Fabergé Friday

Today we'll take a look at another one of Fabergé's pretty frames. This one was made by workmaster Johan Victor Aarne, around 1905!

 

The frame is made of red gold, and covered in aquamarine enamel over a sun ray engraving. It is topped by a ribbon, and decorated with flower swags set with pearls. The oval bezel is set with rose-cut diamonds, and holds a photo of Queen Maud of Denmark. Since 1953 it can be found in the Royal Collection. 

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Half Naked In My Boudoir...

Ok. The headline might sound a bit more intriguing than what you think you will see in today's post. Haha! What I wanted to show you was one of my Christmas presents - a new skirt!

For once, the skirt is not vintage. It's newly made, and comes from H&M. The material is pretty thick - which is perfect for the cold winter months - and has a dotted pattern. There are hidden pockets in the sides...

...and it's very wide! Me like! The reason my hair is rolled up under a scarf is because I was on my way to yet another shoot with one of my favorite photographers - FG Photography. Pics from that will come later... As you can see I'm not alone in these pictures. I'm cat-sitting Puma for a week, and as usual she had to photobomb. Last time I took care of this cat and tried to do an outfit post the result was similar. That post can be found here!

Summer Shoot

Just realized I haven't shown you the result of my shoot with Linda Florin - that we did last summer - yet! A warm and sunny day we met up in a forest to take a few pics, and here they are! The corset and gloves are from What Katie Did, the skirt I made myself, and that lovely velvet cape is antique, late 1800s/early 1900s. Bought that one from Fanny.

All photos by Linda Florin.

Fabergé Friday

Of all the little egg pendants Fabergé created, some were more important than others. Like the two shown below for example, made between the years 1908 and 1917!

The difference between these and the "normal" egg pendants are that these are so called "Imperial Presentation Egg Pendants", decorated with the cipher of Empress Maria Feodorovna in gold. These eggs were given personally by the Empress to female members of the Royal family and ladies-in-waiting at Easter time. Very few of these eggs have survived, and the two in this post comes from the same family, and are said to have belonged to one of the Empress' ladies-in-waiting.

The smallest of the two eggs - 0.7'' (1.9 cm) high - is carved from a piece of golden chalcedony. 

The slightly bigger one - 0.9'' (2.2 cm) high - is made of rhodonite. Siberian Rhodonite (Orletz) was one of Carl Fabergé's favorite stones.

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Olivia De Berardinis

When people talk about pin-up art, they usually talk about the old pictures made in the 40s and 50s, by noted pin-up artists such as Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas. There are however, artists that still work to keep the pin-up girl alive. One of them is Olivia De Berardinis. As this genre has been, and still is, dominated by male artists, it's nice to see that at least a few women aren't afraid of painting these sassy half naked dream girls. I mean - even though the pin-up was originally created for the eyes of men, today women usually loves looking at them just as much!

Olivia has been working in this genre since the mid-1970s, and is really good at what she's doing! If she ever said she wanted to paint me, I would throw my clothes off right there and then! Even if we happened to be in the local grocery store! Haha! Here is a small collection of her artwork!

Dita-Pink

Jungle Red

Here's Looking At Me

Devil In High Heels

Sweet Nothings

Jester On Black

Dreamweaver

Two Of A Kind

Burning Bush

Witchcraft

To see more of Olivia's artwork, please visit her website here!

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When Paintings Come Alive...

Imagine walking around an art museum, alone, after closing hours... All by a sudden you don't feel so alone though. And when you look around at the walls, you notice the paintings have started to come alive... Thanks to the animation work of Rino Stefano Tagliafierro we can get a glimpse of how this would feel. So turn off all lights, turn the sound on, and watch the video below. It's haunting, seductive, beautiful, and a bit scary...

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Fabergé Friday

Ok, all you men out there! If anyone feels like proposing to me, I have now found the ring I want. It's from Fabergé's workshop, and was made by assay master Yakov Liapunov, sometime between the years 1899 and 1904. And here it is!

The engagement ring is made of silver topped 14K gold, and is set with two old European cut diamonds, and ten old mine cut diamonds. The size of it is 18 mm, so I will have to make it a bit smaller after the proposal...

The ring comes in it's original Fabergé silk and velvet lined fitted Hollywood case, stamped FABERGÉ in Cyrillic letters, beneath a double headed Imperial eagle. So now you know! I'll be in my boudoir waiting for Prince Charming...

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Full Moon

By Diana Grigore. Source

We finally got a bit of snow here in Sweden, so for this month's full moon music I decided to give you a bit of ballet - Waltz of the Snowflakes from The Nutcracker. I love this one! The music was composed by Tchaikovsky, and here it is danced by The Royal Ballet.

If you, like myself, love everything vintage, burlesque, circusy, and showgirlish, the following photos will probably be to your liking. The photos depict circus showgirls during the 40s and 50s, and they're all in color!

Circus Showgirl, 1950.

Barnum & Bailey Showgirl, 1946.

Circus girl, 1950s.

Circus people, 1955.

Circus women, 1956.

Aerialist Pinto del Oro, 1953.

Performer Lottie Brunn, 1949.

Birthday flowers, 1941.

Mardi Gras girl, 1952.

Dailey Brothers Circus, 1950.

Circus Performer Couple, 1954.

Aerial ballet showgirl, 1949.

King Brothers Circus, 1950.

Wardrobe wagon, 1959.

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Stage Fright

My best friend - and landlady - Fanny started a project she calls Stage Fright a few months ago. As she loves the sparkling world of burlesque, but actually have stage fright, she decided to put part of herself on stage by sewing costumes for other burlesque dancers instead. And so her project began... Fanny has a degree in Fashion Design and is very talented at coming up with ideas for incredible costumes! As we both know many burlesque dancers, she quickly got a full sewing-schedule, as many of them wanted costumes created by her. These last few months the apartment has looked like burlesque heaven, with sequins, pearls and feathers flying around everywhere! Here are some of her amazing creations, designed, sewn, and meticulously decorated - often by hand - by herself...

Photo: John-Paul Bichard

The Circus Dress for Fräulein Frauke.

Photo: Darklark

Black dress for Elegy Ellem's Bat Night act.

Part of a costume in progress for Contessa Blackbird.

30s inspired New Years Eve dress for Elegy Ellem.

New Years Eve dress for Fräulein Frauke.

Detail of the dress above.

Belly dancing outfit for Yvette Les Fesses.

Harley Quinn dress for Elegy Ellem.

Carmen Miranda hat, modelled by gorgeous Fanny herself!

Hat for me!!! I didn't even ask for this, she just made it anyway!

As you can see, Fanny makes creations that doesn't have to be used on stage too. If you feel like you need a costume, fancy dress, or maybe a hat, you can always contact Fanny on her Facebook page Stage Fright here!