Steampunk at Museums at Night

If you are lucky enough to be in the U.K. the next 3 days, you need to check out Culture 24's Museums at Night Festival.  There are sleepovers, cultural events, parties and all sorts of interactive performances of weird, dark, fantastical and creative anachronistic adventure.  The events are held at various heritage sites like palaces and Gothic libraries.

For Steampunk fans, check out In The Company of the Curious: Steampunk at Dragon Hall where you can enjoy Victorian dueling (with umbrellas and canes), an experimental installation by mechanical theater company Rapid Gambit, at Twilight Tea bar and Lady Isobel's Polite Peepshow...

The events take place May 16-19, 2013

Punk Fashion at the Met

I apologize for not being able to update for awhile.  I figured I owed you something good... The Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art felt worthy of my comeback.  The all-stars of dark and subversive fashion like Gareth Pugh, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Martin Margiela, Anne Demeulemeester and Viktor & Rolf kept company with all the other Haute Couture darlings of the style elite.

What is punk fashion?  The exhibit examines its roots from New York's CBGB music venue to Macolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's shop on King's Road.  The aesthetic of hardware (safety pins and spikes) and DIY (graffiti, re-purposing garbage objects) and destruction (rips, holes and distressed fabrics).

Sure, punk is supposed to be subversive, anti-establishment and inspired by the rebellion of the people. When you see the gorgeous exhibit, you'll realize you never knew it could be so fancy.  Is it still punk when only the elite can afford it?  That's not a question I can answer.

More eye candy:

All photos by Mariana Leung

Korhani Home's Gothic Bride

Hello sweeties.  I am up at Toronto Fashion Week this week covering the designers of the North.  While Toronto has some terrific boutiques and culture dark style, World Mastercard Fashion Week is generally not the venue for them. 

I was delighted to find some elaborate Gothic looks at the Korhani Home fashion show last night.  This is always one of the shows to look forward to.  They take their collection of home textiles and carpets and transform  them into dramatic themes with fantastic styling.

They took the collection of rugs in muted purples, eggplant, black and grey and transformed them into sweeping gowns, capes and kimono-inspired outfits.  They styled the models wigs into towering Bride of Frankenstein looks and accessorized them with decadent embellishments or pitch black ravens.

What do you think of this magic carpet runway show? 

Zombie Fragrance

Sunday night and I'm looking forward to watching someone kick some walker butt on the Walking Dead... While Michonne might have made headbands fashionable for the post-Zombie apocalypse age, I can't say there are too many more style trends created by the show.

Demeter fragrances begs to disagree.  They recently launched a zombie fragrance collection.  When people tell you that you smell like "something died", it generally isn't a compliment.  The product description for the men's fragrance lists notes of the forest floor, mushrooms, the women's as lighter, with dregs from the bottom of a wine barrel... (who knew female corpses were oenophiles?)

The same company also offers a "Funeral Home" fragrance.

Exclusive Interview: Immortal Game Designer CLIFFLEE

The Immortal Game is an edgy film and fashion collaboration between Noir Tribe Media and fashion designer CLIFFLEE.  The film imagines a gorgeous woman who embodies six different chess pieces that are sacrificed throughout the story, inspired by the famous chess match of 1851.

CLIFFLEE is a designer who has worked for iconic names in fashion like Helmut Lang and Jean-Paul Gaultier.  He created the dark, sexy looks for the film from his own collection.  

You can win your own CLIFF LEE Immortal game makeover with Noir Tribe's contest HERE.

We had a chance to get a quick interview with Cliff about his work:

Courtesan Macabre: You left Canada for Paris in 1996 and your resume includes working with some the most prominent designers in fashion today.  Are there any experiences from with previous employers that shape how you work today?

CLIFFLEE: Absolutely. The incredible amount of efforts required in creating a comprehensive collection.

CM: You have a dark, sexy style that is also edgy.  What inspirations inform your overall aesthetic?

 CL: Thank you. I guess mostly from abstract sculpture, painting and contemporary art.

CM: What is your design process? Do you prefer to drape or sketch?

CL: My design process is a combination of images, sketches and draping so they are both equally important to me.

CM: How did you approach the task of creating the looks for each chess character for the Immortal Game?

CL: The look of each character was first created by looking at the shape of each chess piece and then we elaborated the looks through their character symbolism with different accessories for Immortal Game.

CM: Are you a chess player yourself? 

CL: Yes but I don't play as much as I like to anymore unfortunately.

CM: Thanks Cliff!

Enter the Pinterest contest to win the handmade Pawn's hat, umbrella and a custom Pawn's dress made for you by CLIFFLEE himself!  Enter HERE.