Welcome to Punktoria
Posted: August 16, 2005 Archived from BonnyTymePyrate's Journal Archive
Time out from “Opheliac” for 45 minutes…okay, 46…Well, those of you who get our lovely Newsletter are already all too familiar with all of this, but I thought I’d show off the final product of those months of Punktorian men’s toil, that which I had hinted about several posts ago when I was still wondering what the hell to do.
Read onward for an incredibly picture-heavy post which you probably WILL regret…I’m talking of course about the B. Corgan video for the single “Walking Shade,” directed by the wonderful P.R. Brown. Paul was a dream to work with, so open to my Punktorian world, and built upon it to create a fantastic setting for all these bits of fabric I’d bled over. When things got a bit insane towards the end, I brought in some extremely talented ladies to help me complete the project on time, namely, Caroline, who kept me going with her box of 76 industrial CDs. We heard them all. Thrice. What made things even more challenging is that we didn’t know up until the very very very last minute which song these costumes were even for…it was a battle between “DIA” (the song I’m on), and “WS” to the last. “DIA” made more sense in a million and one ways, mainly that I already had the most exquisite antique black velvet hat complete with feathers, not to mention the Victorian mourning gown, but “WS” was chosen in the end. It only really mattered of course because the chance to create costumes that fit the lyrical content of each song was lost, and I had to instead design pieces that would generically fit for whichever song was chosen, which was a useful exercise and I’m not complaining…perhaps only slightly….My idea was to create a picture of the Victorian underground, filled with shady characters, a bit of dirt, a tinge of glamor, and questionable morals. A lot like dating rock stars. To begin with, I made these sketches:
Punktorian Dandy
Punktorian Gentleman
Punktorian Soldier
Punktorian Henchmen
Then it was time to make watercolors reality, which is not as easy as it sounds. After months of stitching, unstitching, restitching, building shoulders into coats, building stronger shoulders into coats, pattern-making, glove shredding, tea-dying, button positioning, bondage strapping, hat distressing, boot shopping (size 12, my friends, are near impossible to find, and I nearly had to sell my left breast into slavery for the ones I finally found), we had 5 full lead outfits complete with breeches, gloves, hats, stockings, vests, shirts, coats, canes, boots, pocket-watches (basically everything but skivvies), and two band costumes (and I can tell you it’s harder to make two costumes exactly alike than it is to make ten that are different), which looked a little somethin’ like this:
Punktorian Dandy
Someone wasn’t in the mood to tie their shoes…
This coat pattern was made from scratch, just draping fabric around a dress form…first time I’d ever made a man’s coat…
Goddamn, that’s a lot of zippers…
Every single outfit was made so that you could take off the coat, and still have a wearable “look”, thereby creating yet more options for the director to play with…
Punktorian Gentleman
We fought with this coat for a month…the tweed fabric was so heavy that the shoulders, which already had a challenge ahead of themselves, were inevitably pulled southward…we tried everything from cardboard inserts to resetting entire sleeves, and I think I blacked out from exhaustion at some point, because I honestly can’t remember how we fixed the problem…
Yes, I am fucking proud of this design…it is sex…only better…tea-dyed to the extreme for a weathered, torn, aged, I’ve slept in this for the last six months appearance…
Even the coat has two looks (actually three, but wait for the surpise…), because you can fold the collar down to expose the jaunty jabot…a little cane never hurt anybody either…
The bondage straps were made so that you can easily unhook them and reconnect them to various other D-rings placed elsewhere on the coat…or you can hook them to you dog’s collar and go for a stroll…
SURPRISE!!!
And underneath it all, a ragged gentleman lurks, pocket-watch in tow…this was my attempt to popularize stripey stockings on men, if you hadn’t already noticed…not sure yet what the global buzz is on that one, I’ll be checking the mags…
Punktorian Soldier
For this set, I wanted the appearance of somebody just back from digging in the dirt, a popular pastime in Victorian England…
[photo missing]
I regret that I do not have a clearer picture of this appliqued emblem, because it is rather sweet…this shirt made good use of both my overlock machine and my acrylic paints…
Punktorian Schoolboy
Here, the same heart-on-cross emblem is repeated, this time just painted on…after going back and forth on the issue, we decided to leave the shirt out rather than tucked in…we like messy schoolboys…
All private school uniforms should look like this…
Punktorian Streetwalker
Just a nice ensemble for a casual country twilight walk…the vest is sporting actual antique buttons…there were supposed to be gloves photographed with all of these looks, but we forgot, being completely focused on other things at the time, such as how to keep not yet buttoned cuffs on without the use of safety pins…
Punktorian Henchmen (dear friends Matt & Brian…are they not the most gorgeous pair you’ve ever seen in breeches?)
Now! My pies de resistance! The keepers of the Punktorian Underground! I call to order the first meeting of the Boot Brigade!
Lace-up coats…does it get hotter than this? I think not…
[picture missing]
Matt Walker’s got stylez…here he’s thinking of ways to kill you without leaving a mark…
Check out the strappage!
He’s still thinking of ways to kill you…he’s narrowing it down to either cyanide or a mind-blowing drum fill…
Brian Liesegang, my favorite puppy dog, was such a delightfully willing participant in this game of dress-up…thanks Brian!
Just you look at that jabot! Look at it!
Alright then, it seems he’s decided on the cyanide…
[picture missing]
I’m particularly proud of how these shirts came out…what a divine, tea-dyed, shredded mess:
I’m very very proud of this work, and of those who helped me, Paul Brown, Matt, Brian, Caroline, fLee, CrysTAL, Melanie, and strong black tea, thank you to you all, I am indebted! So that’s it, or that which I can tell anyway, the rest is for history to decipher…
Oh, and please do come out to Chicago’s DoubleDoor August 27th to see Matt play with his band “Cupcakes”
