary centimetres due to the volume of the bust being on the way.

SLEEVE LENGTH
The best way to take this measurement is placing the tape on the top of your shoulder bone or when wearing a t-shirt, the end of your should seam because this is where your arm starts. So do not include shoulder in the measurement. Bending the arm slightly (as shown in the picture) when placing the tape along your arm (you need that extra inch when folding or moving your arms, otherwise your wrists will be exposed.)


SLEEVES
There are 4 main sleeve-lengths and these might look different on each person because not everyone has the same arm lengths. However, by understanding where each style is meant to sit, I think it will help to understand the fit of the garment and therefore have the item altered, adjusted or modified to the body shape or personal preferences.

Cap sleeves are meant to sit on the shoulder, leaving most of the upper half of the arm exposed. They are roughly 2 inches wide.
Short sleeves are meant to sit just above the bust area or at the same level as the widest part of the bust, covering 50% of the upper half of the arm.
3/4 sleeves are meant to sit just below the elbow, which is where the natural waist sits. These sleeves are very flattering because they help to create the optical effect of a smaller waist. That's why they were so popular back in the 50s. If you have long arms, these sleeves will most likely sit just above the elbow, which is a very attractive fit too.

BOTTOM LENGTHS
Bottom lengths are taken from the waistline (remember, just above belly-button, the narrowest part of your upper body). My garments are designed to finish in three main lengths:
Knee length: meant to sit just above the knee or on it.
Over-knee length: meant to cover the knee and sit on the calf.
Floor length or maxi: meant to cover the whole leg until reaching the toes or the floor, depending on the design.
I recommend to take these measurements on the front of the body, not the side or the back as these areas are curvaceous.

Cute kitten shoes

Aren't they cute?
They are velvet platform shoes with a embroidered cat face on them. A came across this picture on the Fashionising.com website.
It was taken in Paris, some fashionista was wearing them in the street.
No one seems to know who is the genius who designed it. If it was a bag, I would have automatically thought LouLou Guinness, but she doesn't make shoes and I am not that clued in shoe-designers, sorry...

Insect jewellery by Robin Charlotte

RobinCharlotte jewellery is about decay and preservation of natural creatures including birds' skeletons, insects and sea creatures. All set in resin, beautifully decorated with vintage findings, stones and metals.

The artist is an L.A. based designer called Robin Humphrey, whose beautifully dark work is been featured in several magazine including Vogue.

Following my previous post about insects, I thought it would appropiate to post a couple of pics of her work. I really liked it as soon as I saw it.

I love the idea of insects trapped in a beautiful golden bubble of amber or captured in the depths of a romantic faceted clear stone. And, as I said in the previous post, some insects are beautiful enough to be preserved in a unique piece of jewellery and be admired for a while...

Here is the link to her website, she also has an etsy shop.
http://www.robincharlotte.com

Insects...

I assume this must be a gothic thing, because not everyone shares the same passion for them. Although they have always been an interesting source of creative inspiration, specially in fashion.
I am talking about insects.
I find them incredibly unique, special, interesting and some of them even absolutely beautiful.

My main favourites are spiders (you should already know if you follow me ;), butterflies, ladybirds (or ladybugs as known across the Atlantic) and beetles. But, since a beautiful fluffy bee died in my house a couple of years ago, I include bees as well.



Spiders are my main passion because of their incredibly vintage inspired shape (very feminine with their tiny waist, big rounded bum and slender and incredibly long legs), because of this, I think that's why they have that characteristic very unique to them, sexy way of moving, in a very silent way, to the dark corners of my rooms. (My house is infested with them, good proof that I have a very good central heating system).







Beetles are my other favourite because of the stunning metallic shades of their shells. Incredibly shinny, the colours really gets your attention, including the black ones too.
It has always been associated with old egyptian religion, being their most important religious symbol. Every single different one represents a different thing.



Ladybirds are just cute. That shiny, vibrant scarlet red colour just pops out from the green grass like a gem, and the english name is so adorable. A lady-bird....how cute.
This very cute coloured beetles are an omen of good luck.

Bees are fantastic, I hadn't noticed them till I came to England. In spain, they are long and slender. In Britain, however, it is a different story. They are beautifully rounded, big, noisy due to those powerful big wings and so so fluffly! One fell on her back inside my house. (No idea how it came in, I usually leave the windows close to avoid flies from coming in, hate them...). I didn't touch her. The next morning I picked her up. It was like touching a piece of fur. Those bright yellow and black "hairs" were, very long, so soft and fluffy and so dry!
I should had kept it in a jar. Never mind... They are such an inspiration that I made a couple of brooches, like the spider ones, remember?
I-ll post the pictures as soon as I can.

Elizabeth Taylor, R.I.P

One for the Dita's fans

Sorry for the lack of posting, time flyes and I don't notice. If I carry on like this I might wake up one day with grey hair!! Anyway, nothing has caught my attention so far...apart from the winter collections (love 'em!) and the nazi/Galliano rant, which I am still shocked about...
I came across this article about Dita's home which I thought you might be interested in. It was in an american issue of InStyle magazine. I-ve picked the most stunning pics, if you want to see more and even zoom in! to read the articles (it includes personal cooking recipes as well as tips to shop for vintage at flea markets), please check it on its original format: TheSwingFashionista blog.

http://www.swingfashionista.com/2011/01/dita-von-teese-at-home-in-instyle-magazine-february-2011/

One for the (retro) boys

I came across this post through a google search. "The Husband: the american gentry", is a book for all gents out there who want to know about old fashion etiquette.
Its full title is The American Gentry, The Handbook of Class and Distinction of the Modern Day Gentleman.
It will be on my St Valentine's hot-list. He loves Mad Men....

Gothic+Vintage millinery

Happy new year and happy new decade! Sorry I haven't been posted, quite busy during christmas and still in the process of working out what I will be making for the next season. But before I spill anything I thought it would be nice to keep you posted with anything dark/vintage related that catches my attention.
I came through this artist via the AnotherMag newsletter. As soon as I read the fist lines of the article, I fell in love with her. She's a milliner (and artist/designer in other disciplines too) who is obssessed with Vintage and the Dark and! she is friends with an icon of this blog, Dita VT.
Here is the article:

At 5ft 6in in dainty heels, vintage furs, a vivid smudge of red lipstick across her alabaster complexion and hair upswept into a silk scarf; Stephen Jones’ head of atelier, Adele Mildred is a vision that harks back to a more glamorous era. “I’m obsessed with vintage films and glamour so I try to live it,” agrees Mildred over tea in the appropriately genteel surroundings of the Covent Garden Hotel, “I like the silent films from the 1920s and 1940s. I think everything started going downhill in the '60s — those damn miniskirts and go-go boots! I feel people don’t dress as carefully as they should be and I make sure I set time aside.”

She started as a fashion designer and then branched out to do paintings, costumes and then millinery by incorporotaing herself into Stephen Jones' team. Needless to say, her work is darkly beautiful. Very similar to the very dark stuff that McQueen did in his very early collections.

www.adelemildred.com