Coming up this Saturday is the Miss Burlesque Australia's amazing Grand Final!
Previously the Grand FInal has been held in Sydney each year, and this year its going to be in Melbourne- yay! I cannot wait to see all the amazing performers who have competed in their state and are now coming together under the one roof to show us what they've got.
If you have never seen burlesque before, this is a fantastic place to start! But be warned, all other shows may pale in comparison to the excitement that is MISS BURLESQUE AUSTRALIA!
Over the past two months, the best of Australia's burlesque have participated in the Miss Burlesque state heats, narrowing the competition down to seven finalists from around the country to battle it out for the coveted title, as the crown will be handed over by last year's winner, New South Wales beauty, Briana Bluebell.
Now in its fourth year and highly regarded worldwide as one of the biggest and best burlesque competitions, Miss Burlesque Australia will deliver an unforgettable night of dazzling costumes, glamour and storytelling as the finalists perform their cutting edge routines in the Classic, Neo and Unique forms.
And for the second consecutive year, six male finalists will vie for the Mr Boylesque title, taking the reins over from the inaugural winner, "The Black Prince of Burlesque Underground" - Raven.
A highlight of the Miss Burlesque Australia competition is the glamourous Gown Parade, and costumiers from around the country will be working overtime, sewing Swarovski crystals, sequins, feathers, silk, satin, organza and netting, each aiming for their respective clients to outshine the others.
The performers are judged by a panel of peers and industry experts, based upon a set criterion that includes elements of presentation, confidence, personality, the flow of the routine, storyline, costume, music and relevance to the era. The winner of Miss Burlesque Australia 2013 will receive over $10,000 in cash, prizes and sponsorship.
Also, $10 from every ticket sold wll be going towards fundraising for Imogen Kelly- our Queen of Australian Burlesque. She has this message to say:
"Hi everyone, although I am not performing at Miss Burlesque Australia, nor am I in a position to judge this year. The girls are rallying to raise funds for my surgery which is super fabulous of them!!! Ten dollars from every ticket sold will be going towards financial support. My surgery will leave me unable to work for three months, so I will graciously accept all the help I can get. Thank you Cassandra Jane, you've been brilliant! With thanks, Imogen XXX"
To Purchase tickets- click here:
http://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=MISSBURL13#.UVutGBnw4y4
Our friends at Bottoms Up Burlesque And Pole School have kindly offered a discount to all our Sideshow Annie followers and fans. If you have ever wanted to try out some burlesque, whether it be for fun, exercise or for future performance dreams- now is your chance!
CASSANDRA JANE
Presents
MISS BURLESQUE
AUSTRALIA 2013
THE
BEST OF BURLESQUE COMPETE FOR MISS BURLESQUE AUSTRALIA 2013 TITLE
Miss Burlesque Australia
finals to be held nationally throughout March, incorporating Mr Boylesque
competition for guys
Monday,
February 18th, 2013.
One of the world’s leading burlesque
pageants, Miss Burlesque Australia is now in its fourth year, with the Finals currently
being staged at theatres around the country, including Sydney (Factory Theatre
– Friday, March 8th), Adelaide (Star Theatre, Saturday, March 9th),
Melbourne (Thornbury Theatre – Friday, March 22nd), Gold Coast (GC
Arts Centre – Saturday, March 23rd) and Brisbane (Old Museum –
Sunday, March 24th).
In what promises to be a night of dazzling
costumes, glamour and storytelling through the centuries-old art form that is
Burlesque, dozens of luscious ladies will battle it out to represent their home
state in the Grand Final, to be held at Melbourne’s Athaneum Theatre on
Saturday, May 25th. The
most talented all-rounder will walk away with the Miss Burlesque title,
currently held by last year’s reigning queen, Briana Bluebell.
And for the second consecutive year, the
guys will get a shot at the Mr Boylesque title, challenging the inaugural
winner, “The Black Prince of Burlesque Underground” – Raven.
Presented by Cassandra Jane, who recently won the title of Miss Nude World 2013,
the Miss Burlesque finals events are open to the public, with ticket holders
getting the chance to see Australia’s best of burlesque performing their
cutting edge routines in the Classic, Neo and Unique forms.
Says Cassandra Jane, “Each year, the
Miss Burlesque contestants make me so proud.
“The energy they put into their shows, and the amount of time and effort
they commit is second to none.
“This competition has raised the bar in Australian Burlesque, pushing us
to the top of our game, and placing our performers on the international
platform.
“Miss Burlesque started as a competition for beginners, as a development
opportunity where we were helping to create stars. Now it has evolved into a fiercely competitive event for
professionals who are giving it their all to win the crown and title.”
A highlight of the Miss Burlesque
competition is the glamourous Gown Parade.
Each of the competitors are judged by a
panel of peers and industry experts, based upon a set criterion that includes
elements of presentation, confidence, personality, the flow of the routine,
storyline, costume, music and relevance to the era. The winner of Miss Burlesque Australia 2013 will receive
over $10,000 in cash, prizes and sponsorship.
Tickets to the Miss Burlesque finals in
each state are on sale now ($45 GA/$55 VIP). For ticketing and event details, go to www.missburlesqueinternational.com.
So! It’s been many long months since I moved out of my shop front on
Nicholson St, but I think I can finally say I have settled into my new
home studio. Here is a pic for all of you who have followed my story and
have been wondering what it all looks like now. Thanks for sticking around xox
Well, thats not entirely true. Its our first market stall since the new parlour phase, so I am excited to get back out there and meet my customers again!
The stall will be at the Bend and Snap markets at 1000 £ Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale Street in Melbourne city. This Sunday boys and girls!
I will have a mix of petite pretty accessories, burlesque fascinator cuteness, vintage hairstyling and makeup books, gloves, mens vintage shirts, accessories from Paris Cheek Accessories, the last few vintage cannisters and bits and pieces from the old shopfront.
Its going to be a great way to spend a Sunday so be sure to come down and visit. xo
This lovely pic of me and Lola Ramone was taken by Len Panecki of us at the Gangsters Ball, wearing the Sideshow Annie 'cigarette girl' outfits.
Thanks so much Len! If you are looking for a great photographer, I highly recommend you go to Len Panecki.
Who would like their hair styled like this for the Gangsters ball this weekend?
I need three models happy to pay $35 for their hair to be styled with
victory rolls and pincurls similar to this (you can have half up/half
down if you like)
on
Saturday 8th September between 9am and 2pm, in Ascot Vale, Melbourne VIC.
Please email me at sideshowannie@gmail.com if you are interested and I will get back to you asap with a booking time.
Things are starting to take shape in the new parlour room!
I was a little worried there for a week or two that things might never come together again and I might be stuck at my temp manager job forever. BUT, this week I bought some new furniture pieces and tonight I built a change room, so things are starting to look possible again.
The excitement has returned!
There is still lots of sorting to do, so the re-opening (planned for 1st Sept) may still be delayed slightly, but nothing like I thought it would be.
Can't wait for it all to be finished so I can take photos to show you all!
Hi everyone!
I'm feeling a little better today, but still have the last few dregs of this cold to shake off.
Latest news is that I got to move a little bit of furniture around
yesterday (probably why I'm not better yet!) and the sewing room is in a
lot better shape than it was before.
The Parlour room still has a loooong way to go. Everything is now up there squished into the space, but I need more time to sort it all out and make it presentable. At least I can now move in the rest of my house though!
Appts still not available until 1st Sept.
Also, I have started a pile of things I do not need/take up too much
space in my life and will be putting some things up in an album on facebook later
on either today or later this week.
Items that will be for sale include stuff such as
Retro home wares- cute canisters, lampshades
Shop fittings stuff-register,open sign, fixtures, cordless phone with answering machine
Some sewing supplies- I have a lot of overstock of button casings, snap hooks, buttons, fringing etc.
and eventually some costumes/clothing that i won't be needing with the new setup.
Hope you are all having a great day, stay warm!
Much love- Midnite x
Until my housemate moves out and I have a new parlour room to play in!
My housemate helped us to pay the rent while I was setting up the shop and trying to get it going. Now that everything from the shop is now at home, there is no more room for him to stay. So he is kindly moving out so that I can use the room as the parlour room. ;)
It will take me a little while to get it set up the way I want it to be, so I still won't be taking any appointments until after the end of August, but I can't wait!
Wow, what a week its been! Finally got chance to sleep in this morning and it was amazing!
First of all, I just wanted to say THANKYOU! to everyone who voted
and who shared my links to the $5000 Helping Hand grant. I didn’t quite
get there, but it was a great boost to see you all voting and sharing
the love.
The week started performing at the Baby Bombshells show of the Australian Burlesque Festival.
What lovely ladies they all were! Unfortunately I didn’t get to see
much of anyone else’s act, but I did get the chance to see Little Skink
during our tech run and she has worked so hard, definitely deserving of
the chance to perform at the Big Tease. What a woman! You guys are in
for a treat.
Last night I went along to Empress Erotique at the Thornbury Theatre.
The second show of the Australian Burlesque Festival. By far my
favourite show of all the festival shows! I was so chuffed when Rosy Rabbit, co-producer of the festival, asked me to make the costumes for the stage kitties.
At
the beginning of the night, the stage kitties were part of an
installation piece as the audience arrived. On a black box with
candelabras and brilliant red lighting. They looked amazing, can’t wait
to show you photos!
At the show, I got the chance to meet Anna Fur Laxis, and Peekaboo Pointe,
who were amongst the judges at the Baby Bombshells show the night
before. One of the other burly performers was no longer available and so
I offered to be their escort back to their hotel. Gorgeous ladies, and
oh so lovely. I hope they enjoy the rest of the festival, and their time
here in Australia.
Now that the week is all wrapped up, I get time to go downstairs and
straighten the mountains of shop stock up a little- wish me luck! If you
don’t hear from me again, its because I’ve been the unfortunate victim
of a stripey bags avalanche…. :)
Much love, Midnite x
Give Sideshow Annie a chance for a sparkling new parlour!
Many of you may know that Sideshow Annie Costume Parlour has just moved
premises due to costly overheads and I will be working from a new
studio space at home from now on. It will take me a couple of months to
set up and I would LOVE the chance to make the new studio into something REALLY special!
If you could please take a minute to click on the link below, all you have to do is then click VOTE, and I am in with a chance!
If you have ever come to one of my workshops and enjoyed them, I would
appreciate you giving back some of the love by helping me to be able to
bring you more workshops and special classes in gorgeous surrounds of
the new studio. This is the last week I can enter so every vote counts!
Thanks so much for your time and cross your fingers for me!!!
Midnite (Mel) xoxox
Click here to vote by 5pm Friday 8th June!
https://www.suncorpbankhelpinghand.com.au/vote-for/sideshow-annie-costume-parlour
Last open day in this little shopfront tomorrow. I
will miss my little shop. To open it was realising a dream of mine, one I
never thought would happen. Its been fun here, meeting you all and
having you pop in to visit, but now it is time for another chapter of
Sideshow Annie.
I am excited for the new changes that are happening!
I will work from home for a few months (which is two blocks away over on Lygon Street), or however long it takes to tie off all the loose ends and find a new space.
The
ideal new space would be two rooms above another store or within an art
studio complex or something similar. One room as a sewing den, the
other room a private dressing room.
There you will be able to try on
costumes, (have tea and cupcakes!) have them styled by me personally,
talk accessories and hire options. If need be, we can chat about having
custom items made up, whether that be to complete your hire, or to
purchase and keep.
I am working towards being able to offer you hair
and makeup as a service to complete your costume. You will be able to
book an appointment with me to have your hair and makeup styled in the
era of your costume choice on the day you pick up your hire items. I
will be able to offer this service to hens night ladies as group
bookings aswell. Tea and cupcakes or strawberry champagne included. :)
Retail will be available to purchase at the new parlour, but mostly
will exist online via our website, and at markets. The idea behind the
markets is that I will bring the stock to you, rather than you having to
come to me!
Last but not least, I am also going to be offering the
service of custom wig styling. Have your dream wig styled up by me, and
then cared for afterwards if it needs a wash or styling in the following
months.
I can’t wait to sink my teeth into all this, and will be
champing at the bit to get it all sorted and set up the way I want it
to be, but the reality is that it might take a few months to get there. I
hope having to call and make an appointment will not deter you from
coming to visit me sometime soon. All the gorgeous costumes are still
here, ready and waiting and one of them has your name on it…
Much love- Midnite xox
So things are going to plan so far for the new move!
We still have lots of things on special to sell off so make sure you come and pay us a visit before we close and switch over to appointment only for our hires.
Our retail will still be available to purchase online and we have just listed our Burlesque Ostrich feather fans for you all!
And in even bigger news! Until the 25th May you can take advantage of a 25% discount on all the ostrich burlesque fans if you type in the words FLYAWAY when checking out your shopping cart!
Sideshow Annie is moving premises! We are making some exciting new
changes, so we will be shutting shop for a few weeks and coming back
soon to relaunch our new look- how exciting!
The new studio will be by appointment only and will include more custom make options and a
new, one-on-one styling option (more info coming soon!). As for retail,
you can still shop online, and we will be appearing at a market or pop
up shop near you sometime soon!
SO next week we will be having a
moving sale to sell off all that we will not be needing in the new
studio. Please see times below...
Wednesday the 17th May: 10am till 7pm
Thursday the 18th May: 10am till 4pm
Friday the 19th May: 10am till 6pm
and if there is anything left to sell-
Sunday the 20th May 10am till 3pm
Soon Sideshow Annie will be moving to a new address. Yep, thats right. Things are changing here and I am in search of a new parlour!
As much as I love the built in wooden cabinets with the glass fronts. My gosh I am going to miss them! So I am in search of a smaller, cosier premises and the business will become by appointment only. That means if you want to hire one of Sideshow Annie's gorgeous costumes, you will need to ring and book a time with me to view them. It also means that I can spend more time with my customers and make my service more personalised and taylored to you. Retail will still be available online and at pop up shops and markets. I will keep you updated on those via Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook. I don't have a set date for moving just yet, but when I do, there will be a Moving Sale announced.
This means I can spend more time on making custom pieces, sourcing vintage and selling at markets- all for you! I think the new parlour will be bigger (well sort of) and better!
In the meantime, if you know of anyone who is looking for a small shopfront on Nicholson Street, ask them to email me for more information on how they could have their shop be here.
Sideshow Annie participated in Garage Sale Trail on the weekend. It was blustery cold and raining, but we were inside and cosy in the shop so was still a good day. For those of you who don't know, Garage Sale Trail is a day where people all over Australia have a garage sale on the same day (May 5th this year). You can log your sale location on the website and tell people what you are selling.
Thats not the only sale we are having this month. On Monday the 7th May, we will be having our biggest sale yet! Via our facebook fanpage- www.facebook.com/sideshowanniecostumeparlour
Everything on our fb sale will be discounted and I will be putting up as many items as I possibly can!
See you on the facebook page at 6pm!
I was lucky enough to get the chance to try out some charleston partner dancing classes with 1929 studios over the last 4 weeks. The classes are casual social classes and you get the chance to learn a new thing while meeting new people. I have done charleston before but only on a solo basis and more of the crazy fast paced flapper stuff. This is more traditional and sort of along the lines of what you see the guys in Zoot suits doing, so a bit more swing based.
The class is held at the Copacabana on Smith St, Fitzroy, and is a popular class so is usually a full session. The hosts- Lexi and Joel are a bubbly pair who are fantastic to watch as they spin the moves! You rotate partners during the class and learn how to match the rhythm of different partners. You don't have to have had dance experience before, there were guys and girls of all levels of experience of dance and everyone was really understanding and friendly about it. Besides, if you stuffed up it was just another opportunity for a good laugh which is great for the soul!
If you would like to try dancing with Lexi and Joel then all the info you need is available on their website here- www.1929studios.com
Just a reminder that we close today at 5pm instead of 6pm. The Dark Carnival Dolls use the store to host their hens nights and there was a special request to host one an hour earlier than usual.
Welcome to our new look website!
In addition to a sleek new look we now have online shopping available to you all. How exciting! This means we can bring you lots more stock from the comfort of your own home.
New styles being added every day.
If something you like is not in stock, shoot us an email on sideshowannie@gmail.com and we may be able to order it for you.
in the meantime, grab a seat and have a browse through all the pages of our site. Happy Shopping!
Last open day in this little shopfront tomorrow. I
will miss my little shop. To open it was realising a dream of mine, one I
never thought would happen. Its been fun here, meeting you all and
having you pop in to visit, but now it is time for another chapter of
Sideshow Annie.