Dark unicorn

For a while now I’ve wanted to step away from the classic theme of the white unicorn, with its purity and rainbows and give it a bit of attitude. I thought that this was quite an obvious thought process for someone creative with a dark edge and unicorns seem to be everywhere at the moment so I was surprised by the lack of relevant images online when I decided to do some research.

This was ultimately good news as it meant there wasn’t much I had to tick off the list due to someone else having done it before. I still wanted it to be quite an abstract interpretation of the unicorn as opposed to a full on pony costume with a horn and as always I couldn’t decide on just one way to style it so I portrayed it in 3 facets. Pretty unicorn, warrior unicorn and queen unicorn.

I thought these were all likely characters for the dark unicorn to take on and Jamie Mahon did a great job bringing them to life and create the right atmosphere. I also borrowed some beautiful taxidermy accessories from Sophie Adamson to complete the looks. The wardrobe/styling was provided by Eustratia and the chainmail by Richard Ayres, as usual.

We also took the opportunity to shoot some other bits on the same day but I’ve decided to include them in a different post.

I wore a revised version of this outfit to Torture garden for Halloween and added ears to the headband which I thought looked much better.

For those of you who are unicorn fans, the selection of unicorn themed items on my site is growing! Grad yourself something at http://www.eustratia.co.uk

Chimera: Behind the scenes

I recently found some behind the scenes shots from the chimera shoot and decided to share them as I think they show off some aspects of the garments that weren’t that evident from the final images. The majority of these were taken by Phil Nicholls and a couple by myself.

The garments featured in the shoot are available to purchase at http://www.eustratia.co.uk. Sale on till 22.1.12 so hurry!

I also took this opportunity to better showcase some of the accessories from the shoot with some still life images as I feel most of them didn’t stand out enough in the final images. These will be added to the online store as soon as I have some more suitable images back

Certain items from this range are already available at Birds yard in Leeds and all will be available very soon at http://www.eustratia.co.uk .

The will be priced as follows and can also be ordered via email to enquiries@eustratia.co.uk.

Perspex inverted cross necklace: £12.50 on black chain or £16 on thick gunmetal chain (pictured).

Latex, studded inverted cross necklace £20

Latex, studded cross hair clip £18

Latex, studded shield necklace £20

Nutmail choker £50

Nutmail cuff £38

The nutmail chocker and cuff are available in two styles, one solid and one with holes through the middle. All aspects of this item, down to the smallest links are hand-shaped! A truly beautiful item, worth every penny.

Bella Morte Alt girls feature

This month I was selected to feature in Bella Morte magazine’s Alt girls issue, available to purchase here. They chose a set of photos I shot a while ago, in Chester with Gareth Hickey. There were a few hundred entries and only 20 girls were featured which makes me feel quite good.

They chose a set of photos I shot a while ago, in Chester with Gareth Hickey and gave me a double page spread, which you can view below.

My favourite image from this set and the one I use for my book is the one below but the feature has definitely make me appreciate the other two a lot more.

image by Gareth Hickey, make up by Azzurra