Hello, Young Snapper!

Happy New Year! My friend Chris Beyond sent me these photos from the first or second Burlesqueland. This particular year was a two-night event with the second night at Monday Night Tease (3 Clubs in Hollywood). I performed "Waltz of the Flowers" from Fantasia with a hodgepodge costume and a very lean body. This had to be 2009 or 2010.

I made this dress because I wanted to make it, knowing that its purpose would come along later. I wore it for this act and for Sixteen Candles. To make things a bit more flowery, I added little ribbon rosebuds to the side of the dress.

The shoes were a glorious thrift store find that I got to wear in Pin-Up Girls, an original play. The costume designer got a little crazy in the end, but she found some damn fine ballroom shoes that I wore for years.

The gloves aren't a perfect match. I'm sure I pulled them out of the package for this act. It looks like I'm also wearing a bracelet. I used to accessorize a lot more in life.

Wait! I rhinestoned those gloves! I'm also wearing earrings, which is something I don't really do these days. I do look happy.

That's the old stage. This venue is used a lot in film and television, and one of the production companies replaced the stage floor. There was room for a band on that stage. It was bigger than some where I've danced, smaller than others.

I have rhinestones by my eyes, body glitter, and I'm still wearing a navel ring!

Let's talk about this part of the costume, shall we? Penny Starr, Jr. is a professional costumer in Los Angeles who works regularly on film and television projects. She produced and performed in her spare time, and made costumes in the rest of the spare time. She took me to Comic-Con as her Orion Slave Girl in Supernova A-Go-Go in 2008. This costume was for sale at her booth, and I asked if she'd trade the costume for my performance fee. This may have been the first burlesque costume I purchased that was made by someone else. The whole kit was a hair clip, adjustable triangle bra, and adjustable panel skirt.

Some of these costumes were made from odds and ends, cool bits and baubles she'd accumulated. The bra was a brown burnout stretch velvet. The panel skirt was black and stretchy with a black rear panel. (I can't remember if it was detachable or not.) There was beaded fringe around the bottom of the belt. Everything was accented with glittery flowers. I remember the flowers being a little crunchy from the sealant used for the glitter. It was very pretty, but not the combination of things I would create today.

This shot is just for the abs. 

One of the brilliant things Penny did was include some spare parts with the costumes she sold. She lives and breathes costumes. Having those spare parts made it easier to deal with repairs over time and to use elements in other parts of the costume.

Beneath the panel skirt I'm about to remove, you can see a smattering of glittery flowers on my periwinkle boy shorts.

Oh look! I'm dancing and flinging the panel skirt! That tells me that the panel was attached to the skirt belt.

Also, brown and blue go okay together, but not something I'd choose today.

There's a better shot of the periwinkle boy shorts from Victoria's Secret on Hollywood Boulevard! You can see the flowers on the front and back a little better. Embellishments like these make it tougher to clean certain costume pieces. That's why some costumes benefit from "safety panties," a small, thin g-string that's easy to launder and protects the costume from getting crotched.

And the final reveal! What am I doing? Is this a curtsey? I don't remember. Those abs are still amazing.

The pasties are made from a Jo Weldon pattern, grabbed from an early PDF-version of her burlesque book. This was my first attempt at a nude look. I used stretchy nude net with silver glitter print, attached to buckram bases and embellished with random stones. I know more sophisticated techniques for pasties these days, but I was proud of these at the time.

I hope you enjoyed the tour down memory lane!