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This Month In Pictures

Apologies for the lack of posts, and this very long post - this month has been SO busy. I didn't even realise how much I've done until I compiled this!

It's the time of year at work that I need to shoot all of our next season lookbooks AND prepare for the tradeshows in July - August. So I've been working very hard, and will continue to until mid/late july, when I'll go back to just working hard ;)

Anyway, all I can give you for now is my month in photos, via my instagram @swiczeniuk!

 

Top Row - My look for DJing last night at A Curious Invitation. It was a Spring Ball, so I went with some kind of spring mermaid look - fashioning a crown out of some pieces I had lying around. 

Bottom Row - Last week I shot the SS'15 lookbook for Playful Promises with Miss Miranda and a model called Laura B (Body London). Shooting is always a bit stressful, but we had a great team and had fun while we worked! The location that I had scouted had some really interesting pieces, although this table (right) was the creepiest thing I've ever seen! 

 

Top Row - A lighter flapper look for DJing at White Mischief. I found the beaded headpiece in a vintage shop in Penzance, and I wore a mixture of Ell & Cee, Nearer the Moon and American Apparel!

Bottom Left - A quick afternoon shoot with Miss Miranda wearing an amazing design by Bibian Blue! This was just a back of camera shot :D

Bottom Right - I am LOVING my new orange wig! Orange was the first colour wig I bought 5 years ago, but I find this length a lot easier to wear out (longer wigs tend to feel too hot for me). This was shortly before going to dj at The Aeronaut!

 

Top Row - Shooting some new promo pictures for a new club we (The Roustabouts) will be launching. We've rescheduled the launch until late-summer so I'll be sitting on these photos for a while, but at least we have selfies ;)

Bottom Left - On a warm day we went just up the road to Egg to DJ at the Gold Diggers garden party. The dress code was gold, which is pretty much my thing. 

Bottom Right - Max Deviant caught us mid-dj set. This is how I look without filters.

 

Top Left - Mark Charade and I before going to The Meth Lab to see Manilla Luzon!

Top Right - The first of the lookbooks I shot this month! Miss Miranda for Playful Promises Circus Collection, which is going to be released very very soon, and I'm so pleased with the photos.

Bottom Row - I shot with 3 lovely ladies; Betsy Rose, Missy Fatale and Jolie Papillon. Betsy brought along the gorgeous little Freida (left) and Missy brought her snake Fredrik! I've never held a snake before, so it was an... interesting experience. Luckily I'm not scared of them!

 

I went along to a show my boyfriend, Mark Charade, was putting on called 3 Serpent Circus. I'd just recieved a brand new made-to-measure corset and neckpiece from the wonderful Boom Boom Baby, and co-ordinated it with a new teal and blue ombre wig. It was a fun night with friends both in the audience and on the line-up! Bottom Left is me derping around with Lydia Darling, who I actually work with during the week too (although we don't tend to look like that in the office :P)

 

Top Left - I went down to Cornwall for a week to visit my parents and have a little break from London. I took this on my last evening, just before sunset.

Top Right - I love George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic!

Bottom Left - Beautiful garden in one of my favourite shops in St. Ives

Bottom Right - Just before leaving London, going for some Targaryen realness at Soho House in my Black Milk skirt.

 

Top Left - Awesome cocktails at Trapeze Bar

Top Right - I shot with the wonderful Jackie Le, who not only performs aerial at The Aeronaut, but books all the rest of the performers for the show as well. I'll be posting these shots up very soon (they are currently on my facebook page), but here's a preview of the styling I worked on for these images! 

Bottom Left - Jackie Le in one of the looks we shot that day!

Bottom Right - Another Soho House mirror shot (they have great selfie mirrors!) wearing black and gold.

 

This Month In Pictures

What I've been up to during the past month, via my instagram @swiczeniuk!

 

You may have noticed I'm a fan of Ru Paul's Drag Race, and one of the most hilarious and memorable contestants has got to be Alyssa Edwards. So when I saw that she was performing in London with current Drag Race competitior Laganja Estranja, I snapped up some tickets. On Thursday myself, Mark (top left), Miranda (top right) and her boyfriend Anthony went down to The Black Cap in Camden to watch the show. 

We had SO much fun dancing and the show itself was brilliant! The only issue was that the venue was packed, so we ended up sweating like crazy. It was worth it, though, and we have booked tickets for Manilla Luzon next month!

I put together the tackiest outfit I had in my wardrobe, that I could still move around in. I'm loving my new lace front wig from Geisha Wigs! 

 

Top Left - Wearing my Geisha Wigs split wig again for a shoot with Scott Chalmers!

Top Right - A behind the scenes shot of one of the many, many looks I shot with Miss Betsy Rose a few weeks ago. She's wearing a corset by Ava Corsetry, and the hair and makeup was done by Bella Noell

Bottom Left - Another preview of Betsy! This costume was created by Alston Stephanus, for Betsy to perform in in his show, Sublime Boudoir. The detail on each piece is absolutely astounding, I can't wait to finish up the images!

Bottom Right - Betsy's beautiful little lady, Freida! The cutest dog I've ever met!!

 

Top Left - I haven't worn my red and gold style for a while! Perfect for wearing to DJ at The Aeronaut in Acton.

Top Right/Bottom Left - A little bit more dressed down for a mid-week champagne reception/meeting! 

Bottom Right - Testing out (forgive the lack of makeup!) another lace front wig from Geisha Wigs - I've yet to shoot in this beauty, but I LOVE it.

 

Top Left/Top Right - My birthday (13th March) happened to fall on a thursday, which also happened to be the day that my lovely friend Mr Pustra was hosting Room Service, a gay club based in Soho. I donned my biggest wig and we partied all night, it was so so fun. It's rare that I go out without working, so it was a change to be able to just dance, chat and relax! 

Bottom Left - Another outfit for DJing at The Aeronaut

Bottom Right - A snap of my finished makeup for the tutorial I made a few weeks ago, check it out here!

 

Birthday treats! I pretty much asked for books this year, or book related things. The top left are books from my parents (they also bought me plane tickets to Prague in August!). My wonderful boyfriend also bought me a kindle and an AWESOME cover for it - I thought that I would find the transition to kindle a bit difficult, but I have to say that I don't find it jarring at all. I've run out of space for books, so I'd rather just purchase the ones that I consider particularly special in hardback editions.

At the beginning of the month we also had a day of watching some of my favourite films on our projector screen. We re-watched The Pianist and Everything Is Illuminated - can you guess that I tend to love films that make me completely distraught?!

 

This Month In Pictures

What I've been up to during the past month, via my instagram @swiczeniuk!

 

 

Top Left - This weekend The Roustabouts performed at The Crazy Bear in Stadhampton, which is a beautiful venue! I wanted to take a photo of the amazing garden but didn't get a chance. I just bought this dress though, so here's a snap of what I wore!

Top Right - Bling bling just before Soho House

Bottom Left - A WIWT from last week, wearing my Whistle & Wolf pleated dress.

Bottom Right - The Roustabouts just before our gig at Hoxley & Porter in Upper Street

 

 

I've been SO busy from the beginning of the year! As my job involves selling our lingerie to stockists, this means I've started to go to tradeshows, which tend to happen at the beginning of the year and the middle of the year. In late January we went to Paris and then Copenhagen. You can read an indepth diary of the two tradeshows on the Playful Promises blog, but here's a few instagram snaps.

Copenhagen (above) was absolutely lovely, but snowy and cold! I think we might have been unlucky with the weather as some people told us it wasn't usually that snowy. It's such a lovely city though, and I'd love to go back in the Summer. The food was completely amazing (but everything is so expensive!).

 

 

Paris was also beautiful (and a much better show than Copenhagen). We didn't have much time to explore as the show was from 9-7pm and quite exhausting. We did manage to go to a gorgeous art nouveau restaurant (top right) with Karolina Laskowska, which was near the opera house (top left). Another highlight was finding a picture of a pug in socks. A PUG IN SOCKS!

 

 

Top Row - Went out to see The Black Cat at the Cafe Royal. This place is covered in gilt gold, which is obviously to my tastes ;) 

Bottom Row - For New Years Eve we performed at the Gore Hotel for an event organised by Chaz Royal and Betty D'Light. It was a masquerade themed event, so I found us some matching masquerade masks. 

The Past Few Months

Oops, I haven't updated my blog in a few months! I've been so ridiculously busy that I've barely had time to write or post anything :(

This is for a few (wonderful) reasons. A few months ago I was offered a promotion at work, to Brand Manager of Playful Promises. This meant that alongside my current responsibilities I've also taken on our wholesale accounts, which will involve preparing for and attending tradeshows in Paris and Copenhagen in January and February. I've just shot the images for our Autumn/Winter 2014 collection, which I'll then be selling to stockists and, eventually, selling to the 'public'! Scary stuff, and a lot of work, but I love it. 

If that's not all, I've also been helping my partner, Mark R. Charade to produce and run our new cabaret club, The Katzenjammer Club! Since the beginning of November we ran the club EVERY Saturday, with a different line up each week. Phew. 

I have to say, it's been such a busy few months that I'm grateful to have a holiday. So, at the moment I'm visiting my parents for Christmas. This allows me to reflect on my year, and my work. But first, here's a catch up from my instagram over the past few months!

 

 Top Left - A kinda semi-xmas look. Or a missing member of TLC.

Top Right - What I wore to the PP xmas party, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately the next day (completely unrelated to alcohol!) I caught the sickness bug that had been going around, and was very VERY sick :(

Bottom Left - A few days before, I went for some dinner and cocktails with Miss Miranda and her boyfriend Anthony. It's always amazing spending time with them, especially in such a beautiful setting as the Bar Americain!

Bottom Right - Another semi-xmas look. This is about as Christmassy as I get :P

 

Top Left - Behind the scenes shot of the Playful Promises AW'14 shoot! This lovely model is called Emma, and we went for a 60's inspired look for this shoot. 

Top Right - In early December Mark and I were booked to play a wonderful wedding. It took place in a lovely hotel in the New Forest! A brief but very lovely break.

Bottom Left & Right - I've been watching a lot of Ru Paul's Drag Race, so I decided to spray a wig gold and wear a gigantic feathered coat, as you do.

 

Top Left - Mark and I heading out for dinner :)

Top Right - Another look for The Katzenjammer Club, inspired by Pris from Blade Runner (nobody else got it...)

Bottom Left - I shot the AW14 collection for our sister brand, Whistle & Wolf, and here's a shot of an unedited preview. That suit is crazy but I love it.

Bottom Right - Checkered look for The Katzenjammer Club!

 

Top Left - I've been looking for gold stockings for AGES, and thankfully Catherine from Kiss Me Deadly found these beautiful vintage Gerbe ones! 

Top Right - Behind the scenes shooting for Orchid Corsetry! I'll be posting the finished images very soon.

Bottom Left - On the shoot I tried on a stunning black ribbon corset - I love the way it looks on this dress.

Bottom Right - We djed at an awesome new venue called The Aeronaut. It's completely decked out in circus style!

 

 This needs it's own collection of images! I will be shooting some portraits in this costume, but in the meantime, here are some shots I took on Halloween of my custom-made Matador costume. This was created by the amazing Boom Boom Baby and it's just exquisite! 

 

Top Left - My lovely boyfriend, Mark, bought me an interesting looking book! It's conceived by J J Abrams and written by Doug Dorst and has two people's annotations in that also tell a story, as well as little bits and pieces like postcards and scraps of paper! 

Top Right - My makeup and look for djing at the Belle Epoque/Dark Circus Party

Bottom Left - I love this dress from Chiara

Bottom Right - A black, white and red look for the launch party of The Katzenjammer Club.

This Month In Pictures

What I've been up to during the past month, via my instagram @swiczeniuk!

 

Top Left - On the 6th October we celebrated The Burning Beat's first birthday with another little event at Concrete, Shoreditch. It was a nice night, but I was just so exhausted after a full week of work, then djing friday, saturday and sunday!

Top Right - My hair and makeup for The Burning Beat

Bottom Left - We had some wonderful acts performing for us, including Miss Miranda (pictured), Bettsie Bon Bon, John Drain and Tom Baker.

Bottom Right - Mark and I before heading out to Soho House on the friday night!

 

Top Left - Possibly the only time I'll wear florals.... wearing a Whistle & Wolf dress with a Karolina Laskowska harness.

Top Right - We went along to the Apartment 58 (where we are hosting a new club, The Katzenjammer Club) launch party to do a short set, which was fun. I wore my new Black Milk bodysuit!

Bottom Left - My hair seems to be behaving a lot more lately, and curling when I ask it to :D

Bottom Right - My lovely boyfriend, Mark, took me out to see the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show, it was so good!

 

Top Left - Yay, new lingerie! Regardless of the fact that I'm running out of space to store it all, I love these new Kiss Me Deadly sets. 

Top Right - This dress (from ASOS) makes me feel like I'm in Bioshock!

Bottom Left - A little snap from my Marlene Dietrich self portrait shoot. I had to draw the eyebrows on super high...

Bottom Right - I treated myself to a beautiful hardback copy of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I remember reading these probably a year or two after they came out, when I was 11 or 12, and re-reading the books now is just as wonderful. I've already finished Northern Lights! If only the film hadn't been so terrible...