CORSETS AND STRIPED STOCKINGS:
OUTFITTING THE ASYLUM FOR WAYWARD VICTORIAN GIRLS
by She Fights Like A Girl
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PART IV: WAYWARD VICTORIAN GIRLS
“Why can I never go back to bed?
Who's is the voice ringing in my head?
Where is the sense in these desperate dreams?
Why should I wake when I'm half past dead?”
- 4 o’Clock (2007)
The Gate Tour, which featured a short set of European-exclusive dates in late 2008, was the first notable tone shift in the Opheliac tours. With Vecona’s departure from all things Asylum after The Plague Tour, new costumes were debuted and the Crumpet line-up changed. The Naughty Veronica, Captain Maggot, the Blessed Contessa, and Aprella became the main line-up through 2009 (with some appearances by Little Miss Sugarless).
Most notably, we see the introduction of the third white heart corset, as Vecona’s costumes had been auctioned to fans on eBay.
EA Heart Corset / Third White Heart Corset, various sets, 2008-2011
More detail on this look later.
Then there’s a one-tour-only appearance of The Gate “corset” (a possibly-pleather torso wrap that went over a corset).
And how could I forget? There’s also the Rat Queen herself!
While this particular costume has a deeper history than what I’ll talk about (which you can read about here), it’s most indicative of the tone shift in shows. “4 o’Clock” had been performed in almost every tour previously, but this was the first instance of a song being assigned a character. Not just Emilie singing it and the Crumpets playing along in their on-stage world, but the image of a rat crawling out of the Asylum; Emilie embodying a pivotal character from her book and letting the rats out to play. There’s structure here, matched with a more solid sort of storytelling.
The style of the Rat Queen changes from tour to tour. The mask-slash-headpiece gained more decorations, sparkles, and stones as tours went on, and the original corset with white stripes and a white heart (seen above) was later toned down to a grey-only design (seen below). Ear headbands from previous tours were used, as well as the rat tail; decorative sleeve parts were changed and remade between tours.
Emilie Autumn by Scott Legato (2011, right) and detail shots from 2012 eBay listing (left).
The Rat Queen and accessories through various tours (2008-2012)
The following tour was called “The Gate II,” as it almost immediately followed the former and didn’t need much distinction. Some pictures from that tour are featured above. There isn’t much notable change in costume design during this tour, but it is the beginning of what I’ll call SparkleGate, because everything that could go through a Bedazzler did.
Then, in late 2009, the Asylum as we knew it was turned upside down by a rather sudden shift in management. Emilie split with Trisol Records and thus ended a very large and lengthy chapter of her career, going on to re-release Opheliac under a new label, The End Records. This double disk re-release came complete with a new photo shoot by Don Scott, usually known as “The End Photoshoot,” or “Opheliac Industrial.”
The same outfit was featured in book readings preceding her next tour, Opheliac’s first North and South American tour, “The Key.”
The overall design concept becomes considerably more glam (see: SparkleGate) than steampunk-goth, while the set remained relatively the same as tours past. The Bloody Crumpets continued wearing costumes similar or the same as tours past. It’s not until Opheliac’s final tour, The Door, that we see the full sparkle of the Asylum’s glam phase.
The SparkleGlam Corset. Or, as it was more commonly referred to, the KinKats Ensemble.
Again, the individual parts that make up this ensemble aren’t new. In typical EA style, this corset is a piece from former tours that was re-purposed and accosted with Swarovski crystals.
This full ensemble made its debut in two parts: the KinKats photoshoot and the Medical Burlesque Performance. (See the whole burlesque performance here.) Fans who’ve been here for a while might remember this as the pasties and/or “GlitterTits” phase (roughly 2010 to 2011), when the fandom was in a constant turmoil over Twitter Rants and Playboy blurbs.
By the time this ensemble it made its way off magazine covers and to stage, it had changed slightly in the bra, accessory, and wig department, and would continue to do so between tour legs (European, South and North American). But it was always the same general idea: pink, sparkly glam-rock. With really tall hats.
The rest of the stage costumes remained largely the same, featuring the Rat Queen (for the final time) and the white heart corset (#3). The Door Tour was advertised as the final tour for Opheliac and became something of a worldwide event, performed in separate legs across the world. By the official end of it, there was only one place left to go.
Emilie was invited to perform in The Harvest Festival “Down Under” after The Door Tour had come to a close. The set ended up being a majority of Opheliac songs despite the record’s retirement from tour, but there was one new song that did debut:
“It gives me strength to have somebody to fight for; I can never fight for myself, but, for others, I can kill.”
-The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls (2009)
Up next...
PART V: AN ASYLUM MUSICAL
Fly back...
PART I: Enchant and the Faerie Queene
PART II: Drowning Ophelia
PART III: Vecona, Seamstress of the Asylum
Remember to visit Part III and enter our giveaway! Ends 12/1/19.
[SEE ALL CREDITS AND SOURCES HERE.]
