The Friday before last (that’s right – Friday 13) I attended a really curious event in a place called El Atelier de la Muerte Negra (something like The Black Death Workshop, translated to average English). It was basically a creepy nineteenth-century cabaret show/party (or, at least, that was the idea… LOL).
At first, it all seemed very intimidating. You had to send an application by e-mail so that they would allow you to be on the guest list. And there even was a dress code! The styles listed on the invitation were: “Paris Belle Époque, Dandyism, Victorian, Cabaret, Burlesque, Macabre, Black Widow, Bohemian, Elégance Noir… No jeans, no t-shirts”! I had never attended an event that had a dress code before, and, for one time in my life, I was afraid I might not be the coolest character around! (LOL)
I wasn't even familiar with some of those styles, but I DID know what ‘dandy’ means (:P), and one thing was for sure: this would be the ideal to take my Halloween skull out for a walk… :D
The first challenge was transforming my Halloween skull (which, I should remind you, was meant as a simple Halloween decoration) into a tie. I thought about using a chain with muskets at first, but I finally used a fake leather strap. I put it through the skull’s hitch (I twisted it a bit to make it shorter, so it would sit right in place) and tied it around my neck, just like a tie, on top of my black frilled shirt. The result was just perfect. It looked like my skull-tie had always been there! I was amazed… and proud of having created my own custom accessory ^^
When I added my black studded tail coat, my first impression was that I looked like some kind of gothic classical musician. I saw myself in the mirror and thought: “If I knew how play the cello, I could already send my application form for Apocalyptica :D”
However, I was still pantless, barefoot, and the worst of all: I still didn’t know what to put on my head.
I gave a chance to some of my gangster/dandy hats, but they all kept clashing with the nineteenth-century feel I wanted to give to this look. I desperately needed a black top hat (note to self: I still need one – LOL). I could have used a wide-brimmed hat too, but I didn’t have any either…
I got really stuck at this point.
I commented the situation with The Dude, and, after a while, she said: “What about a traditional Spanish hat?” A traditional Spanish hat?! I didn’t even remember we had one of those around! The idea sounded a little bizarre at first, but the hat looked just perfect! And it was way, way, way more nineteenth-century than any of my other hats. It took some hard sewing work to accommodate it on my head (the bastard kept falling off - LOL), but it was definitively worth it!
With my black velvet trousers on, I really looked like a nineteenth-century Mexican at this point... Like some kind of El Zorro (LOL). Of course, that was not a problem at all! The Mexican theme matched my skull tie perfectly – you know Mexicans really have a thing with the figure of Death (see the Santa Muerte cult)… And it was a great deal of Personal Jesus too!
I loved it :D
I was death on two legs; a ghost mariachi from Hell; the undertaker in some old spaghetti western movie; the ominous presence in a creepy masquerade…! (LOL)
I completed the outfit with my – already classic – dandy shoes, and I was ready to go :D
I had to deal with some El Zorro jokes and astonished looks from kids on my way to the venue. You know, it’s always funny to see regular guys dressed in jeans and plain T-shirts trying to mock the few of us who have the balls to do what we want. Why don’t you get a life, babes? ;)
Of course, at the place where we were going, it was the people in jeans and T-shirts who felt uncomfortable… As I should have suspected from the start, we were almost the only ones who respected the dress code. Aside from a couple of cabaret freaks and some regular goths, the most of the people were dressed in a quite normal fashion, so all my initial fears were over (LOL).
The cabaret numbers were rather short, and they were really spaced out. There was not a lot you could do in between… except taking pictures of the place – which we did profusely :)
We’ve been in love with this place since the first time we saw the entrance, more than one year ago. It looked so fascinating and mysterious (and displayed such an exquisite taste) we needed to know what was inside. This was, in fact, the only reason why we decided to attend the event, in the first place. And it was worth it!
(A couple of pics of the spectacular entrance we took back in February 2011)
However, taking pics of the place was a challenge at times, because it was all really, really crowded (which was great for the owners of the place, but bad for us). Plus, you had to stay REALLY tuned to know where the next performance was going to happen. It kind of reminded me of my experience camping before the Tokio Hotel concert: “The tourbus is about to come through that gate!” “OMG, no! It’s already here and they’ve come in through the other gate!” “Holy s**t! We have to run!!” (LOL)
At the end of the night, I was cold, tired and starving to death. We ended up roaming the streets, desperately looking for some hot food to put in my stomach… But that’s another story ;)
Shirt: MNG
Trousers: MNG
Tailcoat: second hand MNG
Shoes: Bata
Hat: Carnival atrezzo
Skull tie: custom
