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Black Cherry clubbers Day of the Dead style

I promised more photos from the night, so here they are! Boy there were some stunning girls there…and guys as well 🙂

I’ve just put some in the gallery for you to peruse…click on the one/s you like to see larger.

 

Darned pesky head kept drinking my beer on the sly via the straw!

Seriously, if you’re ever in Sydney and see Black Cherry advertised, head on in – it’s a fun time with lots of different music, bands, burlesque, punk karaoke, aerial work, comedy and more…

Dia de los Muertos make-up for Black Cherry club

Day of the Dead – or Dia de los muertos, has been celebrated for over 3000 years by the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America. An Aztec ritual that has since merged with Catholic practices, DOTD honours the dead, and in particular, family members who have passed. 

Dia de los Muertos art is meant to show the duality of life, which can only exist surrounded by death. The artwork is meant to reflect this and make death a part of life, to be accepted and acknowledged instead of feared.  Hence the bright colours and celebratory air.  The only thing it has in common with western halloween really, is the use of skulls. 

And so, I was excited to have a theme to dress up to when Black Cherry came around last week.

I was also lucky to have bought an amazing DOTD necklace when I was at Nude n’ Rude in Koenji, Tokyo recently. It’s still available too! It’s called the Too Fast Sugar Skull necklace, and costs 3,500 yen, or get a similar one from Too Fast online.  I copied my design from that.

Instead of using white face-paint, which not only is very hard to use and get even, but looks super over the top, I went for a more subtle approach. I used my Shiseido green corrector stick, which is a pale green base stick which corrects reddish pigment in the skin. It goes on smoothly and the colour can be built up. It doesn’t set like liquid foundation, however, so I set it with pale face powder, and commenced the rest of the design.

Dia de los muertos design usually uses symbols from cards, such as a club, diamond, heart or spade. I used a heart on my forehead in red, a diamond on the bridge of my nose, and a club on my chin (using black pencil and eyeliner).

Usually the design also features black eyes and nose with little red gems or dots around them. I simplified and just did a smoky eye.  In deference to the skeleton theme, I created dark contours on my cheekbones with a matte gray/black eyeshadow.

The big standout I guess, is the lips. Instead of doing a full set of teeth (which does look very effective), I instead went for a puckered look. I drew vertical lines on upper and lower lips with a sharpened pencil, and then traced over with waterproof liquid eyeliner. On the inside of the lips, I joined up the lines in a “U” shape with black pencil for a more realistic effect. Then I added to this by using a white pencil to highlight the centre of each “U”, again for a more 3D effect.

I did also incorporate the spiderweb design often used in DOTD art, doing it in blue on my temples  and forehead – but the wig covered it up! Oh wells…. I grabbed a little fascinator on a headband that I had and sewed a plastic skull-face on it (having split the skull so it was flat-backed first).  I also added spooky eyeball hairclips I bought from Bexterity at the Rock n Roll Markets a few weeks back.  

Since flowers and wreaths also feature heavily on DOTD design, I grabbed a red  floral lei and mucked about with it for this photo:

And now for the rest of the outfit! I decided to wear a big circle skirt, since Black Cherry is quite rockabilly and vintage in theme. A riot of colour and pattern was also necessary for true mexican flavour, hence this floral art nouveau design.  A big pouffy petticoat underneath really made the skirt stand out and “swish” in a satisfying fashion.

Ribcage Corset – Louise Black
Pink tank-top & black halter top – owned for years
Skirt – bought in Suva, Fiji (on the day of the coup!)
Black petti/tutu – eBay
Striped gloves with skulls – i-socks, KL

I hope that has inspired you to try the look for a party, or even for Halloween coming up. It’s festive and spooky, all at the same time! For photos of the fabulous patrons of Black Cherry club that night, stay tuned….

Black Cherry Club October 2

Sorry for the lack of posting chickadees, but I’ve been doing lots of overtime shifts at work, which leave no time for posting.

I did want to alert any Sydney readers to THIS:

Yep – Black Cherry is on TONIGHT! Regular readers will know I love this club, and love how people get dressed up for it.

Well, tonight is a Day of the Dead theme…so even MORE excuse!  I have a great necklace with a DOTD motif of skull & roses…just gotta build on that now. I’ll probably wear the red wig with leopard print, and maybe do Victory rolls. Possibly I’ll even do the whole skeleton make-up thing.

But before that, I have an engagement party today in Sydney’s lovely Botanic Gardens, so I’ll be off to get ready for that. Be assured,  there’ll be lots of event pics coming up of guys and gals looking dashing. Bye for now!!

Black Cherry club; Victory Roll hairdo.

I’ve previously mentioned one of my fave Sydney clubs – Black Cherry.  Last night it was on again,  this time at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville, with 2 rooms and many, many acts.

With it being the biggest Black Cherry event yet, I had to do something special with my hair, and what with the burlesque flavour of the night, I decided to try Victory Rolls.

I watched quite a few how-to videos…but in the end, it’s all about the doing, isn’t it?Here is my first ever attempt…and I think it came out OK. I did 2 rolls either side of my part, a big one at the back, and I rolled my fringe too. Fake lashes top and bottom and my fave violet circle lenses complete the look.

A large black feather flower covered the exposed sectioning of the hair
And now some shots of the rest of the outfit
PVC Bolero/shrug – Artifice Clothing
PVC corset – Deadlygirlz/DGFH7
Red pvc ruffled bustle skirt – Geomythik
Black dress with tutu skirt – mall in Malaysia ($10!)
Spiky wedge shoes – Glad news, Japan

But onto the night itself….
Unfortunately we missed Frazer Bourke, one of my fave DJ’s, but there were plenty more to keep us dancin’.
The Rumjacks and the Snowdroppers played awesomely, as well as the Licks and the Go-Go Haunters.
There was comedy burlesque by the lovely Lauren LaRouge (who we’d seen singing at the Pandimensional Halloween Syndicate), more burlesque by Briana Blubell (Miss Burlesque NSW) and Lux St Sin from Melbourne, and aerial work from Tank.
For the full line-up including DJ’s, check out the Black Cherry facebook page.
I caught up with quite a few friends, including Carly from the Dark Shadows who very nicely came to the loo and latched up my DestroyX Crest necklace for me when I took off my bolero (crest glimpsed here in my pic with Dom, along with my grey fake fur coat that I got from a Swindon opshop for 25 pounds 10 years ago). Alas, I utterly failed to get any pics with Carly, yet again. The Dark Shadows are supporting Christian Death when they tour here on August 13 – how exciting!!

So many from various bands w
ere there and we chatted to a few such as Azzy T from Captain Reckless and the Lost Souls (ex-Zombie Ghost Train), and Oliver, frontman for  Our Last Enemy, who informed me they have the guitarist from Genitorturers on board and are touring Japan early next year.

The night is just getting bigger and bigger, and I wish Danielle and Carla who run the club every success. To anyone considering coming along, I say “hell yeah!”
We hit the Townie pub afterwards, and were home around 5, whence Dom decided to take a few more pics. As you can see, my ‘do stood the test of time apart from a few stray hairs here and there. I’ll certainly be trying more variations of the hairdo, now I know it’s do-able!
 
Next week is the Cobweb Club (see my post on the February Cobweb Club here). So you just know more vanity er, outfit pics will be posted.  But now, to get all the darned hairspray outta my hair…. 

Black Cherry Club & lolita Christmas outfit; Sydney Alternative Music venue Hermanns; Insurge

I always like to look a bit different each time I go out (and that’s quite a lot!)

Perhaps it’s Style ADHD; I’d get bored if I always had the same hair, or wore the same colour clothes and make-up. Even within the alternative scene I’ll sometimes be a punk rock chick, sometimes a gothic doll, sometimes a rockabilly vamp.

This past weekend – if you start on Thursday, as I did – I went out 3 times. You saw the aqua Nuffnang outfit here, and even I have to admit it was a little gaudy and over the top, but hey, there was a blueness competition going. I was almost going to wear a blue tulle tutu – now THAT would have been out there. I don’t normally wear head-to-toe anything, not even black.

Black and white, however, is a favourite combination, especially in stripes, argyle or spots, sometimes combined. It is this combo I wore on both Friday and Saturday night – since I’ll be in Cambodia for Christmas and New Year, these were my last nights out in Sydney this year!

Friday night saw me back at Hermanns Bar, a great little venue on City Road Camperdown, about 2 bus stops down from Broadway. It’s the same venue that hosted the 80’s club Electric Dreams (remember the Madonna outfit?)  This time the club night was Rollercoaster, which Club 77 used to host, with music like Ministry, Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, PWEI, Faith No More, Killing Joke, the Sisters of Mercy, Nick Cave and more. I scaled the look back a bit.

It was also the first gig in years by Insurge, a 90’s aussie Industrial rock band that combined the use of samples, audio loops and percussion, with the standard chunky guitars of hard rock. As JJJ  succinctly writes in J Play:

The band was known for its outspoken political views which were particularly focused on global issues such as injustice in the developing world, the political influence of corporations and financial markets, and global environmental issues such as climate change. The band’s politics were influenced by anarchism, environmentalism, anarcho-punk , political economy, and the anti-globalization movement.

Their best known song was ‘Political Prisoners’ from 1996, and boy when it came on, did the place go off! The boys have definitely still got it, and though it was supposed to be a one-off, hopefully we’ll see more dates from them in the future.

Saturday night was the Christmas Party and final club night for the year, of Black Cherry. I love the variety in music, people and fashion at this club – there are punks, deathrockers, vintage vixens, Rockabilly bombshells, cockrockers, tattooed peeps, goths, ska types…and just people off the street who come to check out what’s going on.

Since it was Christmas, I pulled out a red wig for this look. I also wore red lipstick, which is rare for me, and red and gold toned eye make-up, with various false lashes.

To the Louise Black corset I added a beautiful Algonquins skirt I bought in Tokyo some time ago – I couldn’t believe how well they matched! There was the same threaded ribbon detailing on them. I then threw on my beautiful Ann Vanilla polka dot bolero, which I also scored in Tokyo, but at the Alamode Markets (a twice a year gothic lolita market, but more on this in another post).
A little cocktail hat in leopard print, EGL crown necklace and lace gloves topped off the look. (I do wish I’d had the time to make a spotted pillbox, which would have matched better, but it did match the leopard print on the wig).  A gothic lolita rockabilly look, I think. And my fave black and white platforms looked great, but ensured I was often on the lookout for a place to sit, as you’ll see…
OK, time to stand
and to see the corset in all its glory..
More details on the outfit and make-up to come,  but that’s quite enough for one post 🙂
What did you get up to this weekend?  What did you wear?