Whitby Goth Weekend: October 30th to November 1st 2009

It is currently 4.25am the day before we set off to Whitby in North Yorkshire, North West England, UK (the town which inspired Bram Stokers Dracula). We're heading there for the Whitby Gothic Weekend; a twice yearly event which attracts thousands of people who share an interest for the gothic alternative lifestyle, music and fashion and culture. We shall be proudly presenting our dresses, embroidered clothing, hair accessories and lots more.

For now, I'm being lazy (well, it is now half four in the morning) so I shall simply copy and paste another recent blog from Silver Lining Sewing Rooms - our sister company.

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Another blog about Whitby...

Another blog about Whitby, but it’s been my primary stimulus for the last few weeks. I’ve been somewhat cut off from the general goings on of Silver Lining as I put every spare minute into getting the Bride and Gloom stall together… with the help of everyone else of course.

Rachel has been immersing herself in Silver Lining and ensuring the work carries on there. Bless her, I know she wants to get all dark and dramatic but she has you guys to think of. At least she has Amy, Denny and Tracy to help her, and it doesn’t stop her wielding her creative genius and delegating tasks to her specification.

We’ve all been devoting some of our time to Bride and Gloom. The last couple of weeks have seen us all with split personalities; by day serene (ahem) seamstresses devoted to Silver Lining Sewing rooms, by night demons (literally) in the work room feverishly preparing for our stall at Whitby Halloween festival.

Tracy creating a brand new range called ‘Kafuffles’. They are absolutely awesome collar/truffle/shrug inventions; each one totally original and drool inducing.

This picture really doesn't do them justice!

Paul, now known as ‘Designer of Doom’ has been busy showing his artistic skills in creating awesome designs for shirts and corsets among other things. Just check out this zombie hand… I need one of those in my life!

And I have been ritualistically burning my fingers on a daily basis to create the most gothic rainbow of hair accessories you have ever seen.

This is just a glimpse of what we have been working towards. It’s close now, just 9 days until we make the journey to Whitby and our stall in the leisure centre.

If you are planning to be in Whitby over Halloween, please come and say hello. Follow the picture link below to download the program of events for the weekend; there are bands galore, in the main Spa event but also in other venues around town. There are burlesque and comedy performances, masked balls and fancy dress, classic bike and car shows, club nights and of course the massive gothic markets that we are taking part in.

For Silver Lining Sewing Rooms it means a week off the radar. The shop will close its doors on Saturday 24th October and open them again Tuesday the 3rd of November.

First Blog- Welcome to Bride & Gloom!

Welcome to the bloggings of Bride & Gloom, an alternative dressmaking service and creators of darkly clothing, accessories and gift-ware. Bride & Gloom is brought to you by Rachel Behan, a professional seamstress who runs Silver Lining Sewing Rooms in Blackburn, Lancashire. Rachel is able to unleash her alternative streak with Bride & Gloom and will be able to work with you to make the alternative dress of your dreams. Silver Lining Sewing Rooms operate a blog on here already (http://silverliningsewingrooms.blogspot.com) and sometimes these two blogs will mirror eachother. To get this one started, I am copying and pasting some recent blog entries from the Silver Lining blog. You can catch up on the history by clicking the link above.

Sashages

We've been working furiously all week. Not only on the essentials of running a business, but also on the nice parts of working in a creative industry. At the end of October we will be wending our way across the country to play with the Gothic community at Halloween.

Once again we will be promoting the darker side of Silver Lining Sewing Rooms... Bride and Gloom, and showing off our dramatic and extravagant gothic wedding dresses. One of the new items on our stall this time will be our sashes, and boy have we had our tongues tied over this one!

I can only guess that we were thinking about dinner when we named these stunning adornments, but since the first cut of the fabric of the very first incarnations of these creations we have all been tripping over the letters in this seemingly simple word… sash and spurting out all manner of adaptations with Sashages being the only version able to leave our lips with any frequency!

I’m not quite sure that Sashages is the best description of these beautiful embellishments but it definitely makes us all smile and so it’s likely to stick. Try not to think meaty product prepared by a butcher and think more of sumptuous silk, taffeta or satin sash crafted by bewitching seamstresses in a plethora of dazzling colours.

I just love the way these Sashages hang and can transform any outfit into the most amazing and elegant affair.

There are several sizes to choose from; delicate and dainty to all out brazen bustle.

Originally designed to decorate some bridesmaid dresses and adapted to be worn over corsets these additions to your wardrobe can be worn with anything. Wear them around your waist or hips, or just under your bust to create an empire line… and if you absolutely must around your head in a Rambo styli as Rachel insisted on modelling for us (and I actually have to admit that it didn’t look half bad :))

Don’t tell Rachel, but I already have my eye on several fabrics to make a whole rainbow of Sashages for myself.