A day like any other

My husband asked me a couple of letters ago how I really handle not celebrating Christmas when just about everyone else is all happy and merry and really getting into the festivities. He knows that my special day is the solstice, and that usually I do things over several days rather than cramming it all into a gluttonous 24 hours.

Plenty of people around the world do not observe Christmas as any kind of special day, and many have other days in the year that they celebrate with gifts and parties and a little too much food and drink. I often think that birthdays are more special than holidays, simply because your birthday is yours. That makes my husband's eyes roll as well, because he has no time for astrology :)

But seriously, it really is no big deal for me not to jump on the Christmas Day bandwagon. I've already opened the couple of gifts I received this year, when my daughter and her boyfriend came over for dinner on Sunday. They are spending today with friends who this year had a premature baby. But you see, just because I don't do Christmas, doesn't mean I don't participate in anything that happens at this time of year. Quite the contrary; many Christmas traditions are based on pagan activities.

I send Yule cards rather than Christmas cards. I spend quite a bit of time each November hunting down cards that say "Seasons greetings" rather than any reference to Christmas, and I make sure that some of them have no glitter or other embellishments on so that they are prison-friendly. They usually have trees on, or robins and snowmen.

Talking of trees, I would have a tree as long as it still had roots, but I don't have a garden to keep it in. So for the past couple of years I haven't had a tree indoors at all or any specific decorations beyond some seasonal greenery in a bowl. But I have a yew tree just 5 feet from my front room window so I usually have my own show of birds to decorate my view instead.

I give gifts. Mostly handmade, or just small things that I know the recipients really want. I receive gifts too, though rarely as many as I give, but that's OK. It's not the receiving that counts.

We share food and drink, with people we want to spend time with. That's possibly a little different to the majority Christmas where you "have" to spend time with "family" whether you want to or not because it is "tradition". I love to cook, so having the kids over for dinner was great for me to do a full roast. As I now live on my own, I rarely cook that much food in one go these days. Eating with friends is also part of my tradition, whether I'm making food to send to them, or eating out with them as I will be in a couple of day's time for one of our regular lunches.

So really as you can see, my end of December isn't that different to other people's. I just don't spend ridiculous amounts of money, or hoard bread and milk as if the world is about to end. It's quite liberating, in an old fashioned kinda way.

What I did in February

I've been waiting to blog about this for a while, as the photographer (Lisa Fellows photography) had promised the first mention to one of her other pals. But now that's been published, I can write about the day from my own perspective as a part-time amateur model of voluptuous proportions and part-time writer.

This also ties in with my previous posts on alternative style. Uptight Clothing is owned by the lovely Janice and is based in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Janice designs and makes the kind of gowns that any woman can feel sexy and gorgeous in, no matter what their size or shape. The trick? Corsetry!

Many of Uptight Clothing's outfits are worn as wedding dresses by those ladies who feel that white just wont do (although there are several Uptight creations in white too, for those who can't resist). The gowns also suit formal or masked balls, gothic events, handfastings, or indeed any event that calls for something special in the frock department. 

The outfits generally come in 2 sections. The first is the skirt portion, often with what feels like a whole acre of fabric in satin or silk, and sometimes with an overskirt of fine organza for extra swish. The second section is the all-important corset. Boned at the front and sides, and laced at the back, all are made to measure the individual. This means you can choose whether to have the lacing slightly open to show your back, or closed to just display the laces themselves (which can be of contrasting or complementary colours). The corsets come in a number of different designs, with shaped necklines, detachable long or capped sleeves, frills, crystals, or some of the embroidery that Janice is incorporating more and more into her work such as dragonflies and ivy leaves.

As all the outfits are hand-made and come with a sensible price tag, they would normally be out of my own price range. So being given the opportunity to wear not one but 2 of the Uptight Clothing dresses, even if they weren't made specifically for me, was too good to miss.

The day was a portfolio shoot for all concerned. This means that the photographs were experimental, designed to try out new ideas and lighting effects, locations, styles etc. At the end of the shoot, the photographs can be used by any of the parties involved to promote their work. Digital photography has made this far more achievable, as many hundreds of shots can be taken without the need for developing to take place to make the final selection of the best images.

Lisa wanted to have older models, instead of the usual young brides seen in most wedding photographer's portfolios. She also wanted to try out some industrial locations, rather than the woods and nature you usually get these kinds of frocks photographed in. Janice wanted some new photographs of her stock as her website is due to be updated soon. And of course, I wanted some pics that I could send to Ray!

Also with us was Lisa's friend Sharon. She is petite and slender, the complete opposite of my 5 foot 9 inch, well-endowed frame. She is fair where I am currently dark (purple actually), so the contrast would be even more pronounced. Second shooting on this occasion was Bryony Claire.

The first pair of frocks we had were to complement our colouring, so Sharon's was pale and very floaty, and mine was strong and bold. Actually putting on the corset needs 2 people, you can't lace yourself into one! It wasn't a perfect fit, as everybody's body is slightly different, but it felt strangely magical as the laces were tightened to reveal a waist I thought had all but vanished over the years.

Wearing a corset makes you walk differently. You have to stand straighter, and really I could have done with a pair of shoes with kitten heels instead of my flat pumps. We made good use of the industrial estate where Uptight Clothing is based, and as it was a Sunday morning there were few workers around to watch us.

For the second pair of frocks, Sharon had a heavily embroidered dark blue/green ensemble and I had a lighter outfit with an organza overskirt and matching ¾ length sleeved shrug which I loved. We also played around with some hats and fascinators made by Violet Peacock in Houston, Texas. For the second set of shots we moved to the small park next to the industrial estate and posed in front of some fabulous forsythia and some equally fabulous graffiti (which just happened to be in the right colours!).

To be honest, there is only so much you can do with a full-length gown and a corset that stops you bending over by more than a few degrees. Many of the poses are similar for this shoot, even though the backgrounds are different – but that's OK because it was the frocks we were showing off rather than us models. Sometimes you have to take a back seat and let the clothes and set do the work, under the guidance of the photographer. When I've done life modelling before, the shapes you make with your body are often what gives the photographs that extra interest, but with a corset, the shaping is already there. I wasn't feeling quite as bubbly as I usually am, and I think that has come through in the pictures (although no one else may realise it), and my hair was a little too short for my own liking as I'd only had it cut a couple of days before. It's longer now and if we did a shoot tomorrow I think I'd personally be happier with the results, but this one was not about me at all, so how I felt on the day is less relevant.

It was a fun day, and an interesting experience. Hopefully Janice is as pleased with the results as we are. There is a possibility of a more organised shoot later on this year with some more of the Uptight Clothing range in different colours, which I am definitely up for!

Alternative style #2: Calling all posers!

I have a friend (well, I have lots of friends) who is a tallented photographer. She has her own business based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Lisa Fellows Photography, and much of her work so far has been centrered around wedding photography. She has a real knack for capturing candid shots, as you can see from some of the images on her web site. She also has a sister company focusing on childrens portrait photography, Logan & Letty, so she is pretty busy with her art at the moment!

We were talking the other day about alternative lifestyles, off the back of my previous blog post. Lisa is pagan like me, and used to be heavily into the Goth scene having grown up in Whitby on the east coast of England. We were discussing the various types of alternative, how they are lived and not just put on at weekends, and how there are probably more people living an alternative lifestyle than most would expect.

As a result, Lisa would love to do some portfolio work with individuals, couples, families and groups who live any kind of alternative lifestyle. It doesn't have to be weddings (although that would be great, Lisa would have to charge for her time, at a reduced rate for anyone who mentions seeing this blog post); the whole idea of alternative lifestyle photography is to capture the kinds of activities that make up that particular lifestyle.

For example, if your family is into all things from the 1950s and you spend your evenings and weekends dancing to Buddy Holly or riding Lambrettas around your local town, that's what Lisa wants to depict. Another example would be families who are very involved with the Scouting movement. For individuals, perhaps you have a love of falconry and you keep your own raptors, or you may be the next teenage Lewis Hamilton and spend every moment away from school or college driving around racetracks or under the bonnet of a high-powered racing car.

It's not just about dressing up. It's about your lifestyle. Having said that though, it doesn't matter what alternative lifestyle you lead, Lisa is very good at bringing out the best and most flattering side of anyone and you will end up with a small set of images to remind you of the experience. If you want to purchase some prints or have the set mounted in an album, Lisa also has some very attractive package deals.

So here's your chance to be imortalised on (digital) film. Interested? Then drop Lisa a line by email here or give her a call on 07963 936620 and tell her Silva sent you.

What's so “alternative” about vintage?

I'm currently working on a project to create some vintage-style inspired knitted Christening gowns. This has meant doing a bit of research, not only to find suitable patterns and images, but also to see what other vintage-style stuff there is out there.

One of the hottest topics associated with the word “vintage” at the moment seems to be weddings. I think these are on the whole a lovely idea. If you have the location and are into a particular era, then setting your wedding around that theme can produce some wonderful opportunities for your photographer.

A vintage-style wedding is about more than just the dress though. For example, simply wearing a 1920s inspired wedding gown yet having your wedding in a modern hotel with the reception including a disco, really couldn't be considered to be a “vintage wedding”. Neither can having a modern wedding, but with all your photographs in a sepia tint or with softened edges.

Now, I'm not the wedding police - people can get married however and wherever they choose! But I am a bit of a pedant where words and phrases are concerned, and I happen to think that too many photographers, bridal outfitters and even brides themselves say that their wedding is “vintage” when it's not.

The same goes for the word “alternative”. I have seen this used to describe vintage weddings (it gets a bit confusing from there on!). But is vintage really alternative?

I don't think so. Anyone who lives an alternative lifestyle (for example, Rockerbilly, goth, biker, LARP, eco warrior, pagan, etc) will more than likely have the wedding / handfasting / christening / naming ceremony that fits their lifestyle. Vintage, in my opinion, isn't a lifestyle. It is a way of describing the look or feel of an item or group of items.

In car terms, vintage applies to only a small group of cars, made before a certain date (generally between 1920 and 1930). Cars made after 1930 are termed “classic”. Cars made before 1919-20 are generally referred to as “veteran” in the UK and “antique” in the USA. If you apply the same terms to a wedding, then no modern weddings could really be called vintage because they are happening now, not 80 years ago.

Just as the clothes do not make the man, the wedding dress does not define the wedding. An alternative wedding would not generally have a white wedding dress, a big fruit cake with royal icing, a church service or even a reception. My own wedding was pretty alternative, as my husband and I were married by proxy in Dallas, Texas. I wore jeans and a cardigan I had knitted myself, my mother-in-law stood in for my husband, and we had bubbles instead of confetti. Then we went for lunch with a few friends at a local Chinese buffet.

The best thing to do is put “-style” after the word vintage or alternative if that is what you are describing.