Fashion

For Valentine’s Day I made an omakase spread in my rope studio for F. and A. We were talking about goals and desires (in general and acutely), and F. remarked “I want to feel beautiful”. It was maybe 11p, and one of those times that I felt lucky (despite everything) to live in our often-fraught but always-inspiring artist collective. For the fit, I had a concept to use this cream bustier that I got her at a Berlin workshop and figure out the sort of dramatic wedding train fit that I see sometimes in a Vogue Italia spread. ...

i had about 12 hours to make a skirt for f.’s set. i wanted to make a simple piece (her prompts: “femme, weird, dark”) that was low/no-sew for her performance at this local lesbian club night. we had a piece of large scrap in the leather pile and this required one piece of asymmetrical leather. it felt a bit irresponsible to not pattern this and instead attempt to prototype in the piece of leather itself, but this kind of shortcut is frequently how i overcome the inertia to make something quickly despite the risk. ...

I had formerly made this red “futch” harness sized for myself as an alternative to bulldog harnesses (a ubiquitous FSF accessory that has become). I think harnesses look best when they accentuate the lines of the body (like a mesh on a 3D model, or a not-quite-anatomically-correct skeleton). To complete the look I quickly knocked out a leather belt and A. ordered tactical hardware to match the silver/red theme.

After the bustier, this is the second “bra” shape I’ve tried to make in leather. I did this with exploratorily-sketched paper patterns that I held up to the model and reshaped for a few iterations. The latigo was more stiff than the veg-tan of the bustier and is more resistant to deformation. I spent the most time trying to figure out the cup direction w.r.t. the straps crossing in front. This took a bit of balancing. ...

quickly made these for my act w/ myles as a spirit medium who raises his husband from the dead since i didn’t have black knee-high gaiters, and used a silver pen to draw quick symbols on them backstage 1 hour before showtime :s

Made this after a Fleet Ilya piece that isn’t in production anymore but that I’ve always really admired. This was my first time developing a leather bra and it took just a few iterations. I altered the original FI design to allow the bra and the corset to be worn either separately or together. I tried to oil-dye jute for the back rope, and that did not go well at all because I used dip-dyeing and the rope has still not shed its excess oil after hours of buffing. I ended up just using plain jute for Fait’s Folsom performances. ...

“triangle maximalism” harness with pink latigo and solid brass hardware. made prior to trip to berlin specifically as a balm against buying too much leather fashion there. started by sketching out a few different patterns over an image of the person i wanted to make it for, and this is one she liked. patterned it piecemeal, testing sizing on her as i went (not very efficient, but it kept my engagement). ...

documenting this quick harness i made in white latigo and black hardware (with chain attachment under the back). gen was visiting so i set her up under contrasting lights.

I had a lot of fun producing a very weird pattern and getting help from Thomas to execute it. It was so fun waking up every day for two weeks in London to walk to the workshop and learning from him. These boots with their cordovan really are some of the nicest boots I’ve ever worn. Thomas was a lovely instructor, extremely gifted cordwainer, and very passionate about solving problems in leather. ...