Boudoir and Glamour Photography

I absolutely adore boudoir and glamour photography. I actually had the pleasure of being on the other side of the camera twice this year. Once for my naughty librarian photoshoot and recently for a ladies' pampering shoot. I think it is so empowering and liberating to get all fancy just for the fun of it and have beautiful pictures to remember the day with.

I think this is especially important for curvy women. There are some awesome photographers that specialize in capturing beautiful women in all their curvy gorgeousness. One of the photographer's I absolutely adore (probably almost to the point of cyber stalking (in a non-creepy way of course) is Sue Bryce (http://inbedwithsue.com/). She is not strictly a boudoir photographer, she actually considers herself a glamor photographer, but her beautiful photos are simply divine! Especially check out her before and afters! She has posing for curves down to an art and a science!

Photos by Sue Bryce, MUA unknown

Photos by Sue Bryce, MUA unknown

There is a lot of great inspiration for boudoir on Pinterest. I have a couple of great boards, follow me if you don't already www.pinterest.com/tortilladesigns, check out my "Lingerie, corset photoshoot, retro, glamour photography and Marlena for starters. Then take a search for "plus size boudoir"on Pinterest for more awesome inspiration!

There are a number of photographers that specialize in boudoir of curvy ladies so make sure you do your research. Ask around, do a search and ask to see a portfolio (you may have to go in person or request online access due to the sensitive nature of these type of pics). A great picture, captures a moment in time, look at those lovely ladies. They will remember that day and have those gorgeous pictures to remind them when they are old and senile:)

Line and proportion

Line and proportion are two topics that aren't talked about as much as they should imho. The line or silhouette of the clothing can make you look taller, thinner, or shorter and stumpier. Think of your favorite piece of clothing or outfit. How does it fit you? How does it make you feel? Now take a closer look. I want you to look at the design lines of the garment. Look at the seams. Which way do they go? Do they visually lengthen you? Do they add curves where you need them and skim/smooth those that need them? Does the garment flow or is it tight?

Some general concepts about lines:

-Vertical lines make you look taller and usually thinner. These lines help the eye visually lengthen as you look up and down. However if strong vertical lines are very far apart they start to look wider.

-Horizontal lines move side to side and visually increase your width. The more contrast there is the wider you will look also (think of a black and white horizontal, striped shirt).

-Diagonals are a bit in between horizontal and vertical. Depending on how much they tip one way or the other they can either be slimming or thickening.

-Curved lines add softness and femininity. You rarely see heavily curved design lines on mens' wear for this reason.

-Straight lines are seen as more formal.Often straight lines are seen in tailored garments. Straight lines can also counteract the natural curves of the body.

Proportion is how pieces make up the whole. For example, how does your jacket and skirt relate to each as part of the whole outfit? Its a type of relationship of your garment(s). Is your outfit pleasing to the eye? Or is it so off balanced that it just looks silly...perhaps a skimpy crop top paired with a full ball gown style skirt would not have a balanced proportion to your eye. With that being said, designers (and nature) often group things in odd numbers. Like 1, 3, or 5 buttons on a blazer or jacket. Odd numbers and odd proportions (1/3 vs 1/2) are often more visually interesting than a completely balanced outfit.

So next time you are putting together an outfit or sketching a new design, take a pause to think about your style lines and the proportion of the garment.

Finding Inspiration

Where do you find your inspiration?



I found a lot of inspiration from this book "Contemporary Lingerie Designs." You can read my review of the book on Amazon here (if you purchase the book through my link above it will help me continue to provide information to you:) I am always intrigued by where designers find their inspiration. I know some people start from a concept, others from a silhouette, some from nature or a certain fabric. Some designers use a combination of methods. How do you find inspiration? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

For the Spring 2013 line, I was inspired by 80s glamor. In particular I had seen some beautiful 1980s vintage lingerie on Etsy. I loved the silhouettes of the teddies and wondered how I might apply that to a full figured lingerie line. I started loosely sketching some ideas. From there I narrowed down my ideas. For our class we had to come up with at least 5 complete looks. I also started looking at color palettes and doing magazine tears.

Inspiration Resources:

Colorways: 
An awesome site is Designs Seeds. This site has different pictures that the artist then pulls out the colors and creates palettes with usually about 5 colors. Another great site for color inspiration is the Adobe Kuler site.

Designers:
I recommend looking through some of the Pinterest pin boards. I've linked to my page, but also try googling "Pinterest + a designer's name or season." If you're inspired by street fashion take a look at the blog style website lookbook.nu.

Fabrics:
If you'd like to start with the fabric first, check out fabric.com or nyfashioncenterfabrics.com/ or search for a particular fabric designer's name or line.

Lingerie blogs

Ah a girl after my own heart! I came across this awesome site "The Lingerie Addict." A very nice blog I might add. She shares a lot of information on sales, trends, and her personal taste. Plus she gives alot of shot outs to indie designers. Lots of tips and even give a ways. All in all a great site to check out!

Here's a few posts you might find interesting:


Top 10 bra brands for plus size women


Polish larger size bras


Lingerie for outer wear

Technical Drawings

These were truly a labor of love. I'm pretty darn proud how they turned on. It's a good feeling when you impress yourself:) The technical drawings were created in Adobe Illustrator. There was much cursing, hair pulling and otherwise all out frustration during the process. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I will add that many of these I had to draw twice, first I had tried to do my tech drawing using 1/2 of my fashion sketch lady (because she is not straight on to the camera so to speak) and I got a big slap on the hand by my instructor (I still love you Jason) and had to redo them on a the straight on perspective plus size croqui. The layouts were done in Adobe InDesign for the lookbook and technical board. You can see more of the progress of my class on my other blog, Tortilla Designs here.

The Sable Babydoll set

The Fallon Cami

Alexis corset

My favorite, the Domonique Kimono

Fallon long slip

Another topper, the Samantha Pegnoir

Alexis Tap pant

Krystle teddy, my second fav

Spr 2013 Lookbook

Open publication - Free publishing - More fashion

Moodboard progression

I've decided to just give a visual of the progress of my moodboard. If you want to read more in detail check out my posts here or here

Story behind Marlena

After searching and searching for just the right name for my line I decided to do a bit of research on the name Marlena. After I found out about it's dual meaning, I decided to roll with it!

Directly from my Spring 2013 Lookbook:

Marlena designs and markets beautiful lingerie for women with curves. The origin of the name Marlena is the combination of Mary (purity) and Magdalena (an unholy lady). Marlena interprets this dichotomy by letting each individual choose whether to be naughty or nice. Each piece is carefully hand crafted to ensure the highest quality of construction. Marlena is moderately priced, perfect for the woman who loves to spoil herself. The company is a LLC based in Tacoma, Washington.

Oh and did I mention that Marlena is my middle name? My mom swears when she looked it up back in the day the meaning was "tower of strength" but here's the modern info I found.

It all begins with an idea

What begins with an idea? Everything! From product creation, to Nobel prizes, to overthrowing old regimes, it all begins with an idea.

Join me as I take Marlena boutique from concept to reality. Please stay tuned tuned to watch and learn with me as I take Marlena Boutique from an idea to a full fledged product line.

You can see some of my earlier posts on my other site Tortilla Designs.

Here's a few of my rough sketches.