The Muse: Boudoir Noir

WARNING: The material in this post may shock you as it contains scantily clad women doing scandalous things, almost all the photos contain some rather ridiculous poses, lots of lace, garters, and feathers. Then again, when in the boudoir, it goes with the territory.

First drink of the night, the penicillin, Dewars, Laphroaig, lemon, honey and ginger

 Saturday night in Providence the place to be and be seen was at Vanity where Chifferobe, providence's premiere traveling show company presented Boudoir, and neo-burlesque featuring Miss Wednesday and the Cotillions and the TropiGals. As I am acquainted with some of the latter, I had planned on going, and my thrifty nature was further aided when I won the free ticket give away on Facebook. If ever a city was ripe for a vintage night scene its Providence, there area unusual amount of restaurants and bars that have a classic old world feel either deliberately (like Vanity, modeled on the traditional, or rather untraditional, speakeasy) of simply due to the caliber of preserved historic architecture in the city. It helps that there is a whole culture that seems to drift in and out of such places, from singers, to dancers, to whole old world bands, the entertainment matches the local. It would also be very easy to miss out on a lot of this because I feel like there is a dedicated  group of followers of all ages who trail them from venue to venue, and not always that much new blood. By the time the show was winding down a younger, far less cultured crowd was packing in and definitely changing the element of the place entirely. That's fine, Vanity is a bar and bars are out to make money, but unfortunately things also went from a mildly enjoyable and fairly quiet bar scene to a mob I couldn't wait to get out of. I have to commend all of the performers, they are wonderful at what they do, especially when you consider that many of them are amateurs who just love what they do. I'm not entirely sure the venue worked, it was too small, which made service awkward and viewing difficult, and the performance space seemed poorly equipped. I will confess I'm no dancer, but it looked like there was a bit of slipping and sliding that was unintentional and crowding around the edges perhaps limited them. This kind of occasion is all about the element of fun and that certainly was there, where else can you legitimately dress up in lingerie and go out for the evening? Though looking at my outfit photos I won't lie, I feel faintly ridiculous, unlike the ladies on stage I don't do this for a living.

 Peignoir set: Artemis by Vanity Fair, vintage via Savers
Lace Stockings: Worthington via J.C. Penny
Shoes: A Touch of Nina via DSW
Purse: Forever 21
Mask and Fan: courtesy of our fabulous hosts!

Miss Wednesday

Every girl needs a good pair of stockings, and some sparkles on her shoes

Leslie Brick, belly dancer extraordinaire, and the TropiGals newest member

Amy Lovera teaching us all about contortion

Lace masks were one of the favors, somehow I didn't get one but begged one off someone else, not the most comfortable especially if you have mascara on, but they do have a certain je ne sais quoi

Amy Lovera and artistic director of the TropiGals, Kristen Minsky

Sofia Poe (I had to shoot her outfit in color, her and her hulu hoop just weren't the same in black and white)

My good friend Jen Olson, right before her costume change

And of course I had to take a stupid picture of myself with both fan and lace mask, which earned me some strange looks from the gentleman sitting next to me at the bar, then again his frayed shirt was not photo worthy, perhaps he was just jealous.

Jen's third costume change of the night, I can't help but agree with her observation, "why can't we wear slips and turbans all the time?"

Even Kristen Minsky's shoes sparkle, sometimes I'm not sure she's real