Lex Gurst

Inside a designer's mind. How profound. Costume designer, former roller derby player; likes long walks on the beach and poking dead things with a stick.

[lexgurst]

Want to sew something by hand with all-purpose thread? Here is how I prep my hand sewing needle.

[yesterdaysprint]

The Atchison Daily Globe, Kansas, August 29, 1896

[eatsleepdraw]

Invasion

[jeannepompadour]

Ready for the Ball by Karl Gampenrieder (1860-1930)

[gahdamnpunk]

You can’t tell me Lupita is not an airbender

[candiikismet]

Ohhhhh my god

[omgthatdress]

This is why Cicely Tyson is a legend.

[hirokazukoreeda]

THE VVITCH: A New-England Folktale, 2015 dir. Robert Eggers Witches Sabbath, 1789 / Witches Flight, 1798 by Francisco de Goya

[putyouinabettermood]

if i fits i sits via http://bit.ly/2SGo3UX putyouinabettermood.com

[superheroesincolor]

Robin #Cosplay  by  Marcel  

via gennatay

Get the comics here

[Follow SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest]

[astrobust]

Turn off location

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

Did you know that beetle wings used to be sewn onto dresses? Like, hundreds of them on each dress? It's equally creepy and beautiful.

oh my stars, anyone have pictures?

[foreverafaller-deactivated20190]

Something like this I believe!

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

that’s one of the famous ones, a Lady Macbeth stage costume from 1888. apparently it wasn’t uncommon in victorian fashion:

we should bring embroidery like this back (but w/ imitation wings). we should all be walking around with beads & wings, clanging

[foreverafaller-deactivated20190]

Bring this back in 2019

[teachmemrstingle]

There’s a youtuber who does historical sewing and costumery who did this recently

https://youtu.be/iA8yVDohZ-4

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

OH MY BEETLEJUICE 

[hotlikesriracha]

To everyone in the comments- No, the beetles aren’t killed for their wings. These jewel beetles have short adult lives (2-3 weeks) and the wing casings are harvested after their death to ensure their conservation.

The Victorians did not invent beetlewing art. This species of beetle is indigenous to South and South East Asia where beetle wing art actually originated. Thailand, India, Myanmar, China, and Japan all practiced beetlewing art before the Victorians. Most notably, they have been used for centuries in clothing and art in the Thai royal court. Queen Sirikit has promoted beetlewing art in an effort to revive Thailand’s art and cultural history. Queen Sirikit has also forbidden the harvesting of the wing casings prior to the beetle’s death to protect them.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find old Thai art online but here are a couple of examples.

(Date and artist unknown. Thailand.)

(René Mancini, 1980.) Belongs to Queen Sirikit.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

please reblog this version of this post, this is amazing

[epicaandk-creative]

@we-cool-beans

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

@trisomylazarus

[theplatonicgoat]

@vinceaddams

[vinceaddams]

Heck yeah I love beetlewing embroidery! I’d like to try it someday! You can buy the wing cases by the hundred on etsy.

[plague-doctor-aesthetic]

Plague Doctor Ren Fair 2017 (5) by Azadeth

[deathandmysticism]

Wilhelm von Zimmern, Zimmerische Totentanz, ca. 1540-50

[siriusblackfoot]

The best subplot in Order of the Phoenix tbh…

[synonym-for-life]

Omg bless you 😂😂😂

[philamuseum]

They say a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, but we beg to differ. Happy National Cat Day.

“Pussycat,” around 1954, by Abraham P. Hankins

“The Family (Cat and Kittens),” 1928, by Mabel Dwight

“Three Cats,” 1880s, attributed to Thomas Eakins 

“Cat Reliquary,” around 1995, by George Johnson  

“George Is Not Home,” around 1936–38, by Leroy Walter Flint 

[publicdomainreview]

X-rays from one of the first series of X-rays ever produced, by Josef Maria Eder (1855–1944) and Eduard Valenta (1857–1937), both from Austria. The 1896 portfolio contains a total of fifteen images, including, in addition to the skeletal forms of animals and human limbs, X-rays of carved cameos and an assortment of various materials such as metal, wood, glass, and meat. If the images are striking today they must have been doubly so when first published, only a few weeks after Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen made his discovery of X-rays public with his groundbreaking paper “On a New Kind of Ray”. More here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/early-experiments-with-x-rays-1896/ And buy some of the images as prints from our shop here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product-att/artist/josef-maria-eder-and-eduard-valenta/

[lexgurst]

Working on some colorful dance costume dye samples.