The British Library has put up a great informational page and gallery of Victorian Freak Show Posters.

“Novelty acts relied a great deal on shock, therefore performers were not revealed in the flesh to audiences until money had changed hands. Titillating publicity was crucial, as the people described in these adverts often bore little resemblance to what lay behind the curtain or turnstile. Exaggerated and stylised illustrations lent age to dwarf acts, stature to giants, and plausibility to mermaids and bear boys. The advertisers of these shows aroused the curiosity of the audience by overplaying, often entirely inventing, ‘true life’ stories.”

This online exhibit is part of a collection called Bodies of Knowledge, which also includes medieval astrology, Chinese acupuncture (with amazingly detailed diagrams), Renaissance anatomy lessons, Ruysch’s “fantastical cabaret of preserved body parts,” the first X-Rays ever taken, and lots of other morbid and fascinating eye candy. Thanks for ze tip, Jerem!

Degenerotika Clothing is a new alt fashion label by Slovenian artist/videographer/designer Tea Bauer. The clothing is gothic for sure, but there’s nothing pensive or frou-frou about it: the sharp, angular, textured garments look like they’re designed for dangerous people, people with unnatural reflexes and ambiguous morals. I can see Aeon Flux wearing this for a violent date with Trevor Goodchild, or Molly Millions donning this for a rare night out dancing on the Killing Floor.

The Degenerotika portfolio can be here, and I’ve included my favorite pieces after the jump. I’ll admit that some of the pieces are hit-or-miss for me, but when it’s a hit, it’s a stab straight to the heart. Tea has a clear voice and a unique perspective on alternative fashion. Definitely one to watch.

Last week, there was some great discussion here at Coilhouse about spotting interesting people based on personal style cues. No one trusts a haircut anymore, so everyone’s searching for something more subtle and specific; as Mike Jennings writes in the comments, “for example, anyone wearing jewelry featuring taxidermy supplies is probably going to be someone with whom I can have more than a passing conversation.” In the corporate world, ties can say a lot. If I see a guy or gal wearing a tie like the Cyberoptix one above at a business meeting, I know what’s up. Come to think of it, these days strict power suits can say a lot.

More to the point, I’ve found that one quick, reliable way to figure out if someone is on the same wavelength is to figure out if they’re into squids, octopi and tentacles. I’ve yet to figure out why or how this litmus test works so well, but it does. If someone’s eyes light up when the word “tentacles” is mentioned, chances are they’re my kinda person. Does anyone else find that this is the case? If so, why this, out of all possible things? Maybe it’s because tentacles quickly recall so many different facets of What Made Us Weird; Lovecraft, Japanese culture, a love for all things “alien-looking.” And it’s not like I obsess over tentacles on a daily basis, they’re not my favorite thing in the world, but somehow they’re just so handy in identifying people, like some sort of secret code word we all agreed on in our sleep. Or is it just me? What is about those things?

* Yes, I know that octopi don’t really have tentacles but “arms.”

Friends! This is a good time to warn you that what you find on Coilhouse may not always be safe for work. We’ll try to keep the racy content after a jump and warn you about NSWF links, but we can’t promise that we’ll never blow our load right on the front page of the blog. Case in point: Franz von Bayros’ timeless masterpiece, “Ex-libris of Sweet Snail.” How can anyone resist putting an image like this right a the top? How? You tell me.

Franz von Bayros was an artist from the late 19th/early 20th century who became known for his playfully perverse erotic imagery. Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, van Byros lived from 1866 until 1924. Van Bayros was constantly on the move: oft-expelled from European cities due to the sexual content of his work, he was forced to relocate again and again and start from scratch. During his lifetime he produced over 2000 works, and his most famous collection was a series of erotic images called Erzahlungen vom Toilettentisch or Tales from the Dressing Table.

What makes Bayros’ images so delectable is precisely what’s missing from average porn: a sense of everyone having a good time. In Bayros’ images, there’s a real atmosphere of pleasure, and I find myself feeling light and kind of giddy after looking his gorgeously-crafted scenes, thinking, “wow, that looks like fun! good for them.” See for yourself after the jump.

Many thanks to my friend Mildred Von for turning me onto Bayros’ work, and for the title to this blog post. You may have also noticed that Mil occasionally pops up on Coilhouse to make a couple of posts of her own.

KariwanZ is the name of a rubberwear designer couple from Japan. They create intensely elaborate outfits for themselves with themes ranging from Rococo to the space age to marine life, employing layers of ruffles that look like cake decorations, detailed appliqués and inflatable portions that transform their limbs into claws or unheard-of appendages.

The outfits are not for sale, and seem to be made purely for the couple’s roleplaying and creative pleasure. No matter what style the outfits, they all have one theme in common: the lady, named Karin, is always the mistress dog-keeper, and the man, named Wanco (“doggie” in Japanese), always appears as her pet.

There’s a lot of exuberance here; the smiling eyes peeking out of the masks, the comic book format in which they tell the story of why they began to make clothing, their willingness to share the steps of their creative process (they even publish the formula for their latex glue, a jealously-guarded trade secret of every latex designer in the West), all these things point to a genuine love for latex and their desire to share their creative fetish bond with the world. They also sell cute latex teddy bears, all of which are currently sold out.

On their “about us” page, they write “We can create costumes we want to wear, and can create anything that we want to have!” Good for them!

“Mother. Star Trek. Father. Star Wars. Kino. The Illuminatus Trilogy. James Joyce. Lovecraft. 1001 Arabian Nights. UFO sightings. Getting switched at birth. Encyclopedias. Synagogue. Catholicism. Mexican Shamanism. Carl Sagan. Praise Bob! Jazz music. Horrible Whining Bob and his Brooding Band. Latter-day Saints. Harrowsmith Magazine. Dead Can Dance. Being the only deaf Anglo person in a French community. Folklore/ghost tales. Gericault’s ‘Raft of the Medusa.’ Nothing at all. Being a virtual bubble boy due to illness. Gangsters, search Boadicea & haunted houses. Living with artists. Being the only kid in elementary school to dress up as a Ford Prefect for Halloween. David Bowie in Labyrinth. Lord of the Rings. Joy Division, Finnegan’s Wake (no, I didn’t get a lot out of that when reading it at 14 but it did secure a good grade in english for me) and Gitanes. ABBA. Deep-sea crustaceans. Astrid Lingren. USA Networks Nightflight. Museums my parents took me to…” – From comments on “What Made You Weird?”

Back in July, the American “underground/alternative” mall chain Hot Topic announced that it was rebranding, abandoning The Dark Path for a brighter, more inclusive ambiance. CNN Money covered a consumer conference where Hot Topic CEO James McGinty had the following to say:

“Based on feedback from our customers and changes in the [apparel] industry, we’re changing the look of our stores… people were telling us that the stores were too dark, gothic and intimidating to the average customer.”

The big question is this: what is this a sign of? Should we mourn the old, dark Hot Topic or piss on its grave?

“They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. ” – Exactitudes Website

These pictures go a long way to remind me that no matter how individualistic people think they are with their clothes and makeup, in the end we are all divided into relatively homogeneous tribes. These dress codes, both on the street and on MySpace, make it easy to find new friends – or at least they used to. When I was younger, if I saw green-haired girl with weird jewelry on the train, I could easily strike up a conversation on basis of common interests. I’ve met a lot of friends that way. These days, that’s not the case. I’ve met freaky-looking people who had nothing in common with me, and I’ve met people dress completely “normal” who turned to be some of the most unique individuals I’ve ever known. People dress a certain way in order to send social cues to each other about common interests, but now with the Avril Lavigne generation, “alternative” cues that used to mean a lot don’t mean nearly quite as much.

It’s still possible to meet new friends in cities while simply walking down the street, but it’s a lot more tricky than it was when I was 15. Either I’ve changed, or social norms have changed, or both. Now, I pay attention more to what people are holding in their hands, what type of facial expression they have, what they’re reading, rather than their hair color or makeup. How do you find friends in the crowd?

Dame Shirely Bassey of James Bond music theme fame recently put out an ubergoth video to promote her cover of Pink’s “Get the Party Started.” I showed this to an extremely talented musician friend who shall remain nameless, prompting a hilarious knee-jerk reaction that I did not expect. There were some choice words for this, let me tell you. My friend was like, “it’s the cheese knob being cranked to 11! Combined with out-of-her-prime show tune hag in bad frame composites and uber tacky goth trappings! It’s phantom of the opera meets a Calvin Klein perfume ad! Meets Liza Minelli’s fat ass! Terrible, sterile video and the insincere bellowing of a woman who forgot to take her menopause meds.”

Oh man, harsh! I don’t have my friend’s fine-tuned ear for music, so the horror of the singing did not penetrate me quite the same way. Also, I have bad taste. I’ll be the first to admit this. I kinda like the pretty goth dresses! However, even I’ll concede that the masks are kind of questionable. However, I can watch this video again and again. I now share this bad taste with all of you. Video and stills, behind the jump. Enjoy!

Thaw by Caryn Drexl

Later it is the air she will remember. The sharpness of it as she inhaled: crisp like paper. She could have been breathing paper. There was a rush of sound, like a train passing, or maybe like she was the train. Thick colors swirled and time became molasses as her legs slowly tumbled around behind her and then over her head… She was the blob of paint spreading thinly every which way, spindling in all directions, pulled flat, slow and hard. That was how she tumbled and then time caught up with itself and she dropped. – Bridge suicide scene from Amanda Davis’ “Circling the Drain”

Being a human can be pretty scary when you become too aware of your flesh. This is especially true if you’re a woman. Photographer Caryn Drexl knows it, and isn’t afraid to show that in the most visceral way.

To me, many of these images are about profound loss; loss of the feeling that you were once normal and whole, a feeling that we had as children and gradually traded for the good and the bad that comes with the desire to reshape yourself to fit certain beauty ideals. I suggest going through Drexl’s entire portfolio in one sitting and paying attention to the image titles. It’s like taking a journey through some gnarled dark woods, with Drexl’s sense of humor shining through like sunlight through the branches. Drexl has a remarkable power to use motifs that I’d thought had lost all their magic, such as dolls, broken glass and tears, to provoke a real reaction. With all the misuse of such themes in alt photography, I never thought that seeing them would impact me again – but it has. Drexl comes from a pure place and it seems to me like she never uses an object in a photo unless there’s a compelling personal reason.

Drexl uses herself as a model in many of the pictures, and writes in her bio, “I consider myself an artist the internet made.”

• Caryn Drexl Portfolio Site
• Caryn Drexl Prints at Etsy
• Caryn Drexl on Flickr

More of my favorite images, after the jump. Thanks for the tip, Megumi!