Coming Soon: Victorian Candystripe open hoop skirt Redux..

Geez, I never thought that I would ever get to the point where I could call one of my outfits a “classic”, but I guess my Candystripe open-hoop skirt creation would qualify as one of them.

Shot in London in 1999, yep, I've an exhibitionist, and I'm not afraid to show it. Helps if you're in another country though...

I made this outfit way back in 1998, and did shoots in ’98, ’99 and late 01 with it, and though the last shoot I wore this in came out very nice indeed (they were all shot on a medium format camera), there’s just something missing…

no, no, not that.. It's still missing something else..

Hmm.. what could it be.. Aha, big boobies!  Yes. I haven’t shot with this outfit since I had my breast implants done in January 2002!  If there’s a costume long overdue to be seen again, it’s this one.

This corset was -I think- roughly the 3rd or 4th corset I ever made.  It’s not even boned with anything even resembling proper boning.  I was scavenging whatever I could at the time and truth be told, this corset is mostly boned with coat hanger wire! (“No more wire hangers!!!”)

And as it turns out, I never even properly finished this outfit.  Notice that on the hoop skirt that there aren’t enough bows as there should be one at every interscetion.. ( I’ve already removed the bottom layer as it was filthy from all the clubbing and will be totally re-made)  Plus I guess I ran out of the pink ribbon too as it never went all the way around. So this time at the very least I finish up the hoopskirt, probably add better trim all around and fix the places where the wires are poking out..

But how to fix this all while staying true to my original design?  Well, I sifted through my pile of drawings (which number in the thousands and if I can ever organize them, could be a website in themselves, or at the very least a nice big website update) and found some of the original designs for this outfit, circa October 1998

original design for candystripe outfit, oct 1998

Now I’m not sure if I’ll do the puffy sleeves (or if that’s even possible as it seems they might have to defy gravity), but I will get the proper amount bows on this, and some nice trim and some new material if I can match that cranberry colored satin (good luck there!!).  I don’t want to change this too much so that it becomes a totally new outfit, just bring it to it’s original vision.  When I started out as a fetish clothing designer in the mid-to late 1990’s I was very much in a Victorian/Bustle period vein, something I still do and I’m happy to say that even if I didn’t identify myself as “Steampunk”, I was thinking along those lines 12-15 years ago..  except with the special added naughtyness of open crotches and exposed breasts.. Ah.. if only Victorian times were really like that...

I wish I dated these drawings, but I'm guessing '96 or '97 since that's when I made the Victorian dress on the left

Oh my!  Prim and Proper and let’s see,  a girl in a Victorian bustle dress teasing another girl chained up wearing a lushly fur-trimmed open breast corset with a feather.. Yum..  As you can see, I have had a healthy fantasy life. If you’ve ever wondered where my designs come from, they usually start out as some sort of dirty doodle.

Come to think of it, I could make a whole book out of these drawings.  Perhaps I will.  Either I will clean up the old ones or use them as sketches for ink-and photoshopped final versions.   But anyway, back to my outfit.  I’m pulling it apart now, realizing how awful my stitching was back in those days, and can’t wait to bring it up to a higher standard and give it the shoot it truly deserves.  Without changing too much, I was thinking along these lines…

So here’s today’s sketch of how I’d re-imagine this outfit.  Basically the same.  But naughtier!   Much, much naughtier.

Tara