Spring/Summer 2013 #23

FashionKatz little factory - 12Frantic About Frances - 24Catrionia Stewart & Kitty Creme - 28As fresh as a daisy; shoot - 21BooBoo Kitty Couture - 32Into the slink; shoot - 8X Faye de-Boorder - 18

SpecialsEnd of year poll, we catch up with some of the winners - 4Cherry Blossom & The horror of beauty; shoot - 36Summer favourites; beauty essentials for the summer - 35

Articles & FeaturesGirls gone geeky - 16The evolution of latex - 30Literacy influences on fashion, Steampunk - 14The alternative parent - 40Confessions of a plus size Soubrette - 42

CreditsIssue cover model: Vanity KillsPhotographer: Thomas Wynn

Editor: Leona TurfordAdvertising: Magenta

Contact Alt Fashion info@altfashion.co.ukwww.altfashionmagazine.co.ukwww.altfashion.co.uk

Next issue: Autumn/Winter 2013 Disclaimer: All links/details correct at time of publication.All opinions & views expressed may not necessarily be the views of the publisher, but of the individual writers & interviewees.Contributions are welcome, any individual providing material must ensure they have obtained the correct permission before submission.Alt Fashion is a non profit publication, therefore all contributions are taken on a creditation basis, with your credits published on your feature(s).

IndexSpring/Summer 2013 #23

Frantic About Frances - 24

X Faye de Boorder - 18

A word fromthe editor..

I’d like to say I’m off for a well deserved rest but an exciting new expansion to Alt Fashion awaits! By the time some of you read this it may already be released, all I can say for now is keep an eye in the goodie bags and on shelves at alternative clubs and fairs for something rather unique that will help stock up your wardrobe in abundance.

Alongside that you may have spotted a few changes online in the past couple of months, we’re back on track with our news blog where we’re bringing you regular updates each week on new finds from products launches to events and a few little offers tucked in, so be sure to swing on by our site to find some new favourites.

Our model features have also fully integrated onto our site, it’s great to see so much interest and we’re always keen to help alt models get out there. So what better excuse to take a peek at our site between issues!

Leona x

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We’ve caught up with a few of our End of year poll winners to find out a bit more about them, it’s certainly great to see some of last year’s winners making an appear-ance!

As we’ve switched to digital we seem to have put our run of themes aside for a little while so we can concentrate on bringing you a wonderful mix of features and styles. We take a look at the intricate creations of Katz little factory, the delightfully sweet pin up lingerie by Frantic About Frances to the wonderful designs by X Faye de Boorder, you certainly can’t say that we haven’t got a right mix of styles in this edi-tion!

Dipping our toes into a spot of culture with a look at Geek burlesque in Girls gone geeky, this article had been in my mind for the past 12 months the result of mammoth research and many watching geeky performances, it’s a movement that’s slowly creeping up over here and we hope it’ll grow only larger as it has done state-side. Alongside plenty of articles and photo shoots to feast your eyes upon.

As always with our digital format you’ll find links all over the place, be it to the featured designers or on image credits, click around you might find something exciting!

Putting this issue together has admit-tedly been one of the hardest tasks we’ve done, going digital certainly had it’s downfalls but on the flip side it’s been great to see that there’s still just as much interest as ever in the magazine.

It’s safe to say I’ll be glad to leave the headache behind once this issue is out in the open as it were virtually.. We’ve learnt a lot from going digital, whether we wanted to or not and in a sense it’s made us break out of old habits from compiling for print, enabling us to concentrate more on the benefits of being digital, and there will certainly be more changes to come as we embark on the Autumn/Winter edition.

But with we’ve certainly had an inter-esting few months since our last issue launched, our annual End of year poll saw perhaps the largest numbers of voters yet at one point our inbox even collapsed from the flood of votes, although that being said it was an old borrowed vista laptop as we sadly had to say goodbye to our trusty office laptop of 4 years when it popped it’s cogs back in December, thus enabling us to upgrade to the mindboggling world of windows 8, as this issue is being finalized we still can’t get our heads around it...

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TPF Faery wear have certainly had a busy year, 2012 saw them catapulted into a frenzy of interest and it certainly caught your attention. You nominated TPF Faery wear for our UK designer category in our poll and you certainly helped to crown them the deserving winner in our poll much to TPF designer Helen’s surprise “I knew I had quite a lot of support but I didn’t allow myself to believe I would win. I was up against a couple of other fabulous designers so I just sat back, crossed my fingers and when the day eventually came, let out a huge squeal of excite-ment and danced around the workshop with a giant smile on my face (I think it’s still stuck on there!). It’s AMAZING and makes the years of hard work to get here feel so worthwhile.” says Helen on winning.

2012 was certainly a busy year for TPF with an abundance of colourful and inspiring designs unleashed that captured your imagination which certainly helped to grow to TPF’s following “2012 was a roller coaster of a year where TPF truly established itself. In January I moved into my new workshop and in July my partner Steve (our in house photographer quit his other photo-graphic ventures and joined me full time on the creation side of TPF allowing it to grow substantially.”

With such a busy roller coaster of a year how will TPF top that in 2013? “I’m not sure yet, we’re only a couple of months in and it’s already been fantastic, feels like TPF’s lucky year...I just hope it carries on and we get to follow our crazy TPF journey to the next level, whatever that may be..”

And with plenty of inspirational creations under way this year we’ve already seen some wonderful creations, what can we expect to see throughout the rest of the year? “Hopefully A LOT. I aim to get a few more helping hands before the year is out to free up some time for me to be able to really flex my designer mus-cles. I won’t say what is coming your way yet but keep an eye on our facebook page and we should have some new stuff coming your way very soon :-)”.

Get enchanted at TPF’s site where you can find out more and shop her wonderful array of creations http://tpftpf.com/faeriewear/

The creations by Katz little factory are certainly wondrous, you wouldn’t expect latex to be crafted into such intricate, detailed pieces of wearable art. A world of stunning creations that are certainly eye catching, in a wondrous array of styles.

Cyber-like creatures sit next to antique rust looking steampunk collars and perfect floral creations, if you ever wanted something unique to add a little flurry to your outfit you’ll certainly find it here.

You started from a fine arts background, how did this lead to the creation of Katz little factory?I have always been creating and drawing since I can remember. In primary school my teachers insisted I take part in more artistic events and to keep in that direction – so I did! I went to art school to learn more about the things I was interested in and to learn to read shapes, colours and materials from the surrounding world, and how to adapt that knowledge into my visions.

You’ve certainly created a stand out range of ac-cessories with plenty of fantastical designs, do any particular influences inspire you when designing new pieces?Black has always been my favourite colour and I use it in almost everything! It was the same with water colours and drawings, in school my teachers tried to show me how to work with other colours but nothing changed. I like too much the contrast black makes with other colours and this turned into my niche. I have very few items in KatzLittle-Factory that don’t have black in them!

Your current range includes such a vast range of items from hair flowers to brooches, are there any plans to expand the range of items even further?The idea to make clothes started from making my own prom gown out of a black PVC fabric, a sort of bodycon dress with a corset back combined with a PVC underbust corset, accessorized with a silver chain padlock I wore as a necklace. That was very different from everything else I’ve seen at a prom. There wasn’t anywhere I could buy a dress like that so I had to make my own!

Then I started making pieces for friends and gradually became better and better. I then went onto making little flowers and hair clips to add to the look which evolved to bracelets, necklaces and belts. I like the idea of my flow-ers taking over like some organic life or robot from space. This is how the Cyber Flower concept came into being along with the Bugs, Butterflies and mechanical creatures.

What attracted you towards using latex for your crea-tions?I love the feeling of PVC fabrics and the metallic shine of the material, and I’ve found more synthetic leathers and vinyl that are suitable for my pieces collected from all around Europe. I use industrial materials to get the me-chanical feeling that also ensures they’ll last a long time. All together I use PVC, vinyl, artificial leather and anything rubbery, leathery or glossy! When I was a little girl I loved opening old broken clocks to see their mechanisms and steal some parts to play

with. This became a collection of bits and pieces from different broken objects I found now used to decorate flowers and bugs as if they were run by clockwork. Some of the pieces also feature instru-ment strings to make wings and antennas provided by My Dying Bride!

Your full collar pieces feature such intricate and elaborate detailing, how much work can go into creating each piece?Biomechanics make a big part of my inspiration; I don’t think I’d have the patience to make some-thing robotic that actually worked, so my cyber creatures stay largely clockwork inspired. Most of my works do take a few days to put together depending on inspiration and excitement at the time, some-times only a few hours! For example a neck corset has many details and I love doing eve-ry stitch, all the decorative gears and flowers, this usually takes around 2 days to finish. I recently started a new collection of

shrugs and underbust corsets that still have the cyber concept us-ing rubberised fabrics and mixed technique.

What are the plans for Katz little factory this year & beyond?My plan for this year is to finish the flower collection and hair-pieces, and to move onto insects and clothing. I have a new partner Bella Boutique trading at many events across the UK and will at-tend some myself such as Leeds Steampunk Market (in a fantas-tic old church), The Alternative Burlesque Fair Manchester, and music festivals Resistanz, Infest, Wave Gottik Treffen and Amphi in Germany! I’m very excited to showcase the new stuff, and you can also find me on Etsy and Facebook!

You can find Katz little factory online atwww.etsy.com/shop/katzlittle-factory & www.facebook.com/KatzLittle-Factory

Photographer: Kat | Model: Bella Trix

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Frantic About Frances

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Everything is so shiny and squeaky clean lately, no we don’t mean actual clean-ing we’re referring to the pretty shimmer and squeak of everyone’s new favourite fabric, latex..

The miracle fabric seems to have progressed somewhat over the past few years, we’ve noticed quite a change in the alternative scene with a lot of new latex designers cropping up, fetish companies ditching pvc for latex or sim-ply expanding their range of latex wares. Yes it would seem that latex is making quite a strong hold on the alternative scene, but where did this sudden boom in latex come from? And is it where the industry is headed for in the long run?

To look forward you’ve got to start by looking backwards, where did latex suddenly crop up and grab our attention? It’s always been a major holding within the fetish scene with a lot of companies using this wonder fabric to create their otherworldly and unique designs, well known labels like Breathless, Libidex and House of Harlot have been creating their jaw dropping latex wares since the late 1990’s and they’ve long been at the fore-front of the fetish industry so latex itself hasn’t exactly crept up out of nowhere, it’s been on the dance floors of clubs like TG for decades. But how did it get from there to squeezing in the figure of pop stars like Rhianna and Lady Gaga?

Fetish has long influenced the fashion industry, look at Vivienne Westwood’s first shop Sex well known for it’s bond-age and fetish attire at the start of the punk scene before it crossed over into the mainstream back in the 1970’s, back then you wouldn’t have expected Vivienne Westwood would become Dame Vivienne Westwood today but she’s helped to bring the darker side of fashion out into the mainstream and turn it into one of the most coveted designer labels today. But it’s not just Vivienne West-wood, the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen and dare we say it even John Galliano (as much as he may still be disliked) have helped to bring fetish inspired style into the mainstream. Through their progression, pushing their designs forward and bringing alterna-tive style onto the catwalk in turn they’ve helped to bring fetish fashion into the public eye and it’s certainly helped to push fetish style, so how has this led on to a boom in latex clothing?

With latex long being associated with the fetish scene it’s no wonder that design-ers and stylists have been digging into the scene to find the new look for mainstream artists and stumbled upon latex as an edgy look for their performers, the pop industry tends to go for shock tactics a lot, looking for something that will draw attention and what better way to do that then with a figure hugging latex outfit.

But how did latex grow to the stage it’s at today, looking back to when our magazine first launched latex was barely on the list of requested features and press releases that came our way so it’s certainly been some-thing that’s grown in the last few years as a new wave of latex designers have unveiled themselves. Going back a mere five years ago there certainly wasn’t as many latex designers about then, but as a revolution in clothing design has come about it’s helped to draw many graduate fashion designers towards using latex. It’s certainly a wonder fabric, it doesn’t require a sewing machine so you don’t need to invest thousands into an industry quality sewing machine, you simply need some rolls of latex fabric, some key cutting tools, rubber cement, latex milk and essential tailoring tools to get started so it’s certainly a different process to pinning and sewing fabric together and with the launch of sites like Making latex clothing a few years ago helping to guide new designers into the process to create designs with latex fabric it would seem that everyone wants to give it a go.

It would seem that the boom in latex occurred around the same time that we noticed the fetish scene grow alongside a boom in alternative modelling, have alt models dressing themselves in latex helped to grow interest in this fabric? We’re certain it has, with a squeaky latex clad model on the cover of Bizarre almost every month it’s certainly helped to draw attention towards latex design-ers with many of the key designers now at the forefront of the industry being featured as part of their cover stars spreads.

Nowadays you can find all sorts of latex designs so it’s not necessarily a fetish thing as such these days, take a look at the 1950’s bombshell styles by Anatomic Bomb which create pin up attire in latex fabric it’s certainly far away from the inflatable latex suits you’d see worn at TG, or the pop art inspired frocks cre-ated by Fetasia latex perhaps one of the first companies we noticed to turn latex into an art form rather than a mere fetish object and that’s not even covering the full spectrum of inventive latex designers out there today.

This crossover into different styles created in latex has created a great amount of interest in the fabric and clothing created with it, how many new latex designers have you noticed in the last year? I can count at least five of the top of my head who I’ve noticed at fashion shows and events, all taking a different angle at latex designs. But you do have to ask yourself just how far can we take latex? Will this new wave of designers eventually lead to a dry up in new designs? Will they run out of ideas to create using latex? For the future we can’t really say but we’ll certainly say it’s best to make the most of this boom in latex, never before have you had so much choice in designs and styles to choose from. As for it’s mainstream cross over it can certainly be a good thing, designers like Astuko Kudo are being featured in major fashion maga-zines as Lady Gaga’s latex designer of choice and all this extra attention is certainly helping to bring a boom in business for the industry, even Honour themselves have heralded this growth of interest in latex as being a great thing and if the designers themselves are doing that then it’s surely all for the greater good!

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I got into the scene a little over two years ago when I started my MA in Creative Arts, it was totally random and in all honesty I never imagined being in the position I am right now. A model – really? ME? But, I’m not ‘one size fits all’? I’m too short. And I don’t wear make up or heels. And I have tattoos (but not enough to be ‘tattooed’) and piercings. AND I don’t shave my legs. How can someone like ME be a model?

Pretty easily actually.

With a little bit of hard work and respect for my own body as well as other models, it happened and I’m proud that someone like me can represent all the average alternative women out there.

Now I must stress that such positive thoughts didn’t come easily, it has been a real and horrid struggle at times. Because of my size and my wobbly bits, as a lot of designers create one stock size of clothing for models as this is more economic for them. That stock size being 3 sizes too small for me. Because I don’t shave my legs, this shocks a lot of people. But some really couldn’t care less and wonder why I even bring it up. Because I have tattoos but not enough tattoos or not ‘the right kind’ of tattoos to be considered as a ‘tattooed model’. And because I don’t wear, and didn’t know how to apply make up. As I’m a woman, I found that this was very much taken for granted as a knowledge that I should have somehow been born with. Along with being able to walk in heels – which I also cannot do.

To my family’s dismay, I have never been normal. I have always been a bit ‘weird’. 15 years ago I was told it would be something I would ‘grow out of’. My sister did, yes. But me? No, I never have, and I honestly doubt and hope I never do. Now that I am helping to represent individual-ity, I hope I always remain true to myself. I think being an artist also, it is important to remain true to yourself. Whatever that is.

I began my MA with a love and adoration for female artists, particularly performance artists of the 60’s and 70’s. As I began to explore burlesque with feminist ideals, I always aimed to include some commentary on the body politic. So facing the issues I have being a plus sized model has only enhanced my research and understanding of what is considered ‘beautiful’ today.

Model: D

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My first burlesque act, I quickly dismissed, despite it being the most booked by promoters, because I personally did not enjoy performing it. The act was striptease but the strip had no real purpose within the narrative and in this instance, I felt like I was objectifying myself. My second act I created in response to this and I have since performed it at burlesque events, post graduate and feminist conferences and my university last year to new BA students. This act is called ‘In My Celebrity Skin’ and is one of my most favourite acts to date.

It is a comedy balloon-pop (of sorts) aiming to subvert images of the ‘ideal woman’. I begin a big breasted, blonde, ditsy, orange faced cheerleader. A stere-otype. During the act I realise I am in the wrong ‘skin’ which I eventually tear off revealing ‘nipple’ nipple pasties and a ‘muff’ merkin. ‘Celebrity Skin’ encourag-es a celebration of the female form and the liberation of being an individual.

Sometimes it is received with distaste, but most of the time it is received with a real sense of excitement and reflective freedom.

Autumn last year I was asked by TwistedPix and Fetasia to do a concept that they thought would be perfect for me. I was advised it was a bit weird, twisted and totally up my street. My first thoughts were: ‘oh crap’ because I always wonder what other people think I would be into – whether they really ‘get’ me. I don’t know why I wor-ried because of all people Bekah Baker (Mistress of TwistedPix towers) usually gets me spot on. This time being no exception, I was head over heals knowing that they had immediately thought of me when doing an anti-barbie shoot. It was fabulously fun and took a lot of acting on my part as I had to purposefully look like I DIDN’T want the cakes that my ‘boyfriend’ (Lee Shearwood) was trying to force feed me to bulk me up with. And I love cupcakes damnit! Whilst it

was fun and parodic, it had a serious message portraying a really interesting struggle between women and the me-dia, and the men that have to sit by and watch it happen.

During my modelling explorations, I became increasingly frustrated with people editing images of women to within an inch of their lives and making them look effectively, like dolls. I couldn’t understand why designers wanted people who didn’t look like people to advertise their wares. And to some

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