Costume Tips
You need helt and advice buying or creating the right costume!? Creating your own costume for Copenhagen Burlesque can be tough, especially if you don’t know how to start or where to get the materials. Here is a small guide to inspiration and suggestions for where to find stuff - all the best tips from Arcenica Lace. If this wont help you, nothing will.
First of all, you need and idea – or several… It always nice having something to choose between!
The web is an endless source of wonderful, fantastic pictures of all the outfits created around the world, but often you will see a pic, and then forget where you saw it. For the last ten years I have been building a growing collection of pics I find here and there – if I’m on my own computer I dump them in a messy folder which I sort through now and then, if on a public computer I save the link to the picture in a draft in my mail or in a Google doc. The point is: save the picture right away, otherwise you will forget where you found it. And because I’m a geek I later sort the pics in “jackets”, “skirts”, “trousers”, “headwear” etc. – but you don’t HAVE to do that! It just makes it easier when you need and idea for a skirt, and you don’t want to browse through 1000+ pics to find one…
Anyways, where to find pictures?!?
Answer: tumblr. is. your. friend!
On this page you can search through the tags people attach to their pics http://www.tumblr.com/search
Try for instance…. Burlesque? http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/burlesque
- yes, when you search tags it will give you a lot of completely useless stuff, so here are some of my favorites:
http://teeseme.tumblr.com/ (Dita von Teese pics)
http://welldressedfortheapocalypse.tumblr.com/ (post-apocalyptic dress-up, sometimes OK pics, sometimes not…)
http://fuckyeahmilitaryfashion.tumblr.com/ (Military fashion inspiration)
http://steampunkgirls.tumblr.com/ (steampunk dress-up for women)
http://fuckyeahburlesque.tumblr.com/ (Burlesque, all kinds)
- they update all the time, so if you want to follow them I can recommend that you make an account and follow them that way.
Model Mayhem is another excellent place for finding nice outfit-pics:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/2769/viewall (Wednesday Mourning – model, lots of nice dress-up)
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/1173679/viewall (Steampunk couture)
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/909/viewall (Donna Ricci – Model, mainly steampunk and odd burlesque)
There is also quite a few nice blogs out there, which post a lot of awesome stuff, my favorites for outfit-inspiration are those:
http://coilhouse.net/ (fashion, media, weird links…)
http://hautemacabre.com/ (all kinds of “dark” fashion, weird and awesome)
http://blackpuddingpop.blogspot.com/ (sometimes nice fashion, sometimes not)
http://altfashion.blogspot.com/ (alternative fashion – many awesome pics!)
OK, now you know what you want – if you can sew, duct-tape things together or glue stuff together with a hot-glue gun you just need materials, here are some good places for those.
In cheap second-hand stores you can find the “main frame” for you outfit and then alter it into whatever you want – those cheap second hand stores are pure gold! You can find lots of great things if you take your time to look for it. Flea markets are also excellent, especially in summer in Copenhagen when many are selling out of their rather useful things.
http://www.noedhjaelp.dk/i_danmark/genbrug/butikker (Folkekirkens Nødhjælp)
http://drk.dk/roede+kors+i+danmark/genbrug/roede+kors+butikker# (Røde Kors)
http://markedskalenderen.dk/marked/default.asp (flea markets – search town to the left)
Fabrics, trimming and other nice bits’n bobs can be found here:
http://www.handler-textiler.dk/ (Handler Textiler for the expensive excellent quality stuff
http://www.stof2000.dk/ (Allround fabric store)
http://www.skindhuset.dk/ (All things leather)
http://www.beadhouse.dk/ (All things jewellry and beads)
http://www.pandurohobby.dk/ (All things hobby-ish)
Stofdillen, jagtvej 1, 2200 København, +45 38 86 81 74 (no webpage, cheap fabrics, quality not exceptional, but it’s cheap.)
Colourful dreamy ethnic fabrics can be found in the sari and middle-east fabric shops at Vesterbrogade between Føtex and Sorte Hest.
Do you need someone to make a hat for you? Andersen & Berners Hattefabrik makes custom hats, and they aren’t too expensive. Address: Nørrebrogade 45 C, 4., 2200 Kbh N, but do call them first on 35356863.
Do you need DIY ideas? This blog gives a lot of great and unusual tips and tricks:
There is also many-many-many-MANY good things to be found on my two favorite sites here, so they need their own description:
Etsy http://www.etsy.com/
This is where people sell their handmade things, vintage stuff and materials for DIY. Yes, there is a lot of crap (the best can be found on regretsy http://www.regretsy.com/) but dammit! – there IS a lot of awesome things as well!
You can find materials for your costume, a hat, gloves, whatever, well, even full costumes. Some things are pricey, other cheap, be aware that things might get caught in sustoms if you order from outside Europe.
Trouble finding you way around all the good stuff? This girl finds lots of nice things (mostly steampunk) for you: http://totusmelswunderkammer.blogspot.com/
eBay http://www.ebay.com/
If you don’t know eBay, don’t go there… You will spend money. You can find EVERYTHING on eBay, including all kinds of fabrics, hats, leather, trimming, beads…. You name it. Many things are very low priced, but again, customs might catch you. And when it comes to fabrics and outfits the pictures might not ALWAYS be of the things that you will actually get. But, when that is said, I have bought tons of stuff on eBay, and only been fooled a few times… So it’s worth it =)
For both Etsy and eBay you will need to set up a Paypal account, but they have fine instructions on how to do it, and it’s a quite secure way of paying.
OK, so it turns out you are NOT into the whole “making it all yourself”… Then lets have some links for where to buy ready-made outfits!
Etsy and eBay – see above.
An old favorite site of mine for finding shops is this one http://www.chateaubizarre.com/
They stopped updating it a year ago, but many of the shop links still work, and there are tons and tons of links… Find your main-category to the right, and start browsing – but only if you have some spare hours, ’cause there are MANY links, and you will find many, many thing you cannot live without.
More specific shops:
http://www.clockworkcouture.com/ (Steampunk and victoriana)
http://www.draculaclothing.com/ (big selection of both men’s and women’s wear)
http://www.riverjunction.com/ and http://www.ranksmercantile.com/ (good and old-fashioned and sligthly wild west!)
http://www.gentlemansemporium.com/gentlemans.php (good and old-fashioned victoriana!)
http://www.artofadornment.ca/ (fascinating handmade accesories and jewellery, very unique)
http://www.sockdreams.com/_pages/index.php (all things socks, nuff said)
http://www.pennangalan.co.uk/ (shoooooooeeeees!!!! And from the UK = no risk of getting caught in customs)
http://www.steampunkcouture.com/ (yay! Steampunk!)
http://www.kambriel.com/ (if only I had the money… This is a GREAT alternative designer, and she takes custom orders, too. She has made clothes for Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, which should be a guarantee in itself)
http://skingraftdesigns.com/ (if you can afford this, I’m impressed – but there are many great ideas…)
http://steamtrunk.com/ (more steampunk!)
Specific questions? Mail me!
/Arsenica Lace