Focusing on the Fabulous!

Firstly I’d like to say a Big CONGRATULATIONS to Kelly Ann Doll for getting first runner up in Miss Burlesque Australia, love you kitten, can’t wait to see some footage of your show!!

Now, in the last few months I’ve made a big effort to get out in the world and be open to new experiences and try new things and work really damn hard on the label. There have been a few triumphs and there have been quite a few failures. It seems that being a good person and expecting others to be the same, doesn’t necessarily work out and that my natural state of “creative hermit” does have allot of merits. But I’m not giving up on you old world and today we focus on the fabulous!

My turn as burlesque debutant, Tipsy Bubble and getting my boobs out onstage!

I’d wanted to do it for years, but I’d not performed for so long and I’d accepted my back stage role as “designer” that crossing the divide was terribly difficult to contemplate. But folks there is a bridge between the worlds of “crew” and “talent” and baby I crossed it! I also got to give a big “f#ck you” to my ex-husband who so kindly pointed out that those burlesque girls are “allot slimmer than you”. Hmph!

I’d like to say thank you to the lovely Samantha Diamond for all her encouragement and coaching and my new name, and to Black Cherry for having me! If your in Sydney, go to Black Cherry, so much fun and soo much bang for your buck!

So what can I say? First things first, its all preparation, rehearsals and forking out the cash. Getting all feathered and sparkly doesn’t come cheap! From false eyelashes to getting grip put on my stilettos I have to say appreciate more and more all the work performers go to to create their acts.

I’d also like to highly recommend Jo Weldon’s work, “The Burlesque Handbook” its brilliant, the woman is fantastic, everyone get down on your knees before her!

Of course I made my own costume, and of course I put all my orders and everyone else’s requests before my own and soo it all got done at the last minute. I love a deadline!  This is me, at the awesome Petty Cash Cafe finishing my pasties, on the day!!

Then it was on to the show, and to stage fright and too many nervous ladies in one very small space! I think one of the best things about working in this sort of environment is the people you meet, and there were some lovely gals, I dint get to see their performances because I was on near the very end, but everyone was so encouraging and sweet that it was a total honour to be a part of it all.

The things I learnt:

#1 Take your watch off you silly goose, a glove pull that reveals a very masculine watch is just rather odd!

#2 Bring something to put on back stage over or instead of your costume, because...

#3 You can’t sit down in a dress covered in balloons and feathers.

#4 Getting stage fright and breaking out in a sweat in a dress covered in feathers is really uncomfortable and leads to a paranoia that your going to get onstage with feathers stuck to your armpits. And other places. 

Finally I’d like to mention the real performers of the night Mark Winmill and Lillian Starr, if you get the chance to see them, do it! Mark came up to me back stage and said lovely things about my performance and all I could think was “Oh my god, the gorgeous man is speaking to me!” ... “Oh my god, I think he’s saying something nice” ... “Oh my god Simone stop gawking and say something back!!” Oh and Lillian’s “Cherry Pie” routine is an absolute show stopper!

So, I did it! All the way down to pasties and a g-string! Loardy! Since I don’t have a photo of the final reveal, you’ll have to make do with this one, the morning after, no make up and no editing, but you do get to see my fabulous pasties!!

Designing For Kelly Ann Doll

That glorious pocket rocket, Miss Kelly Ann Doll is the reigning Miss Burlesque Victoria and this weekend she competes for the national title! Woohoo! Of course, she will be wearing Kiss Me Quick!

I’ve been designing costumes for Kelly for about 5 years, she’s amazing to work with, and although I feel I’ve failed her occasionally, she loves me still... Kelly is so tiny that sometimes my overtly theatrical style swamps her and I’ve learnt to pull it back, allot! 

Bless her, she’s always found a way to style whatever I give her to work with. Its one of the things I love about working in burlesque that’s different from any work I’ve done as a costume designer, I’m not creating the full look, I create pieces that evolve with the star. They morph into different outfits, with different pairings, stockings, hats and gloves are added, and rhinestones applied. Glorious girliness! 

I think her current pieces represent some of the best work I’ve ever done, and she makes them look amazing! 

  This is the number that won her, her current title, watch it, its unbelievably hot:

I designed the bra and knickers, they are unaltered by the star, in hand beaded Cambodian lace! You can get a better look at it here, as she poses for the Sunday Age!

And yesterday another little piece for her costume this weekend (to add to the outfit on the left) flew on its way to her...

Drool over Kelly a little more on her facebook

If your interested in getting your own custom Kiss Me Quick piece, email me!

Some of kelly’s previous costumes:

In an emerald green bustle and matching bra.

Kelly is in a KMQ custom pussy bow playsuit, on the left!

In high waisted knickers and matching bra, I had to take the knickers in twice, she is so tiny!!

Chas Ray Krider and "The Story of the Eye"

Ah... two things that seem to be bound in my mind... they live in a world thats both sexy, fascinating and revolting. Its like a scab, you want to leave it alone, but its working some irresistible pull on your subconscious...

I’m talking about the photographic work of Chas Ray Krider and the book “The story of the eye” by Georges Bataille. Treading the line where erotica meets art, beauty takes second place.

The Story of the Eye:

I read an excerpt from this book many years ago in “Another Magazine” in 2005. For a start it was a strange thing to put in a magazine, its quite an explicit pornographic work, its morals are muddy to say the least. I’d love to tell you that the erotic scenes are not alluring in the slightest way, yet that would be a lie... They are not politically correct, filled with debasement, torture, filth, and madness... The part where they wrench the mind is that place where the body and the mind of the reader act apart, separated, do you dare to admit the turn on? I will concede that that happens less and less as the story goes on, but its a trap, an appeal to your animal instincts, an unwrapping or your modern mind to the basest of human emotion? Yes, it does that...

"Now in the corner of the hallway there was a saucer of milk for the cat. "Milk is for pussy, isnt it?" Said Simone. "Do you dare me to sit in the saucer?"

"I dare you" I answered, almost brethless."  

...and thats the cleanest quote I could find!

It also goes on and on about Eyes and Eggs and Testicals. It uses my name in vain.

But let’s be honest, there is something weird about eggs. Do you remember that scene in Angel Heart, where Robert De Niro’s character eats the eggs? Not to mention that people lose their eyes and get suffocated by their own genitalia in that movie...

Chas Ray Krider:

Ok, next to all that Mr Krider is a pussy cat! I adore his work, adore it, with reverence. A very important part of his work is that point where I think “I dont really like that” its some part of the scene that’s just vaguely disturbing... I did read a blog comment somewhere that went something along the lines of “what is it about sex in motels thats 30% erotic and 70% depressing?”. I like that comment, I empathise.

I recently found his second book “Do not Disturb” in a second hand bookshop in Sydney. I’m glad he still has the same effect on me, I felt slightly dirty about purchasing it, its like buying condoms, just ever so slightly ergh!

Of course I love the vintage lingerie he uses, and the retro styled surrounds, but so many people do those things. What’s so special here?

Its the waiting, the stillness, the blank faces, is that boredom in her eyes?

 Flesh available, mind abstracted.

Has money been transacted? 

Links to little pieces of my own history that I’m not going to tell you about. Girl has her secrets.