Outfits from Outer Space #1

Good evening! Today I'm starting a new feature where I'll introduce some wacky items from my closet. Because, well, why the hell not?

The Bone Dress

I made this for a competition last summer, in Tuva, Eastern Siberia. How I got into that crazy situation in the first place is a long story, but I found myself competing in a talent show in the Valleys of the most remote place on Earth. The one rule: we had to make our costume. Now, bear in mind that, being on a remote campsite in Tuva, a two-hour drive away from the nearest town, our choice of materials was rather...limited. Luckily I happen to have a passion for bone jewellery bones in general, and I'd been collecting nice pieces and jawbones all month.

The jawbones are cows'; my belt is made of squares of tree bark (cutting bark from a log into wearable symmetrical pieces is not an easy task...) with a vertebra buckle (sheep or goat), and the headdress is sheep's vertebra and untreated sheep's wool (literally just fluff I picked off a fence...)

I couldn't tell you what the earrings are made of if I wanted to, they're some tiny fruits that were growing near the campsite.

Oh, and the horn appears to have been from a ridiculously big sheep. It was a get-well-soon gift from a friend; she brought it to our tent warning me that "it was leaking". Leaking what, I'd rather not know.

So much to work with, so little time!

The idea for the dress started with the jawbone collar and sort of just developed from there. I knew I wanted treebark accessories and a look that wasn't too soft... Basically something along the lines of the Forsworn armours in Skyrim :P

Skyrim's Fornsworn, whose armours were my main inspiration

I was wearing a water-polished tree bark pendant, too!

That horn makes a surprisingly good 50s-style hat...

My slaves friends hard at work... I can't sew to save my life,
so I'm grateful, really!

I can't sew to save my life, so my wonderful friends did it for me following my design, attaching bits of bones, leaves and bark to an old Primark dress I just so happened to have at the bottom of my suitcase (no, really, I swear!). We only had a couple of hours, so some of the heavier stuff had to go. I argued that we keep the jawbone collar though!

In the end, the collar had to be sewn on me because it was too heavy for the strapless dress to support... Originally it was intended to be a v-shape, like in the picture above, but the weight of it made it sag.

And don't even get me started about getting OUT of that dress... Well worth it, though.

Souslik (rodent) skull... I wish I'd managed to make it into a necklace
but I didn't have the right tools

Thanks to Triin Tanilas for the beautiful portraits <3

Halloween Pin-up

Morning! I realize I pick an odd time of the year to go back on my Halloween outfit, but I came across some pictures last night and thought it was share-worthy... Or maybe I'm just vain ;)

Every year, I go to Voodoo Rock night for Halloween. They're amazing rock parties in Electrowerks, Angel with bbq, face paints, live bands and even horror films playing through the night, along with several rooms of musical goodness. Check it out here if you're interested.

Oddly enough, every year I also ruin my costume and almost take myself down with it. The first year I went there, the tassels on my bellydancing costume kept falling off until there was barely anything keeping it together. The second year, my shoes snapped right in the middle as I was going down the stairs and I dislocated my thumb. So taking into account just how damn accident prone I am - or at least how blatantly cursed this place is - I went with a pinup costume, which I thought was fairly safe and foolproof.

Boy, was I wrong. As we were queuing to get in the sole of my trusted black heel caught on something, and I had to go dig around for a strip of plastic to hold my shoe together for the rest of the night.

Sexy bandage for my shoe...

"In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." This is particularly true at Voodoo, where everything is so gaudy (in the best possible way!). This meant I could go short short short!

Basque - H&M lingerie

Velvet skirt - made by a friend

Suspenders & Stockings - Intimissimi

I kept the makeup simple, with red lipstick by L'Oreal (286 Burning Rose)
and eyeliner by Urban Decay

I love this one, it makes me look like a wax doll...

Oh, one last note of warning - stay away from the green webs. The next morning that stuff was EVERYWHERE.