#amateur corsetry

[audioletter]

for the Clorivia fic, is there anything you've come across in your costume/clothing research that you're particularly excited to include? or something you're looking forward to looking into for further inspo? (this is...also just an open invitation to share more pretty images honestly)

I'm an amateur fashion history buff so I rely on obsessive Google searches and my 27283993902 fashion history books for information. The Genshin devs do a good job at research - please read this excellent post on Yoimiya's outfit for an example.

Fontaine is "European" (sorry Mondstadt), mostly French coded with some Italian and Spanish seeping in so it's hard to put an exact finger on the influences - mainly because it is a game, after all and they take a lot of liberties (no skirts were that short ffs). Having such a wide breadth of fashion history to draw on for Fontaine has firmly left them using Victorian/Regency influences and Victorian Steampunk like whoa. The NPCs are a good example of this, especially those in the Court of Fontaine.

Navia is a good example, too - she is very classic Victorian Steampunk. Her corsetry is early to mid 1800s French, but as Spina di Rosula comes from the Corsican language, we can see some Italian influences (coughMafiacough) as well. She's a bit of a hodgepodge, but I would squarely put her in the Steampunk category. One thing I find interesting and that speaks a lot on her character is her hat. Large, ostentatious hats (and parasols) were used by the eccentric rich to promenade - I think this is a key indicator that despite the Spina di Rosula being dirt poor, she's still trying to maintain appearances of being the affluent boss of an underground group and I think that's a neat addition.

Clorinde is very interesting for numerous reasons. Her outfit is basically genderswapped Military inspired, from her tricorne-esque hat (a hat used in and alongside Military institutions), as well as her cape giving late 19th century/early 20th century Military uniform vibes. The rest of her outfit is a very loose Victorian Steampunk index, but even her shoes are reminiscent of Military issue boots of the 19th and 18th centuries. This also lends to Clorinde being queercoded, deliberately, which is an interesting manifestation by Hoyoverse (good for them - I should note that "queercoding" here is very simplistic and slightly on the nose [a chick in dude's clothes!] but with the restrictions China has, this is the best we can expect). She's very utilitarian, which is necessary to her job. Her shirt is a signifier for her character - it doesn't fit completely well because she simply doesn't care much for fashion or her appearance, other than looking as "put together" as her job requires. Nice touch.

They are also supposed to be complete opposites in their clothing - hard and soft - plus blue and yellow are apposing colours that compliment, so there's that.

I'm talking out of my ass but that's my main take aways from both of them. I have been researching lingerie but neither of their outfits would allow historical garments so, yes, I'm not going to bombard this post with pictures of themesque lingerie but rest assured you can find them in my likes.

I just like them a lot, okay.

[lovely-hikari-cosplay]

I haven’t posted anything costume/cosplay related here in a while, so here’s the corset I spent all Spring Break 🥲 making for this Peach cosplay I want to put together + a comparison to the Daisy corset I made last year for a similar purpose

Bonus!! The design concept and the mock-ups that led up to the real corset

[thestrippershateyou]

Serious in-good-faith questions I honestly have for radfems that never get answered when I post them

- What are your thoughts on the female-dominated community of fanfiction? If any of you have ever been on Ao3, you know that it’s absolutely FULL of blatant porn. They even have filters in their advance search for “under age” and “rape/non consensual”. This is a female-dominated community and yet you all think it’s only men creating this kind of content, you only ever talk about or go after men, and you only ever talk about or go after actual porn sites.

- What are your thoughts about any female directed and exclusively female acted violent or rape fantasy porn, particularly amateur such porn not financially backed by male-owned studios? (Do not insult my intelligence or yours by claiming it doesn’t exist. I want a real anwer.)

- What are your thoughts on non violent, non rapey regular vanilla porn made by women and starring only women? Take the porn movie The Gift made by the lesbian rapper Young MA for example. All female, all lesbian, all clearly consensual. Is this acceptable porn even though it’s produced by PornHub? 

- What about your thoughts on companies/studios like MakeLoveNotPorn which produce amateur porn by consenting couples of various sexualities who are often marginalised people, disabled people, and people who aren’t conventionally attractive according to patriarchal standards and which aim to show real sex with real couples instead of unhealthy, abusive, or dangerous practices with impossible standards. They also compensate their performers fairly. What are your thoughts on this?

- What are your thoughts on porn producers like PornHub doing humanitarian  work with the money they make? (Note: I’m not asking if this excuses violent porn on their sites. I’m asking specifically what your thoughts about their humanitarian work are. Is the work somehow less humanitarian because they make money on porn? What about people who accept their charity, are they less moral in your eyes? Should these companies not be allowed to do humanitarian work at all?) For those that don’t know and don’t want to google, PornHub has an $25k scholarship program for women in STEM that does not involve doing sex work to apply for, a sex ed website that’s actually really great education about safe and healthy sex and not pornographic at all, has partnered with porn stars’ charities to fight against domestic violence, and very frequently does charity drives for nature such as for whales, trees, and pandas. 

- What are your thoughts about female domination porn? Specifically where the violence is 100% inflicted on straight men by women. Really, what are your thoughts on the entire kink of female domination of submissive men and, separately, your thoughts on female domination of submissive women?

- You think that nakedness for pay should be eradicated but what are your thoughts on nude art models? Especially since many of you have some form of nude art on your blogs. Centuries ago courtesans were common models. Even if they were clothed, they got paid to model because they were known as courtesans and not because they were random women the artist found attractive. Today, many beginner artists are advised to go to strip clubs to practise figure drawing because it’s a source of varied models who quickly change poses. I’ve personally had customers pay to draw me while I’m on stage. Even outside strip clubs, figure drawing classes pay their undraped models. As for art made from stock photos....that’s still a naked model getting paid. Should women be allowed to do this work? Should men?

- What’s your end game with banning sex work? Did you think through what it would take to ban the oldest industry in the world? You’ll need governments surveilling bedrooms, hotels, night clubs, cars, etc. You’ll need all instant messaging services watched. You’ll need all phones (text and voice), cloud storages, and webcams subjected to government observation. You’ll have to have governments staging inquiries into every person who sends a nude photo to some else to find out if money or favours were exchanged between those people and if that exchange was for the photos. You’ll have to look into all marriages to determine if one party is receiving financial compensation for the marriage and even then how would you confirm if a stay at home spouse was effectively a sugar baby or not? You MUST know you’ll never ban sex work without every government in the world on board. And governments do many of these things already but it’s almost universally agreed that it’s a cruel invasion of privacy that shouldn’t be legal. Do you really think these things are acceptable methods, especially when it comes to consenting sex workers? How do you think the world will function in the wake of the measures that would be needed to eliminate sex work?

- In a hypothetical post sex work world, how would you feel about people charging for sex or sexual activities because they are exhibitionists or have a fetish for large amounts of money/wealth? (And, before anyone asks: No, I am not an exhibitionist and I don’t have a money fetish. I do sex work because I need a job that I like and I like it for entirely non sexual reasons. I’m merely asking because I’m curious as to what the answer would be) Should the wealthy be the only ones allowed to do this since they, presumably, are the only ones who couldn’t possibly be coerced through a need for money? 

- How do you reconcile being gender critical with not being okay with people who transition to being agender/non binary/genderless/etc and use they/them pronouns? (I’m sure some of you are okay with this, but I know for a fact that a large chunk of you aren’t) 

- Do any of y’all have thoughts on trans men at all? I haven’t ever seen radical feminists talking about trans men. Why? 

- Explain to me how exactly you plan to implement gender separatism in a way that isn’t a crime against humanity and what you think the end game of it will be. Also explain to me how you think it will stop men from objectifying women instead of just pushing men away to objectify women somewhere else.

- What are your thoughts on women who use things generally deemed bad for feminism in ways they find useful or empowering? Women who tightlace corsets* for EDS or to specifically have an unnatural body shape well beyond anything that’s patriarchy approved? Women who wear make up to have preternatural features such as scales or elven features or to hide birth marks or injuries that might bring them unwanted attention other wise? Are these women welcome in your feminism? (*I know corsetry wasn’t ever patriarchy approved. I am, in fact, aware of that. But they’re considered symbols of female oppression by the less informed and are often used as examples of horrible things men have done to women by feminists.) What are your thoughts on men wearing make up and corsets even for traditional reasons?