First things first, tell us about yourself & your product!

My name is Elijah Sound alchemist of the fashion collective that produced the costumes for the new StarTrek movie.  I have been working in the design world for over 10 years.

How did you get involved with Star Trek?

Me and my 2 partners Mitchell Kulkin and Kelly Crawford were selling out gear at the FairFax Flee Market on Melrose in Los Angeles when the head costume designer of the new movie Star Trek came up inquiring about the overstitched and cut canvas on our Shredder Jacket. Two days later we were in Paramount signing to do Romulan costumed for the film.

What did you create for the film?

We then had one and half months to create over 200 costumes jackets, pants, and boots.

How would you describe your personal style?

The Rennaisance of the Apocolipse.

What would you wear for the Big Dance Number at the End?

My undies.

Why does men’s underwear suck?

Usually because they are too baggy with little thought to hold the family jewels.

What style advice to you have to share?

Everything goes. Step out of the box. We are living in the future.  Get creative.

Finally, where can our readers buy your work, and is there anything else you would like to promote?

Since our big break we have started out Urban Mayan Sport Wear Line which can be found at www.AD2013.com, and to buy costumes and boots like the ones from the film go to www.romwear.com.

Related posts:

1. Vogs in Space, Part 2: Not Vogs, Actually
2. Vogs in Space
3. Speak Up : Spragwerks

First things first, tell us about yourself & your product!

My name is Richard Anthony Sandomeno Jr – you can call me Rich.

Inspired by the post-industrial wasteland of Northeastern New Jersey, SPRAGWERKS was created in 2002. I create custom jewelry and belt buckles that fuse my passion for industrial design with my vision of a post-apocalyptic world where the borders between the organic and the mechanical dissolve. [Handmade and wrought by myself, all the jewelry is cast out of sterling silver and accented with copper, gold, and found objects.]  Made in NYC and L.A.

What makes you Haute Macabre?

Because I can’t help feeling goodness in darkness, [finding] beauty in both death and decay, and a passion for the bizarre and absurd.

Were you a potential serial killer as a child, that instead evolved into a designer?

I was, and still am, an obsessive collector of dead things, curiosities, odds and ends (mostly odds).    I was always seeing everything as something else, noticing the things that most people [disregard as mundane] don’t, and [re-]assembling them in no particular order.  I evolved into a designer unintentionally – [when I found what I loved to do, I dove into it obsessively.]  I took to making Jewelry the same way I took to collecting bugs as a child – it engulfed my thoughts. It seeped into my brain…and at some point people started to notice.

How would you describe your personal style?

Equal parts: Little Richard, Soda Pop Curtis, and a hobo (circa 1920′s).

What would you wear for a moon landing?

A custom made skin-tight black leather spacesuit made by Agatha Blois, accented with  silver clasps and fasteners made by me, and a titanium ray-gun.

Leather or Lace?

Leather

Why?

How dare you!

Do you ever notice footwear in your dreams?

I think of footwear constantly…it’s the first thing I notice.

What style advice to you have to share?

Be bold and daring…and above all, make no excuses.

Related posts:

1. Speak Up! : Corvidd
2. Speak Up! : Eirik Aswang
3. Speak Up! Loved to Death

We post a lot of photographs here at Haute Macabre. We do this because in this day and age, photographs are the ubiquitous media of fashion. If you want to remember at a pretty outfit, you take a photograph. Of course, this wan’t always the case. Back in the good old days if you wanted your awesome choice in footwear recorded for posterity, you had to stand really still in in for a few hours while somebody painted away at the details.  It’s almost a lost art.

Enter Suzanne Rachel Forbes, whose “traditional poirtaiture for alternative lifestyles” captures fetish and underground style the old-fashioned way. With paint. On canvas.

If you are in the Bay Area, you can check out her work all over the place this month. I suggest hitting the champagne reception for her fetish-themed show at Madame S on Friday night (May 22nd)  from 7-9. However,  she is also currently showing paintings of male models at The Center for Sex and Culture, and she will be in the steampunk area of Maker Faire in San Mateo (more about that later) on May 30 and 31st. Busy girl!

What makes you Haute Macabre?

Leather or Lace?

Um. I’m 42 years old and I dress like a wacked-out punk hippie ragamuffin, I’m not a good person to ask! No, wait, my style advice is this : read Haute Macabre, Nixon et al r fucking sharp.
Where can people buy your work?
www.slurkgirl.etsy.com , and please visit my flickr stream, http://www.flickr.com/photos/32609854@N00/, to see new work that hasn’t been psoted in the shop yet, as well as my website, www.suzanneforbes.com.

Related posts:

1. Speak Up! : Jonny Cota of Skingraft Designs
2. Speak Up! Loved to Death
3. Speak Up! : Eirik Aswang

First things first, tell us about yourself & your product!

Daniel : We’re a trio from Los Angeles that makes pop music with prog influences. There are a few things we as a band value: fancy jackets, science fiction, nuclear power.  We make and sell a line of interesting t-shirts using hand-painted screen print designs in lieu of the uninspired mass-produced logo shirts common from other bands.

Courtenay : These shirts represent everything I love about LA girls.  They start out nice, but soon they’ve gone dark, covered in grime and splatter and bleached patterns, each one individual and made to be worn out.

What makes you Haute Macabre?

Daniel : First and most obviously, we like to dress up. We don’t wear “costumes” or a regular uniform on stage, rather for each show or shoot, we peruse our closets and try to figure out a coherent look in advance. Secondly, we produce our own merchandise – specifically the hand-screened and distressed tshirts that Courtenay produces in his loft. Oh, and we’re immortal space vampires, that’s Haute Macabre, right?

Were you a potential serial killer as a child, that instead evolved into a designer?

Courtenay: I don’t think any of us were the puppy-and-bunny-dissection type of kid.  My grandmother was a seamstress and wedding dress maker and taught me the ropes on the ancient Singer sewing machine at a very early age — probably 4 or 5 years old. This was partly just so I could thread the needle for her, since her eyesight was going, and partly so that I’d have an outlet to mitigate the blinding red rage streak that purportedly runs through the family.

Daniel : I killed as a child, but not necessarily serially.

How would you describe your personal style?

Courtenay : I like girls’ jackets made from dead things or fabrics they invented in a lab.  Skinny girl jeans are a must, of course, and a nice shirt made from the finest cotton (whether it be long-sleeve button down or a tshirt made from a nice Modal blend).  If you can work in something that laces up, all the better.

Daniel : Well-fitting casual? I like nice shoes (especially Fluevogs, I have half a dozen pairs), and generally I’ll wear slim black jeans, a solid colored shirt, and a jacket made of natural fabric. I’m a sucker for cowls and standing collars, of course. When it’s hot, I’ll often wear big boat-neck long sleeved shirts with no jacket.

What would you wear for a moon landing?

Tim : I think we’d try to avoid reinventing the wheel, and go with the Apollo A7LB pressure suit made by ILC Dover. The AL7B has several advantages over the previous design by adding two new joints at the neck and the waist, which kept the bulky “I’m in the harshest environment within a million miles” styling but allowing for more freedom of movement. The AL7B series also included a red striping motif for the mission commander, helping not only to tell between the commander and the pilot, but also giving the commander a more rakish, energetic appearance.

Leather or Lace?  Why?

Daniel : Leather, if I’m wearing it – actually, leather if someone else is wearing it too. I’m not a big lace fan. At the same time I’m moving away from wearing leather other than shoes and gloves, possibly because I am planning to sell my motorcycle

Courtenay : Lace belongs on your grandmother’s table.  Actually, so does leather, if she’s AWESOME.

Do you ever notice footwear in your dreams?

Courtenay : I actually have a huge pet peeve about dreams, specifically people talking about them.  I like to have conversations with people, and you telling me about your CRAZY dream you had where nothing made sense is an absolute killer.  There’s no interaction in this tale  — there’s nothing we can share, and nothing that either of us can relate to.  Keep your dreams to yourself, honey.

What style advice to you have to share?

Courtenay : A nice haircut can make up for some pretty serious blunders.  Well, a nice haircut and somewhere around three beers into a bender.  Asymmetry is fetching, as long as it’s in your clothes and not your face.

Daniel : Just – just think before you dress, people. It’s not hard. I suspect that a lot of people aren’t willing to sit down for a minute and consider the grave consequences of their sartorial decisions. Also, black matches everything. ALSO: LAYERS!

See them live :
May 23 at Landing Party, Los Angeles
June 3 at King King, Los Angeles

Related posts:

1. Speak Up! : Eirik Aswang
2. Speak Up! : Doctor Steel
3. Speak Up : Spragwerks

First things first, tell us about yourself & your product!

We are “Loved To Death” a taxidermy jewelry and accessory line. We also make dioramas and art pieces. We make our pieces in honor of the animal we are working with. We use recycled parts that would otherwise go to waste. We are heavily inspired by the customs of the Victorian era in times of mourning, making mementos to wear that honor and remember the dead. In this case, the dead being sweet little critters.

What makes you Haute Macabre?

We strive to be unique and love the darker side of fashion.

Were you a potential serial killer as a child, that instead evolved into a designer?

Never been a killer, but I am definitely intrigued by the thoughts that run through the minds of Serial Killers. I watch waaaay too many documentaries on Serial Killers and sleep with all the windows locked tight!

How would you describe your personal style?

mmmm, classic, simple and dark with alot of accessories. Somehow my closet is 99.9% black, yet I don’t look like a super-goth or sleep in a coffin. Not that I wouldn’t try it once

What would you wear for a moon landing?

A king kong suit and red lipstick.

Leather or Lace?  Why?

Neither, I prefer feathers and fur. Ethically sourced of course.

Do you ever notice footwear in your dreams?

I once noticed the special guest appearance of my favorite fluevogs from my husband that my lil pup ate as a chew toy. RIP Fluevogs, we are still together in my dreams.

What style advice to you have to share?

Always be comfortable! You can’t look fierce if you are hobbling around hiding behind the grimace of pain from a too tight pair of shoes. Just get them a half size bigger ladies. And be brave and confident with your style, who cares if people stare at you in your too big feather hat…they just wish they had the guts to wear what you do!

Mention Haute Macabre in your order and receive a 15% discount!!

photos: www.LeMewphoto.com
model: Miss Rockwell Devil

Related posts:

1. Loved to Death
2. Loved to Death
3. Loved To Death steps into the Real World