At the beginning of May I attended my first ever
"lingerie event" with my good friend Becca Pointeau. Followers of my
blog will be aware of my love for the vintage inspired
Kiss Me Deadly, and
staying true to the brand; their take on a catwalk show was something a little
out of the ordinary.
As opposed to being a serious fashion event with the
intention of reeling in new retailers and wholesale opportunities, the focus of
the
Kiss Me Deadly show was more along the lines of celebrating their loyal fans
and followers.
KMD also have a long history of being unusually diverse in their
choices of models; having used models in the past with body types rarely seen
in the lingerie industry, with disabilities, and of under-represented
ethnicities. In-keeping with this tradition, they chose their models for the
catwalk from their real life fans, which allowed much more diversity than the
usual sample sizes and retailer expectations allow for. The eventual line up
consisted of a variety of body shapes, heights, ages and even different
genders.
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| Some of the Deadly models |
The event was held at
The Tabernacle theatre in Notting
Hill, and upon arriving I instantly spotted
KMD founder and main woman
Catherine Clavering by the front door, accompanied by one of the faces of the
brand;
Jessica-Louise Abidde (who was later on nice enough to negotiate me a
free glass of wine). I of course proceeded to corner Catherine and gush about
how much I love all things
KMD. I asked what had become of her past plans to
open a second boutique in her home of Sheffield, to which she admitted that
despite her efforts, Yorkshire still wasn't quite ready for the likes of their
special brand of tongue-in-cheek, weapon-toting, film noir-esque lingerie
eccentricity.
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| Tempest Rose with two of the House Of Burlesque dancers |
The show began with an introduction from Catherine; looking
stunning with enormous hair and a bespoke
Philmore Clague dress; then the
catwalk kicked off. The models strutted up and down the stage one by one; each
in customised lingerie, though there was one lady who made the show for myself
and Becca as soon as she stepped into the stage.
She exuded confidence and stood out from the rest as she was
constantly dancing, blowing kisses and striking poses for the audience, looking
every bit the natural performer. She was instantly our favourite. I have since
been in contact with her on Facebook and
Twitter and she is every bit as lovely
to talk to as she appeared on stage.
Following the Deadly models were a number of acts from
House Of Burlesque, compared by the charismatic
Tempest Rose. This was to be my first
experience of burlesque; something I'd been waiting for in anticipation since
KMD first made the announcement that it was to be a part of the show. The first
to perform was an artist named
Trixi Tassels, whose tongue in cheek strip tease
was topped off at the climax by spinning her namesake tassels on her nipple
pasties in every combination of directions imaginable. Her performance; along
with all the others', was absolutely hilarious and we became fans of burlesque
on the spot.
The whole evening was a complete success (from our point of
view at least), with every performance having its own charm and comedy value. I
found that there was a feeling of community amongst all those who had travelled
to be a part of the audience too; I recognised a few familiar faces both from
the lingerie blogosphere and the vocal
KMD Facebook fandom and everyone felt
comfortable to approach each other to compliment the spectacular array of
dresses, corsets and shoes being worn. I hope that it's possible for this to
become a yearly tradition as I would happily make it a regular pilgrimage to
attend.
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| Emily, another of the Deadly models |
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| Jean-Louis, who travelled from Sweden to be a part of the show |
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| A bit of audience participation |
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| A burlesque tribute to Nigella Lawson |
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