I had the pleasure of shooting with the multi-talented and very lovely Bettina May back in March, and the pretty Victorian hotel photos we took that day are now on six pages of Retro Lovely‘s Godiva No. 57! Bettina did my sweet 1940s-style hair and makeup, too!
Catherine Morland photographed by Bettina May.
I wore two fabulous lingerie outfits made for me by Rachel of Buttress & Snatch in the UK, a blue tulle robe by GlamourGhoul on Etsy, and a black ruffled Cassandra robe by Catherine D’Lish.
I love the 1992 Dracula adaptation with Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman. While watching the film in a Carson City theater auditorium last year (Fathom Events hosted a set of 30th anniversary showings back in October), I was struck by the idea of doing a pinup shoot featuring the count’s three hot vampire brides. Fast-forward to the end of April, and my dream was not only reality, it’s on the cover of Retro Lovely‘s “Halloween in April” special edition, Volume 1!
Brides of Dracula on Retro Lovely’s Halloween in April Cover.
My friends Miss Melody Noir and Lena Von Noir kindly agreed to be my sister brides for the shoot, and Marilee Caruso – my favorite photographer! – signed on to do makeup, hair, and (of course) take the pictures.
I love pinup, I like cosplay, and Disney theme parks have been my jam since I was a lazy-eyed baby in an eye patch singing “A Pirates Life for Me” like a drunken sailor. So it isn’t a stretch (haha, just wait for this pun payoff!) to assume I’d want to submit something to Retro Lovely‘s Disney-themed Mousequerade special edition.
Since the Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disneyland/Magic Kingdom attraction, I decided to go with a Sally Slater-themed cosplay. In case you didn’t know, that’s the “new” official name used for the slackrope-walking girl perched above the hungry crocodile in one of the stretching room portraits (see? I got PUNS).
Catherine Morland cosplays as Bond Girl Plenty O’Toole.
Marilee Caruso did the pretty hair and makeup and took the photos for our six-page feature. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull off an early-1970s look, but Marilee made it work and I ended up loving the results. She also shot Missy Maybe’s lovely cover set for the same issue!
Catherine Morland cosplays as Bond Girl Plenty O’Toole.
I love Blade Runner. It’s my favorite neo-noir film, and one of the rare novel adaptations that’s at least as good as the original source material. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I recently cosplayed my favorite replicant character from the movie, Rachael, for a photoshoot with Marilee Caruso.
Catherine Morland cosplays Rachael, Sean Young’s replicant character in Blade Runner.
Marilee did the 1940s-inspired “Rachael” hair (yes, there are rolls present) and makeup, and we used her classic “film noir” set, brand-new lamps, and some neon-red lighting to get a 1980s-does-1940s-gritty-mystery look. I’m wearing the Mariette Jacket by Pinup Girl Clothing with the Bad Girl Pencil Skirt in faux leather from the Vixen by Micheline Pitt line and Re-Mix reproduction Babydoll pumps.
Blade Runner Cosplay in Retro Lovely Masquerade No. 28, photographed by Marilee caruso. There are four more images from this set published in the issue.
You can grab a copy of the magazine or a cover poster via Magcloud, and use code BF25 to get a discount (on these or any Magcloud publication) through 11/28/2022 (the actual discount varies by publisher and issue, btw). Note that I don’t make any money off of purchases direct from Magcloud, just the Tiki issue and posters (I have one mag copy left and a handful of posters if you want to help feed my pinup addiction. I mean, support me as I pursue this noble hobby! Ha!).
This one’s kinda meta, because my nom-de-pinup is Catherine Morland and I’m actually portraying Jane Austen’s heroine from Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, in the photo set. As she’s into gothic romances and horrid novels of all kinds, we have Catherine reading novels by candlelight in a spooky forestscape of her imagination. Eat your heart out, Emily St. Aubert!
I cosplay as Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Morland…my pinup namesake!
