Malvena Pearl’s Emporium

Greetings fellow earthlings! The Proprietor of Malvena Pearl’s Emporium has asked me to do a “guest blog” for you tonight.

I’d like to tell you a little about V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Why would you talk about that? Well, I’ll tell you. V-Day is held during this time of year. It’s a time when groups of women get together to volunteer their acting skills, their production skills, their fund raising skills and their sense of humor to make it possible for women’s stories to be shared and for awareness to grow among many people. They raise funds for local non-profit groups who help out women and girls who may have no resources available to them and who need help. It starts with one woman’s story.

As the poet Muriel Rukeyser once asked, “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open, show it’s anger and call her a lunatic.”

Writer and performer Eve Ensler interviewed a very large number of women about their lives, their bodies and their experiences. She created The Vagina Monologues and many groups all over the world perform these pieces and raise money for local non-profit organizations. We raise awareness of women’s experiences, specifically, awareness of violence against women. We believe it must stop.

I participate by dressing up in a giant, pink suit that I made, and I call myself Lady V-Jay Jay, or Lady Vagina. I talk to people and tell them where they can find out more information. In this role, I am a “lady” who wears pearls, sensible shoes, gloves and carries a purse. I  hand out free condoms and dental dams.  I ask local merchants to donate prizes to our raffle and/or silent auction. Here’s yours truly posing with the directors of the 2011 show at Brava Center for Women in the Arts:

2011 Vagina Monologues show in San Francisco

I know what some of you are thinking. ‘What’s a nice girl like you going around doing, talking to women about DOWN THERE?!’

“V-Day’s mission is simple. It demands that violence against women and girls must end. To do this, once a year, in February, March, and April, Eve allows groups around the world to produce a performance of the play, as well as other works created by V-Day, and use the proceeds for local individual projects and programs that work to end violence against women and girls, often shelters and rape crisis centers. What began as one event in New York City in 1998 today includes over 5,800 V-Day events annually.

Performance is just the beginning. V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films and campaigns to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women” — V-Day web site

If you would like to attend a local production of this show, or would like to support efforts in your area, please e-mail me, visit the V-Day web site, get in touch with us on Facebook. I will be at two performances in my area:

March 8 - 10, 2012 at the Women’s Building in San Francisco, CA

Note: special pre-show fundraising events include February 8 night at ELIXIR

February 25, 2012 At Mills College, Lisser Hall, Oakland, CA

There are as many ways to get involved as any of us can create.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Lady V-JayJay aka Lady Vagina

Our posse is planning to gather at the preview sale for the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale on January 29.

It is on the same day as the all-day NOIR CITY Dashiell Hammett film screenings at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Mr. Acorn and I will be going in our retro outfits, as we did last year. So, we’ll be meeting early in West Oaklandia to power shop with Lady Heather (minion of Pig) and then head over to the film festival. Here’s one of the coolest posters for a 1932 film that’s on their program web site.

My friend Laura is an inspirational seamstress with a great sense of humor. This photo above was taken at Costume College in 2009, when we first met. She’s on the right.

The Costume College experience was overwhelming to me. It was the first time I’d attended and the folks I knew there were all caught up in different aspects of it: the classes, the events, preparing for the events and taking day trips to local museums and schools around Los Angeles. I didn’t know I was going until the last minute and most of the classes were filled by then, so I sat in on several workshops and presentations and met lots of new people.

I met Laura in a board room in the hotel that was set aside for Costume College attendees who needed to complete a sewing project. We needed space outside of the room we were sleeping in to “make it work,” as they say on Project Runway. It was also a place to show up and get help, if you needed help. It turned out that we spent hours in that room and stayed up very late. There were many people sitting around the table. I was assisting a young woman who had talked her mother into flying in from Canada to go to this weekend-long event. She needed help with a lovely 1870s-era dress (a la Anne of Green Gables) for the Gala the next night.

Meanwhile, Laura was sitting down the table from us, making very funny remarks and completing a truly amazing outfit. Laura’s outfit was a Tudor era woman’s costume made in modern fabrics out of camoflage-patterned parachute silk trimmed in reflective tape.  She said she had a posse back home that usually offered a lot of help and I think she was missing them. I would have been missing them, if I were her.  So we ended up in this room, working side by side with other costumers.  I really liked her approach and her friendliness. That feeling of “we are all in this together.”  If it isn’t fun, let’s find a way to make it fun, or heck, just move along. Let’s remember why we are here. She looked great at the event the next night. But the best part was the process: making something and sharing that experience with someone who laughs with you, is willing to help and share stories while you sew.

We kept talking all weekend, into the wee hours. She even let me crash in her room and we found that we shared a love of science fiction. It turns out that Laura had been making costumes with –and for– her friends for many years. They had a regular “Day of Wrong” tradition at their Renaissance Fair:

Laura said her group also attended the Dickens Fair in their area and were active in organizing costume events. She said she’d been making a living sewing Santa Claus outfits and called herself the “accidental seamstress.” I met a lot of people that weekend but Laura and I kept up our dialogue.

After Costume College we kept in touch via e-mail, shared our stories and tales of what was happening in our costuming and creative lives. She made me an “honorary member” of her posse, even though I live several states away. She and her husband came to visit California and we got to have dinner and enjoy a great visit. Her blog is called the Eleanora Project and she’s documenting her birthday and all the creative hoopla leading up to it,  as well as her ongoing costume projects.

Here’s the latest photo of one of Laura’s recent creations for a holiday Steampunk event:

Now that I no longer have a Feline Overlord named Roo, I am an official Minion of the Wench Posse. We have found that we have a lot of fun talking, planning projects, sharing materials by mail and just egging each other on. Through Laura, I’ve gotten to know several other incredibly creative, weird, fun-loving and fabric-obsessed people. In 2012, we have plans to meet up at two different costume conventions where I will get to meet several of Laura’s Wench Posse in person. I plan to assist them them with the assembly of a project or two. I am so looking forward to that!

Laura is a kindred spirit. And I am very grateful for her friendship. Happy Birthday, Laura!

This bonnet is for a dancer who is doing workshops to perform in Fezziwig’s at the Great Dickens Fair in San Francisco.  I built it from buckram, millinery wire and cotton fabric. I’m sewing it  by hand. For inspiration, I used several sources. The Dickens Fair folk provide guidelines for costuming for their event here. I also found  many books to inspire me at Costume College, two years ago. One is a British publication entitled, “Hats and Bonnets” by Althea Mackenzie with photography by Richard Blakey, published by The National Trust, London, UK, 2004. The photos and descriptions of hats and bonnets are wonderful.  I’m looking forward to embellishing this bonnet with ribbon, trim and lace, to match the dancer’s dress, that I embellished for her earlier this year.

And it was fun!

Here are some photographic highlights

I completed the costumes for the character of Augusta Tabor, in “The Ballad of Baby Doe”, played by Lisa Houston.

Thank you again, Ms. M. I couldn’t have done this without your moral support and your loan of various garments to alter!

The show is set in the 1880s and 1890s and based on a true story.  You can see it at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley

Saturday, July 11, 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 17, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 19, 2:00 p.m.

The names of Baby Doe, Horace Tabor, and Augusta Tabor have become mythical, but they are actual figures in Colorado history. An exquisite period piece of Americana, The Ballad of Baby Doe is based on their story of love, honor and politics, set against the boom times in Colorado in the 1880s when silver was king. Douglas Moore’s lush score depicts this gripping riches-to-rags epic through lyricism of irresistible beauty, soaring arias and rousing chorus scenes. A star vehicle for the late Beverly Sills, the role of Baby Doe will be sung by soprano Jillian Khuner.

CAST

Our Services and Products

Beadwork and Garment Repair Service:
We repair beaded jewelry, beaded trim on garments and we do mending or repairs that require fine hand-work. Small or complex jobs are right up our alley. Drop us a note.

Custom Orders:

We work with you to design and produce custom orders for bonnets, cravats, fichus, capes, jackets, vests and other garments that you need for a dance, a ball, an historical reenactment event, a retro-themed party, a fair or a convention. We’ve created and re-styled contemporary garments into the full range of costumes from the Victorian era through outfits inspired by science fiction and fantasy literature. We also make custom jewelry to accent that costumes you already own.

Custom Made Ephemera and Letterpress Projects:

May Day Press will create custom-made ephemera (paper goods) using an 1890s letterpress.

Custom Made Hat Boxes:

Beth Woolbright creates hand-decorated hatboxes to suit all of your hat storage needs, made to your specification.

Please visit the Malvena Pearl etsy site and contact us via e-mail for more information about custom orders.