Extra Sugar
A few years ago, my occasional collaborator Sapphire and I transformed ourselves into anime girls to create a little humorous cartoon sequence. It was based on the premise that these typically skimpily-clad girls were drawn by male artists, and were TIRED OF IT. They’d had jack of glorified scanties and wanted to wear designer clothes. And they were prepared to fight for them!
Long-time readers of SNAP will not wonder where our costumes came from: out of my closet, which encompasses a multitude of wigs, accessories and sundry oddments as well as a vast assortment of vintage and contemporary clothes – almost anything you could imagine. A 1950s opera cloak? Tick! An 1850s velvet skating coat? Tick! A Victorian woman’s evening top hat? Edwardian underclothes? A pair of over-the-knee leather boots? A long, curly-haired pink wig? Tick, tick, tick! (Those who know my tiny apartment often exclaim, “Where do you keep it all?!”)
Once we’d worked out what our costumes were going to be, the really fun part was putting on our makeup. Sapphire had cleverly done her research and found some YouTube tutorials on transforming our boring human eyes into enormous anime eyes. I supplied an enormous quantity of makeup for the purpose (Sapphire enquiring, “Do you have white eyeliner?” “Yes!” “Liquid eyeliner?” “Yes!” “False eyelashes?” “Yes! I have everything!”). The only thing Sapphire had to bring was a pair of shoes, since she’s a size smaller than me.
Every time I put on false eyelashes for a special event – these ones are black feathers – I think they are such fun that I should wear them every day. Whenever I do wear them for several hours, I am so happy to rip them off as soon as I come home however. Everyone knows the pleasure of wriggling toes upon removing painful heels, but there is the same bliss in removing the weight of sticky curtains from one’s eyelids.
Click for larger versionWhen I opened the folder on my computer I laughed when I saw these out-takes and extras – how awesome we looked! We also took some Hipstamatic photos behind the scenes of the photoshoot: there is even one of me hurriedly repairing a pair of handmade earrings for Sapphire to wear that match her necklace. The red pom-pom headband I am wearing I also made. One of the other amusing vintage garments are the 1960s lace-trimmed petti-pants Sapphire wears under her blue dress. All the clothes we are wearing are secondhand items I sourced from various places, except for the over-the-knee socks, both of which were new, and the pink nylon tutu I have on.
You can see the original story Revenge of the Anime Girls here – I enlisted the help of a bemused male work colleague to do the hand modelling, and he was very forbearing about being kicked by two miniature women. Looking at all these behind-the-scenes photos reminds me how much fun we had. It might be time to book another date with Sapphire!
Photos: March 2013