“They had forgotten the first lesson, that we are to be powerful, beautiful, and without regret.“
— Anne Rice
Ageless by affliction, Lady Vanya has played the role of daughter and débutante more times than history has been allowed to remember. Born to a family of aristocratic elites, most of her life has been spent in quiet isolation—confined to the manor’s grounds for centuries in the interest of secrecy.
Despite escaping the would-be suitor that turned her, Lady Vanya would remain a prisoner of her family’s mercy. While neither sanity nor sense had forsaken the young girl they once knew… fear that she one day might… called for compromise.
Patiently awaiting the day her family might finally trust her, generations passed her by. Her ageless existence? An oddity; easily overlooked. Her station? Forgotten… just like the ‘danger’ she was once been said to pose.
In time, those who came well after began to act with privilege reserved for those who came before… forgetting that, in all reality, she was—by far—their elder. Unwilling to resort to violence, Vanya left the manor grounds… for the first time in centuries.
Her absence didn’t go unnoticed, however, and it wasn’t long before she found herself hunted for crimes she’d soon be forced to commit…
Character Inspirations
Vampires have always been an obsession of mine, so when I say this set has quickly become one of my all-time favorites… that’s a bit of an understatement! <3 With Vanya the goal was to find a balance between “Regal” and “Innocent.” While she IS a vampire, we went out of our way to keep that part of her as subtle as possible—as she, no doubt, would want herself.
Photography & Design
Lush gardens and a predominately black & gold outfit helped me play up my already pale skin, making me appear almost a ghostly white by comparison. To really convey Vanya’s sensitivity to light, however, I ended up selectively desaturating my shots—leaving alone the areas touched by natural sunlight. I feel this additional level of separation between “light” and “shadow” really helped me emphasize her need for a parasol on sunny days.
For the video we were able to apply a number of similar filters to keep the overall look, but also played around with a variety of color-grades to keep things interesting. Finding locations that fit the 17th/18th century feel I wanted where we could shoot was a LOT harder than anticipated, but thankfully we have a lot of friends in weird places… with weird hobbies… that happened to know of some weirdly suitable locations. <3
I’m still a bit sad we didn’t get to do an altar scene for the paladin… To be fair though, we really couldn’t think of a good way to go about asking an orthodox catholic church to help out with something like this… lol.
The Outfit
The gold and black mantle is entirely hand-made from a mix of leathers/fabric trims and features a large, silky, black ribbon bow on the back. Despite its unwieldy look it stays in place quite well on account of having been wet-molded specifically to my neck and shoulders. That said, I DID add elastic straps on either side for added stability while running. ^.^
While the main dress was bought on Etsy, the seller has, unfortunately, closed their shop since… (else I would provide a reference). While it is certainly a work of art all it’s own, I did end up making a variety of modifications to it to help tie everything together. (Bits of gold chain, gold brushed black flowers, ribbons, etc.)
Throughout the main body of the dress are a number of dark red gems hand-wrapped in and attached with golden wire. I’m grateful to Bonita Bead Boutique for not only supplying me with the gemstones, but also for showing me the basics of their craft to be able to attach them! I really feel like they helped tie together the look of the mantle, jewelry, and—of course—”other” splashes of red. ^.^
The sleeves were a bit of a work themselves. Having been cut from another dress entirely I added gold-tinted leather straps/buckles, wrapped in lace, help keep them secure on my arms.
…then, of course, there’s the fangs and red-contacts. Having never worn contacts before, it certainly took me a while to get them in the first few times. The fangs, however, in an effort to look as “real” as possible were merely caps held in place with a food-grade adhesive (which, admittedly, kept dissolving on me mid shoot >.<).
"Royalty" Music Video
Vanya’s ageless nature affords her a unique perspective on the world my other characters have come to share. My goal this year is to create a variety of media projects to help breathe life into my characters. This video, which details a pivotal period in Vanya’s backstory (centuries before the other characters ever existed) is just the start!
If you like what you see PLEASE don’t forget to like, subscribe, and—at least consider—signing up for my Patreon, so that I may continue my artistic journey!
