Making an Act~ Part two, the Costume

*Side note before I start. I want to blog and use  my own photos, but my camera is lost at the moment :(  So when it is found I will show you all, my original costume. xoxo

We all know what Cruella looks like. Long, slip like black dress, red gloves, red heels and over sized cream fur coat. To make my costume these are the MUST pieces. When thinking about costumes I always try to think of what I might already have. I am the queen of reusing costume pieces, I mean hey this stuff gets expensive! I've scoured my closet to think of what I have. I have 1) a long cream coat with a large fur collar. This would work really well, but I don't want to be throwing it on the stage floor or leaving it alone in the dressing room. 2) I have an amazing fluffy white boa. I think this will look beautiful on stage & that is what it was made for (the spotlight!) 3) I have long satin red gloves. Done. 3) I have a short black dress....nah this needs to be long. So I have to buy a new dress, always fun. Last, 4) I have sky high red heels. Done.

 It looks like the think I need first it the dress. I jump onto google images and put in long black dress for inspiration. I found a couple and looked up where to get them. Yikes! The price was waay outta what I would want to spend. Then I had a light bulb go off, "look up slips" So I headed right on over to Fredrick's of Hollywood and found a beautiful long satin slip at the perfect price! Yeah!!! It will need some tweaking to be stage ready...meaning it comes off in a fun unexpected way and it will need some sparkle ;)

It seems now I have my basic MUST items under control. Next I had to think about what goes underneath it all. Since this costume has a set look I couldn't get away from, it's the underthings that got my creative juices flowing! I thought about how I could incorporate the dalmatian into my costume in an interesting way. Bingo! A spotted corset and to make it even creepier... with red lines or ruffles some how (kinda like blood). Red panties and maybe a red bra under the corset. These things I want to make custom all myself. (so I can't wait to find my camera and show you!!!!)  Ok, I'm a little mad now that I can't find it.

This in black will be nice

So here's to finding my camera. And getting this costume together!

xoxo

Dangerous Delilah

Storage

Now that I have been performing a little over a year I have quite a few costumes.  The problem is, where to put them all!  Some are small and don't take much room but some are fluffy or heavy and have multiple layers and pieces.

                                                                                            

I've been putting some of them in plastic bags and then hooking them on a hanger, then shoving them in a closet. This isn't soo bad but it makes for finding what I want difficult. Then the bags got too heavy and the handles started to tear. 

So I headed to Target and got these little beauties.                                                                                      

I filled them up and now everything has a home. They take up a lot of room, A LOT. So that's not so good, but I can put multiple small costumes in one and I like that they are not getting crushed. My small feather fans are no longer getting licked by my cat so that's super good.

I also have a ton of fishnets, other stockings and gloves. These I put into a plastic drawer that I had other crap in. I also put in garter belts. Unfortunately, I don't have a dresser so storage has been a challenge without one. I want to keep my burlesque things close together but also separate from my normal clothes. I put glitter jewelry in a ziplock so the glitter doesn't go all over everything.

So I'm going to see how it goes. It's not perfect, but it's better, and since this has been a new year resolution, it feels good to be making progress.

Anyone have there own ideas they want to share?

XO

Dangerous Delilah

The Movie Review

I was able to go see the move Burlesque a week or so ago. After taking sometime to sort out my thoughts, I think this movie is pretty bad. There are some good things and some bad things, so let me tell you all about it.

Its starts out with a small town girl, Ali, wanting more, so she leaves. While hitting the pavement of LA looking for a job she sees beautiful Coco, a burlesque dancer, outside the theater. When she enters the theater, Ali doesn't know where she is or what kind of place she has walked into. This is when I was excited. On stage is a group of beautiful women in amazing costumes dancing away. And like me, Ali got excited and wants to join the group. What I really enjoyed about this part of the movie was Ali's excitement and wanting to be the girl up on the stage, because that's how I feel now. I HAVE bought all the books on burlesque, like the girl in the movie. On the other hand, the on stage dances, the stage, back stage, the bar, the costumes, and make-up, is all amazing, but it's not real. It's not burlesque.

After Ali becomes the star, the movie gets really bad. The costumes and make-up stay amazing, but now it pretty much is a Christina Agulaira music video. It's pretty bad. I tried to ignore the bad acting because the costumes and dancing were so good, but at this point in the movie it is too hard to ignore.

In all it's a bad movie with some really good things sprinkled in. To me this was another version of Coyote Ugly with better dancing. I would love to see this movie again, but edited down just to the dancing scenes.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the movie. My hope is....that people will be excited to see what burlesque really is and come out to this shows.

xo
Dangerous Delilah

Procrastinating

Here it is on Sunday Oct. 10th at 3:30 pm and I have a ton of things to do on my costume for the show on Tuesday, and I can't stop watching the T.V. show I Shouldn't be Alive. What is wrong with me! Maybe I do my best work under pressure, but I sure don't like it, I want to be done with this costume and practicing the dance.

What I'm having trouble with is the corset. I have a pretty black corset that I am trying to drape in black spider cloth. I can't figure out if I just want to tack on a silver web here and there, or put the whole cloth covering the corset. I'm hoping to be able to possible preserve the corset to use another time. Burlesque costumes are expensive so I want to be able to reuse what I can.

I still have to make pasties and some final sparkles on other costumes pieces. With all this to do, I'm drawn to this show still!

So, please come to my show and see if I've finished this costume! It's October 12th at the Elbo Room, 647 Valencia street San Francisco CA

See you there,
xo
Dangerous Delilah

Of all things...Why burlesque?

I say why not burlesque! :) I love to dance, love love love it! When I was a wee lass I was a ballerina and danced for many years, practicing until I got blisters and the big pay off of dancing on stage. As years went by and as I grew up I didn't have the natural ballerina body, so no more ballet for me.

What's a girl to do? I wanted to get out of the house, movin to the groove, but nothing sounded right. Modern dance? No. Hip Hop? Not for me. Belly Dancing.... maybe, but the classes were a bit pricey. Then I found burlesque. Hummm.....really? I thought well, why not give it a go. It was a series of 12 classes and if I didn't like it I was done.

And now I say, why not burlesque!!! All shapes, sizes and forms are whole heartily welcome. Not once since this adventure began have I ever felt not good enough or not pretty enough. Once you learn the basic shimmy, shake, the bump and grind, the rest is up to your imagination. As a beginner, I like that if I'm on stage and don't remember every little step no one knows except me! I feel that as long as I'm hitting my ques and I'm getting cheers then, that's good for now.

For me it's easy to learn steps and stay in time to the music, doing a dance that someone else is teaching me. The challenge comes when I'm the one that has to come up with the choreography. When the kicks, turns and shimmys are all reliant on when I want them to happen, that's tough.
And that's the fun challenge burlesques lets me enjoy.


And the costumes! Oh My! How I love the glamor. Some costumes I've seen on stage, YouTube and in photographs are amazing. The sparkle and dazzle of a show stopping costume just really make all eyes turn. I love the corsets, garters and stockings that get to be worn. As a modern woman I never got to feel how feminine it feels to wear these things until now. Also, where can you get to wear such creative, colorful and sexy things?



For me, burlesques is like skydiving. I'm terrified to do it, but once I take that leap...it's exhilarating!



xoxo

Dangerous Delilah