A is for Arsenic: Taxidermia
Taxidermia is the new jewelry + apparel collection from Amelia Arsenic/Destroyx‘s brand A is for Arsenic. The black+white-color-themed collection features laser-cut perspex jewelry designs and T-shirts & tanks inspired by taxidermy motifs, Victorian memento mori imagery, and vanitas artwork. The photography below was shot by Melissa Jenkins, with art direction & styling by Amelia Arsenic. See the complete collection here.
{Taxidermia: a graphic world of dark Victoriana, memento mori and macabre taxidermy. Featuring vicious yet elegant designs with a nod to the past, Taxidermia is a thoroughly contemporary art jewellery and apparel collection created and constructed in London.}
Tags: amelia arsenic, animals, antlers, avant-garde goth, black and white, bugs, deer, destroyx, jewelry, macabre, neo-victorian, spooky animal-themed jewelry, taxidermy
Angelspit’s “Carbon Beauty”: Album Art
I love the artwork on Angelspit’s new remix CD, Carbon Beauty (released March 8), which is awesome as always. It features a black-and-white animal anatomy and taxidermy theme, and Destroyx and ZooG in some heavy-duty avant-garde all-black fetish texturific garb.
Destroyx’s outfit for Carbon Beauty album photographyCheck out all the CD booklet images below. All images are clickable for a larger view.
Tags: amazing makeup, anatomical-themed, angelspit, animal skulls, avant-garde goth, black and white, CD artwork, deer, destroyx, exposed anatomy, fascinators, skeleton, taxidermy
Angelspit: Larva Pupa Tank Coffin – CD Artwork
I know I post about Destroyx a lot, but I can’t help it, she’s my style icon and she inspires me endlessly.
Her and ZooG‘s band Angelspit is coming out with a remix CD, titled Larva Pupa Tank Coffin, in October. The title comes from one of my favorite songs off their previous album Hideous and Perfect, of which the first line is, “I was not born, I was hatched; from larva, to pupa; tank to coffin.”
The CD artwork has been unveiled, and of course I love it. Destroyx says, “This rich and elaborate work is inspired by Russian Constructivism, vaudeville theater, with a twist of late 19th-century Mysticism.”
Her looks for each of Angelspit’s albums have been so different! This one is rather “prettier” and less “alienating” than some of her other looks, but awesome as well. No one is able to transform themselves with makeup quite like Destroyx. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
Tags: angelspit, CD artwork, destroyx, russian constructivism
Destroyx’s “Paris 2050″
The ever-illustrious and uber-multi-talented Destroyx (about whom I posted earlier and whose blog is quite frankly one of the most awesome things ever) has just launched a new little collection of false eyelashes, whose tag line is “Fierce Lashes for Femme Fatales,” as part of her cosmetics/style project Miss X Aesthetic Labs. They are inspired by her vision of neo-decadent Paris in the year 2050, and her customary fusion of the vintage and the futuristic. This promotional photo above is pure awesome. My personal favorite of the lashes are the “Bohème Sauvage” ones.
Tags: destroyx, miss x cosmetics
Exquisite Torture: Angelspit’s New Album, “Hideous and Perfect”
Check out this interview with Angelspit from ReGen Mag:
The Beauty of Perverted SoundHere’s an excerpt I particularly like, explaining Destroyx’s image for the album artwork:
Visually, you once more set up a whole new appearance. Destroyx this time spreads a kind of geisha vibe, in connection with erotic and doll-like imagery. What’s the background for the current visual concept, and how does it relate to the lyrics?
Destroyx: For our previous albums, we have often looked towards history for our visual concepts. This time we decided to do something fresh and completely new….I worked with an extremely talented makeup artist, Karen Hopwood, to develop the makeup look. The outcome is something edgy and quite horrific, yet also strangely alluring. The overall look is quite alien, a weird mix of fetish fashion and screwed-up geisha makeup. The makeup is a mask which covers my recognizable facial features, thus contorting my identity. Most responses to the makeup have been very interesting. Many people have been confused and disturbed by it, which is definitely the intended outcome. I’m not trying to look glamorous, as many people do for their promotional looks. I guess I’m still trying to get people to readdress their attitudes towards beauty, which is always an ongoing theme. Through presenting highly polished, almost hyperreal imagery, we are attempting in a way to use the language of advertising that we are so constantly bombarded with in society. However, we are subverting the message in a disturbing way. People seem to be repulsed and confused by the message, which is our intention. It’s meant to be an alluring yet terrifying image; it’s basically Hideous and Perfect.
“Destroyx is a typical girl who has a fetish for shoes; I’m a typical boy who is a junkie for old synthesizers.”
- ZooG3 Style Icons
I guess they’re kind of a holy trinity for me.
What I admire about them is their ability to create an image for themselves, to forge and strike a visual identity from the inert mass that flares for a pretty near eternal instant.
Descriptor: Vintage VixenMmm, Dita. What I love about the burlesque queen is that she’s always impeccably dressed, and preserves the glamor of the golden age of Hollywood while putting her own twist on it. Her sense of fashion is amazing. She has a very distinctive, consistent style, which is complete and cohesive. She goes for the elegant and glamorous side of retro rather than the kitschy. And she does it through and through. She doesn’t dress casually even to go to the supermarket. With her signature black curls, vividly red lips, and lily-white face, she can be dark, bold, vampish, yet she’s feminine, delicate, always elegant, and sometimes sort of fluffy. She infuses the more mundane present with some of the fascinating and voluptuous glamor and the tightly-controlled, very put-together beauty of the ’40s and ’50s. I think Dita is a perfect example of self-transformation and creating beauty through unique style. Nothing beats her retro look of wickedly defined, bright red lips, jet-black sculpted hair, and clear white skin. Dita’s book, Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese, is gorgeous and a really fun read.
Descriptor: Experimental EpidemicThe multitalented Destroyx AKA Amelia Arsenic, vocalist for industrial/alternative band Angelspit, is another one of my style heroines. Her blog, www.destroyx.com, is all kinds of goodness. Her ability to style and adorn herself absolutely blows my mind. She combines cyber, fetish, gothic, and retro looks with daring, elegance, and innovation, to create an edgy, sophisticated, and utterly unforgettable image. Even though she takes elements from so many different styles, I think that above all, her style is really only hers and one of a kind. I love the complexity, eclecticism, elaborate accessorizing, and layering that go into her outfits. She is a makeup guru. Her looks are bold, gorgeous, and original. She represents the pinnacle for me of achieving interesting effects through makeup and styling – becoming something more than just yourself visually. Angelspit’s got amazing visual design and aesthetics with her influence, and Destroyx and ZooG (the other member of Angelspit) make a powerful creative duo.
Descriptor: Wayward Victorian Girl/Insane Asylum InmateEmilie Autumn is a quirky solo musician who makes self-styled “Victoriandustrial” music. She has a lovely style all her own, which is a kind of bastardized-era, feminine, torn, tattered, wispy, layered, ribbony, very pink-themed goth look. Her hair is divine, a very beautiful shade of pink and/or red. Aside from the Victorian influences, there are fey influences and influences from the Elizabethan period, which show in her music as well. Her style is light, ethereal, and fairy-like, as well as grungier girl-punk with the requisite studded cuffs and tattered fishnets. Bloodstains, hearts, and teatime are recurring elements. Emilie has an incredible ability to create an image, and this can be seen in all the artwork, design, extra features, and images on her Opheliac album – a testament to her creativity and styling genius. She is charming, alluring, and promises to take you beyond the mundane, into a secret world of melodramatic madnesses, anachronisms, oppression, and trauma. Her whole aesthetic concept revolves around the “Asylum.” Her style is very coherent, but has lots of variety and potential. Her very basic and most replicable look is something like a “dirty”/tattered white tank top with a heart patch, or a tea-stained corset, with bloomers, red-and-white stripey stockings/asymmetrical legwear, and of course, her heart makeup.
Tags: 1940s, 1950s, avant-garde, destroyx, dita von teese, emilie autumn, insane asylum aesthetic, latex, retro, victorian, vintage
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