These designs are based on my sideshow novel Sprezzatura: The Rise & Fall of Venus Moonchild, as well as a musical adaption I am working on, which follow the life of a carny on her cross-country odyssey - a quest for stardom, love, and self-actualization. The story chronicles her time spent in her family’s traveling freakshow, performing in seedy burlesque halls and peepshows, and her eventual institutionalization following a series of scandals and murders. Designing for Venus allows me to merge old Hollywood glamour and the vintage glitz of sideshow Americana with various takes on femininity through a modern lens. Since Venus’s story arc follows her from poverty to fame and then through her degradation and incarceration, there are multiple eras, styles, and periods of her life to explore through fashion and costume.

You can learn more about these projects here.