Cracknutter - emiliacouture commission piece

The idea for this piece started out as a beefeater uniform combined with a tutu in colour of purple and acid green. The working title was a "Beefeater on Acid", but the uniform evolved more into British palace guard, very classic Nutcracker ballet tin soldier look, hence the name "Cracknutter". ;)

The OOAK outfit consists of numerous mix and match items: an acid green tutu of finest silk chiffon with asymmetrical neckline revealing on breast, a deep purple faux snakeskin uniform coat with golden embroidery, a black vintage fur hat lined with acid green velvet and decorated with a removable feather pin and a embroidered vinyl chin strap, a set of purple sequin bra and high waist hot pants with garters supporting vibrant purple net stockings, a black vintage fur purse with golden chain embellishments, and last but not the least buckled over knee boots of soft black leatherette.

Modelled by Sybarite Queen B. *The Superdoll props (Ban the Hunt rifle and Cross shoes) not included.

This was a commission piece and hence already sold. I have some commission appointments open from June! Recerve your appointment now!

 

See more photos at the Cracknutter flickr set.

Dark Thoughts - emiliacouture Japan charity gown

I'm happy to tell you that I'm much recovered and back on the saddle again. I cannot say that was able to take it as slow as the doctor ordered, as I did put in long hours working on my newest creation, but I did try to take a break every hour and mind my posture while working.

The horrors of Japan: the earthquake, the tsunami that followed, the fires and the unspeakable risk of nuclear destruction have left my mind lingering in Dark Thoughts. I channelled these thoughts into a black and alarm yellow gown and will donate the profits to help Japan. *The gown is already sold.

The "Dark Thoughts" gown is made for Sybarite dolls and consists of a translucent and long sleeved corset bodysuit with garters and closed from the back with a row of buttons, net stockings with wide decorative lace, black and yellow shoes, a voluminous and richly rouched tulle petticoat that consumed more than three meters of tulle, and a sequinned over skirt with two trails. These parts can either be mixed and matched or worn together as a full and luxurious gown. This creation is also the very first to carry the embroidered em'lia logo tag. The fashion is photographed on Sybarite Queen B who I temporarily flocked with a matching yellow KatSilk flock.

 

See more photos at the Dark Thoughts flickr set.

Taking a break

It has now been nearly a month since I released the last doll I made for the Insectopia collection and many have been wandering what is taking so long with the third doll in the series. I did tell people I was taking a small break after my last doll was done, but as I didn't expect this break to become so long I never really told why. Of course it's good to let one's mind rest a bit between the pieces, but the real reason is that I had hurt my back already when making the first doll, the Damselfly. The two weeks I spend 24/7 sewing miniature sequins locked up my spine and muscles tight and the next week working on the Orchard Spider didn't help either.

I thought a week of rest would do the trick, but it didn't. With the pain and immobility growing by the day I finally went to a doctor, who send to a chiropractic and it turned out I had 2 facet locks on my spine, which explained the blinding pain quite well. In addition the nerve pain has caused all the muscles in my back and shoulders to cramp. The chiropractic opened the facet lock, but the overall damage would take months of physiotherapy to heal. Instead of working on my art project 24/7 I now have a regular schedule of physio, swimming and pilates to keep me occupied. I should be able to work soon, but I'll need to take it slow. I apologise to everyone if this will delay the commissions scheduled for this Spring, but you will be notified of changes in the time table if any when your appointment time arrives.

Now, before you say anything, I know it's not healthy working like I do, consumed by the inspiration and forgetting everything else, but that's what I live for. I'm afraid that trying to slow down the process and giving myself time to rest will take the fire out of the inspiration and it'll just die out, but naturally, in order to continue my work, that is exactly what I'll need to learn how to do. Damselfly and Orchard Spider were both born in a spur of inspiration and I forgot myself so totally it was almost like they forced themselves out of me without my conscious effort and now I'm paying the price. Of course I'd prefer not to be in such pain, but on the other hand, I would do it again. I'm really happy how these two turned out.

And to give you hope of things to come, here are some sneak peeks of the material testing for the remaining 3 creatures in this collection. And don't worry too much about me. The worse is over and I'm getting back into the saddle already. Just need to take it easy!

Orchard Spider - the 2nd doll in the Insectopia collection

I'm proud to present the second doll in the emiliacouture Spring 2011 haute couture collection: the Orchard Spider. This new OOAK Insectopia doll is a Fashion Royalty Vanessa rerooted with 3-tone fiery natural reds; repainted with artist acrylics and pastels; and UV sealed. She has a blushed Nu.Face body with freckled decolté and nipples covered with metallic green. Her nails are black and the colour has creeped up her fingers to enhance her alien charms. Her hair is gathered to an high updo adorned with black sequins.

She wears a OOAK ball gown of hand painted leatherette, daffodil yellow tulle petticoat and lime green silk chiffon hem. The hem is embellished with eight elongated black sequin spider legs and her hand painted armadillo boots repeat the same pattern. The green hem of the ballgown can be slipped away to reveal an avant garde cocktail dress.

For more photos of the Orchard Spider and the Insectopia collection click here.

The Orchard Spider has already been sold to a private collection. I will now take a few days break before staring work on the third doll, the Praying Mantis. She will be the most challenging work yet to come as her gown will need hand painted silk and that is a technique I haven't used for a decade! I will keep you posted with the process.

I'm also been encouraged to put my work to ebay, but I'm very nervous about selling there after all the horrible stories I've heard on doll boards. The first two dolls in the Insectopia collection were bought "blind" by my most devoted patrons even before the dolls were made so auction wasn't an option, but maybe, just maybe, I'll consider putting one of the three dolls to follow on ebay. Selling by email has been very convenient so far, but it always breaks my heart to tell those who come too late that the doll they love has already been sold. I wish I had enough of dolls for all interested, but these dolls aren't really suited for factory production. Speaking of factory production, my business partner has now found a factory for emiliacouture and they are making the first sample for us as we speak. Hopefully the first, very limited, test edition will come out this Spring! It's a casual piece of ready-to-wear that you may already have climpsed on my flickr last Autumn ;)

Insectopia - Spring 2011 Haute Couture Collection by emiliacouture

Emiliacouture Presents: 

Damselfly - the first doll in the Insectopia collection!

 

Insectopia is the emiliacouture Spring 2011 haute couture collection with the fantasy theme of insect inspired avant garde creations. The collection will feature 5 OOAK dressed 12" fashion dolls: the Damsefly, the Orchard Spider, the Praying Mantis, the Atlas Moth and the Golden Scarab. All the creations will use labour intensive haute couture techiques such as sculpted hand stiched cuts, rich embroidery and hand painted fabrics.

The first doll in the collection is Integrity Toys Giselle as the Damselfly. She has been repainted with professional acrylics and pastels and UV sealed, her long hair has been restyled into two buns to represent the bulging eyes of a damselfly and adorned with metallic teal netting and sequins. She wears a OOAK atelier creation in teal taffeta consisting of a breast revealing corset, a high collar mask, a rouched mermaid skirt with a long trail, long sleeved shirt of metallic netting and a pair of silken armadillo boots. The fashion has been heavily embroidered and hand painted. The 4 different tones of miniature sequins create a gradient effect and the clint of insectile chitin armour. The Damselfly has already been sold to a private collection. 

For more photos of Damselfly click here.

Here are sneak peeks of dolls yet to come:

  Orchard Spider

 

Praying Mantis

Atlas Moth

Golden Scarab 

Keep posted for the next doll in the series: the Orchard Spider Vanessa!

Emiliacouture Handspeak gloves for Fashion Royalty

On this Tuesday I realised how many extra hands and how few Handspeak system dolls I had. There was no way I needed as many pairs of hands, but then I remembered a BJD artist who turned boring sculpted high heel parts into fabulous shoes. Why now make gloves out of all those extra pairs of hands! So, here is HfG Agnes modelling her 4 new pairs of chic gloves custom made to match her favourite shoes and bags. 

I started by giving all the hands a quick acetone swipe to remove all grease and dirt left from touching them. This also makes the vinyl more receptive for the paint. Then I painted the hands with several layers of artist acrylics especially making the fingernails area thick with paint so that the talons won't seem through. The next step was to add detailing: seams and "hand-stitching" essential for luxurious leather gloves. Then some more detailing with glued on ribbons and tiny metal buckles, and a final finishing touch by spraying the whole thing with couple of layers of UV coating for a nice matte effect.

After several enquiries to sell these I have decided to I accept commissions, but I do recommend to try this at home. It's simple, easy and fun and you can let you inner fashion designer go free! Happy Christmas everyone!

Here is Agnes posing with her new gloves 

tailor made to suit her favourite shoes and bags!

See more photos at the flickr set.

 

"Tribute to Alexander McQueen" collection revealed!

The emiliacouture autumn 2010 collection for Sybarites is dedicated to the memory of my favourite fashion designer the late Alexander McQueen, who’s brave, provocative and avant garde fashions always inspired me. The collection setting is an editorial version of a Victorian asylum and all the pieces have been named after mental disorders: Narcolepsy, Autophagia, Kleptomania, Oneirophrenia and Delirium.

Narcolepsy

A multicoloured striped chiffon halterneck dress with the skirt part inspired by the shape of oleander hawk moth, a wool corset jacket with asymmetrical half sleeves, lilac net hose, leather ankle strap platform shoes and hat with a silver airplane ornament, bubblegum of pink mohair wig on a chignon.

Model: Sybarite Slipper

Autophagia

A brown wool and gold leaf jacket with asymmetrical sleeves, Alexander McQueen inspired white leather dress with a brown boa scale patterns and matching pair of McQueen armadillo shoes and a wild blond mohair wig.

Model: Sybarite Inque repaint

Oneirophrenia

A black and white silk chiffon skirt with a distorted checker pattern, silk blouse with golden buttons and a large rosette of black organza ribbon decorated with a golden skull, black lace corset, black and white lace hose, black leather driver’s gloves and strappy platform shoes, an avant garde black tulle wrap hat with a golden airplane ornament.

Model: Sybarite Inque repaint

Kleptomania

A green wool and gold leaf vest over layered burgundy tulle skirt, Alexander McQueen inspired golden sequin over knee armadillo boots with buckled garters, golden wing hair ornament and a blond mohair wig on a chignon.

Model: Sybarite Inque repaint

Delirium

An asymmetrical punk evening dress of grey, black and red chiffon with tartan and houndstooth prints with thick asymmetrical burgundy tulle petticoat and decorated with silver and gunmetal chains, skull and crosses, a matching hose and McQueen armadillo shoes of black leather, gunmetal sequins and red glass beads, McQueen inspired butterfly hat.

Model: Sybarite Slipper

emiliacouture on Haute Doll

I have some exiting news - the November issue of Doll Reader magazine is out and emiliacouture "Tribute to Alexander McQueen" collection is in the Haute Doll magazine and on the cover of Haute Doll as well! So all of you who have patiently waited for this since last May, the emiliacouture Autumn 2010 collection for Sybarites will be out tomorrow!

To read the 6 page article get the magazine or read the digital version (see pages HD10-15).

 

Decay - the third doll in the "Until Death Do Us Part” collection

A strange plague might haunt the world but nothing stops a wedding. Aunt Rosemary was feeling a bit downwind during the ceremony and collapsed only to bite the bride on an ankle. They wanted to take her to a hospital, but she wasn’t going to miss her own wedding reception. When it was time to cut the cake, she didn’t quite find it to her taste, but the caterer was good and the groom was great! Some brides gorge themselves on wedding cake but this one ate the whole wedding party.

Presenting “Decay”, the third doll in the "Until Death Do Us Part” collection. This doll addresses another "fun and trendy" topic of our age: zombies. We are so gorged with TV violence and gore that the real thing leaves us unfeeling. What zombies really symbolize is the fragility of our modern social order. We are only three meals away from a total chaos where our civilized pretence is trashed and the savage within in revealed.

A resculpted and painted Tonner's Alabaster Antoinette has been given a body blushing with a gory bite mark on her ankle and blood spatter all over her face body and clothes. She wears and Marie Antoinette style mohair wig embellished with golden bows and a matching OOAK gown of beige lace and chiffon over a bustle. The hem of the gown has been torn and stain dyed.  The gown is accessorised with a pair of Atelier sculpted and hand-painted white leatherette buckle shoes.

I am accepting offers by email (emiliacouture(at)gmail.com) until the 1st of November.

Behind the Until Death Do Us Part collection

The idea for collection of four dolls was born right after I won the Couture Doll Design Challenge (CDDC) competition on January 2010. I had enjoyed my time with CDDC, to be honest it consumed my life so utterly I actually postponed my graduation because of it. However, being given a theme and creating commercial fashion week after another for a half a year did take it's toll. I wanted to rebel, do something very non-commercial and unorthodox. Then Tonner's Alabaster Antoinette was launched and I knew exactly what to do with it. I bought four on preorder and wrote down all the ideas that had swarmed in my head.

The dolls took months to arrive, during which I finally finished my final thesis and, shaken by the suicide of my favourite designer Alexander McQueen, I created the "Tribute to Alexander McQueen" five piece collection of OOAK avant garde fashions for Sybarites. The collection should be published in the November issue of the now integrated Doll Reader / Haute Doll magazine.

The designs I had made for the "horror dolls", as I called them then, were not drawings or fashion sketches, but short fragments of stories. Originally the underlining theme was suppose to be just plain horror, but as I realised I wanted each to have an elaborate gown it occurred to me to make it a wedding collection instead. The holy matrimony was just the thing to push these everyday horrors to another level and I was enchanted by the idea of making a beautiful gown and then destroying it with wear and tear. At this point the collection got it's name: "Until Death Do Us Part", which has always held a sinister ring to my ear. 

Perhaps it was the suicide of  Alexander McQueen and the loss I felt that made me address the issue of suicide in particular with these dolls. The first doll "Honour" was just about to take her life in the storyline and the last doll "Shame" has already done so. These two are the different sides the same coin. Honour escapes her prison and saves her honour by her choice; Shame falls into a despair that consumes her body and soul. The difference lies in the people they left behind: Japanese culture has historically embraced suicide as an honourable deed and the remnants of this paradigm are still visible in their modern culture; the Western culture and religion condemn it and leave the close ones of the deceased feeling responsible - a stigma they may carry around the rest of their lives.

 The second doll "Hunger" also has suicidal tendencies. She is a young girl who falls in love, and marries, a vampire as is "fashionable" in the TV nowadays. However, the story doesn't get a romantic happily ever after ending, but far more real one. It is also a potential ending to any girl who in real life falls for a guy with the "I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you" pick up line. I think the trend of romanticising danger is not a healthy one, though admittedly it is not the first time murderous rebels are idealised in the media. 

The third doll addresses another "fun and trendy" topic of our age: zombies. We are so gorged with TV violence and gore that the real violence and horror we witness in our everyday lives leaves us callous and unfeeling. What zombies really symbolize is the fragility of our modern social order. We are only three meals away from a total chaos where our civilized pretence is trashed and the savage within in revealed. It doesn't have to be zombies; it can be war, hunger or pestilence -or even global warming. The bottom line is when there won't be enough resources to go around it will be the survival of the fittest.

 

These gruesome creatures were never meant to be commercial and I did want them to shock, but I must say I was still surprised by the intensity of some reactions they raised. It was only natural people found them sad and disturbing, but I never believed they would get banned from internet forums and such. The important message is that domestic violence, suicide and other taboos do not seize just by keeping them wrapped away. We need to be able to talk about these issues openly, or the victims of the crimes will only feel more alone.

Hunger - the second doll in the "Until Death Do Us Part" collection

"I don’t know whether to kiss you or kill you..."

It’s the love story of our age: girl meets boy, nice and polite with an old world charm - a vampire. He vouches never to bite her and no sex before marriage. Come wedding night and the bride disappears. She wanders the empty halls of a huge house her wedding gown sweeping the floors in blinding sunlight – bitten and week with blood loss. 

Presenting "Hunger" the second doll in the "Until Death Do Us Part" collection by emiliacouture.This doll is a commentary of the "I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you" romantics of the current vampire trend and the example it gives to young girls looking for love.

 A resculpted and painted Tonner's Alabaster Antoinette has been given a body bushing with three bite marks, and a mohair wig embellished with vintage jewellery pieces. She wears a OOAK ensemble of a floor length gown of white silk chiffon. The hem of the gown has been gently stain dyed and the top is a weave of silk ribbons. The gown is accessorised with a pair of Atelier sculpted and hand-painted blue shoes tied around her ankles with silk ribbons.