sashadechagny

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Dress

c. 1811-1814

London Museum

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“Zoya of the lost city.

Zoya of the garden.

Zoya bleeding in the snow.

You are strong enough to survive the fall.”

— King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

~

Cosplay Portrayal & Kefta made by @sashadechagny

Photo by Alexandra Lee Studios

Character from Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo; portrayed by Sujaya Dasgupta

Costume Design for Shadow & Bone on Netflix by Wendy Partridge

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Casually rebloggjng this because this was one of the hardest photoshoots we have done — for so many reasons:

1. It was done in my parent’s backyard in the suburbs

2. It was shot in the middle of the day

3. We had no access to photoshop, which meant hours and hours of good old fashioned editing pixel by pixel and tons of shading and highlighting to ensure the vibes were right

4. It was a series of five different posts which meant I repeated the process for hours and hours to ensure it was done in time…

But OMG I’m so proud of this despite it all and I’ve come so far in my costuming and creative journey, that I’m proud of past me for churning something as ambitious as this out!

“Blow up the barricade!” said a sergeant, “and yourself with it!” Marius retorted: “And myself also.” And he dropped the torch towards the barrel of powder. But there was no longer anyone on the barrier. The assailants, abandoning their dead and wounded, flowed back pell-mell and in disorder towards the extremity of the street, and there were again lost in the night. It was a headlong flight.  The barricade was free.  [..] Marius inquired:—"Where is the chief?“  ”You are the chief!“ said Enjolras.” – Les Miserables 

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Marius | Enjolras

The Barricade Project, Part I [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V]

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The Cisgender, Heterosexual Cross-Dressers of the Victorian Era

(NOTE: This post was deleted and then re-edited because GASP I fell for some misinformation I found online. A lot of photos of "cross-dressing Victorians" that are common on social media are photoshop works that originate from one specific gender reversal fetish blog. So that's something else you have to look out for when research queer history online. I knew this blog existed and I still ended up posting some of its fake history. Forgive me.)

Victorians absolutely loved cross-dressing as a gag.

But none of it was considered queer. Because it was considered fun and not subversive or perverse, it was carried on in public by heterosexuals without any fear or hatred.

More than anything else, drag flourished as a comedy act on the vaudeville circuit. Many of the biggest names in entertainment were opposite-sex impersonators.

Julian Eltinge (who I will get back to later)

Vesta Tilley

John Lind

Bessie Bonehill

Bothwell Browne

Ella Wesner

Bert Errol

Pepi Littman (left)

At this point in time, drag was more closely associated with comedy than it was with queerness. It was generally considered a somewhat low art, but it was nonetheless immensely popular with the entertainment-seeking masses. Acts usually poked fun at the gender roles and stereotypes of the day, and could even be quite bawdy.

While undoubtedly many queer people engaged in this popular act, drag was not seen as inherently queer. In fact, the term "drag queen/king" wasn't popularly used outside of the theater world until the 1970s. Until then, the act, and people we'd call "trans" today, were referred to as "female/male impersonators."

Even though drag wasn't yet associated with queerness, a few notable queer people did manage to express themselves through the art of drag.

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Marsha P Johnson with Snoopy

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SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP

(Photo of James Gant and Jess Micheore by my_photography_journal_ on Insta)

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Evening dress ca. 1897

From Whitaker Auctions

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Robe à la Française, c. 1760-1765

from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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Squaller Kefta — Inspired by those as seen in Shadow & Bone on Netflix

Made by @sashadechagny

This costume’s close up shots & full work breakdown has been a long time coming… about 3 years in fact… ever since the first season of Shadow & Bone was released, I’ve dreamed about making a kefta, one with the goldwork all done by hand like I saw in the show and fell in love with.

Photos of me wearing this are coming as I update this Tumblr with my newer projects but I definitely wanted to make a “Kefta By The Numbers” post first because wow, I definitely didn’t see it adding up like it did…

In total the kefta took:

85 hours of pattern development for creating my own custom embroidery patterns based off of the screenshots available to me online.

42 hours of transferring said pattern to organza and then the felt followed by stitching down said felt to the organza to create the padding needed.

354 hours of goldwork embroidery.

102 hours of actual sewing: developing the kefta pattern, mock-ups, fitting, cutting the wool, lining amd interlining pieces out, making the piping and bias tape, stitching the completed goldwork down and then sewing the kefta together.

48 hours of custom colouring 25 buttons to match.

For a total of 608 Labour Hours.

Breaking it down like this honestly is a stark contrast to the emotional toll it took at times; what you don’t see is the days of self doubt, the hating what it was looking like, the panic that it was taking too long, that it wasn’t going to be accurate enough and that no one was going to care about something I put my heart and soul into. And you know, now that doesn’t matter to me as much because I’m proud of what I created and and thrilled to simply be able to show it off in a way that means something to me.

Original story by Leigh Bardugo

Costume Design for Shadow & Bone by Wendy Partridge

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1926-28 c. Robe de style in green ombre tiered chiffon silk. From Galleria del Costume de Palazzo Pitti.

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Happy pride month to Marius Pontmercy and whatever he had going on with Courfeyrac like

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you cannot talk about the homophobic murder of jonathan joss without including in the conversation that he is indigenous.

american indian men are at the 2nd highest risk of death by murder compared to all other ethnic groups. in their lifetimes, 82% of native men report having experienced domestic violence. yet the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are non-natives (88% of native men and 92% of native women who reported violence said their attacker was non-native). what’s more, tribal governments are often stymied in their attempts to bring justice against non-natives, meaning that many of these cases go unresolved.

this was an intersectional attack. the fact that he is indigenous matters, even if the motivation was homophobic, because it made him even more vulnerable and disposable in the eyes of his killer.

as always, look into MMIWP to learn more, and speak up for us. miigwetch, take care

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phantom of the opera

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L'Elegance Parisienne April, 1875 Volume 49, Plate 101 Signed: E. Mille (530)

Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

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bol

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Yachting Girl, by Winslow Homer, 1880