aestheticcontradiction

Black Friday flash sale!

Though I’m not American, I decided to jump on board with the black Friday sale thing. I thought celebrating the start of the winter holiday shopping season sounded like the right thing to do and hopefully lots of people will buy pretty latex presents for their loved ones.

The sale will last till midnight Saturday GMT. I’ve reduced 120 products on www.eustratia.co.uk, basically all the handmade ones. I did have an other flash sale recently but I thought it might be preferable for most people to do it over a weekend so they can browse in peace.

Enjoy!

P.S. Today I’ve also been working on the new and improved Christmas hampers! I’ve decided on having set styles and colour schemes for them this year but here’s the ones from last year to give you an idea!

aestheticcontradiction

Dark unicorn

For a while now I’ve wanted to step away from the classic theme of the white unicorn, with its purity and rainbows and give it a bit of attitude. I thought that this was quite an obvious thought process for someone creative with a dark edge and unicorns seem to be everywhere at the moment so I was surprised by the lack of relevant images online when I decided to do some research.

This was ultimately good news as it meant there wasn’t much I had to tick off the list due to someone else having done it before. I still wanted it to be quite an abstract interpretation of the unicorn as opposed to a full on pony costume with a horn and as always I couldn’t decide on just one way to style it so I portrayed it in 3 facets. Pretty unicorn, warrior unicorn and queen unicorn.

I thought these were all likely characters for the dark unicorn to take on and Jamie Mahon did a great job bringing them to life and create the right atmosphere. I also borrowed some beautiful taxidermy accessories from Sophie Adamson to complete the looks. The wardrobe/styling was provided by Eustratia and the chainmail by Richard Ayres, as usual.

We also took the opportunity to shoot some other bits on the same day but I’ve decided to include them in a different post.

I wore a revised version of this outfit to Torture garden for Halloween and added ears to the headband which I thought looked much better.

For those of you who are unicorn fans, the selection of unicorn themed items on my site is growing! Grad yourself something at www.eustratia.co.uk

aestheticcontradiction

Manchester Alternative and Burlesque fair show

Last month was my year anniversary trading at the Heresy n Heelz Manchester Alternative and burlesque fair and I put on my first fashion show there.

It was a great experience and the crew were hands down the most helpful I’ve dealt with. They made every effort to ensure the stage was dressed to my specifications, went though the pre-show announcement word for word to make sure all the info was correct and lit the stage according to the sequence and characters which really added to the atmosphere.

The show featured outfits from the Chimera collection (collaboration with chainmail designer Richard Ayres) and the upcoming Opulence collection, due to be Launched next month.

I choreographed the show myself, giving each model a character and specific role to play. he dramatization included knights, royals, maids, druds, and priestesses and convery a story of myth and magic based on Arthurian myth and Avalon.

Model: Sevensin

model: Becky Burton

model: Victoria Fairbrother

Model: Vex Ashley

Models: Victoria Fairbrother, Vex Ashley and Sapphire Black

Ritual

Model: Biomechanina

Finale.                                                                    Images by Jennifer Byron

Image by Phoenix studio.

There is also an awesome video by Toria Brightside

Make up was provided by Laura Wilson and hair by Laura Kulik.

After the show we did a photoshoot with the girls outside the venue which will feature in a future post.

 

aestheticcontradiction

“Reflections” collection launch

It’s really exciting to finally be able to launch the “Reflections” collection! As those of you who follow the Eustratia facebook page may know, these items were actually made around 6 months ago but with waiting for publications and working hard for shows, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to get it all sorted.

Though the situation wasn’t ideal for someone who ultimately needs to sell stuff, it did give me the opportunity to design a lookbook for the collection, which I didn’t get the chance to do with the previous ones.

There is also a fashion video of the shoot. You can also see the latex earrings which aren’t visible from the other photos.

The original images were published in Vanity magazine #16, the ambition issue, which can be bought here.

The gallery has been added to the “Collections” section of the Eustratia site and all items have been added to the online store.

Some extra behind the scenes shots from my phone:

Working with such bright colours and bold designs was quite different for me but I really loved the concept and was pleased by the outcome. I’d love to hear what more people thought of my version of bright mirror prints so feel free to comment.

aestheticcontradiction

Demons

I wanted to plan a shoot to better showcase some of the accessories from the Chimera collection and had an idea for a demon series. Though not totally related to the inspiration for the collection, I felt like the concept would work well with specific pieces in mind.

I had a few different ideas about what the demon would look like and a few different types of make up in mind that I thought would be appropriate for the shoot so I decided to do a series showcasing the different styles. This gave me the opportunity to try out most of my styling ideas and create a gradual light to dark effect in the images.

I shot the set with Jennifer Byron as the final part of our accessories project as I thought we needed a set with darker thematology, most of what we have previously shot has been quite light and colourful. All chainmail components were created by Richard Ayres.

With regards to the editing, I wanted to make sure it looked different to the other sets Jenni and I have collaborated on so I thought of making the characters look statue/gargoyle-like with a stone/marble-like texture. I think Jenni did a great job with the editing and the texture in the background really ads to the images.

For the last two images, I used a hair-piece that I made as part of my Halloween outfit for TG. There has been some interest in the hair piece so I’m going to include a brief tutorial for anyone who would like to make something similar. To save making this too long, I’ve decided to put it in a separate post, here.

Personally, I am most pleased with my hair for the first two looks as its an unusual look for me. I have seen similar styles in a few magazines recently and was waiting for the opportunity to try something like that for myself. The look was achived with gel and white hair spray. I have found white hair spray to be very effective at making roots look better during shoots in general.

Featured products:

First image- nutmail cuff, nutmail cross (chainmail chain), organic lace bustier.

Second image- studded cross necklace, O-harness, studded cross gloves, crystal spike pasties.

Third image- inverted cross necklace, nutmail choker, O-harness (back to front), trophy pasties (black latexlace).

Forth image- shield necklace, chimera bra, chain garter (on forehead)

All items can be purchased from www.eustratia.co.uk (If you can’t find the item you are looking for please get in touch via the order form and we will do our best to help)