• SWANClothing Sock garters
• Black skirt – I call it Gladiatrix because it looks like a warrior’s skirt (Queen of Darkness)
• black top (some hippy shop)
• Red corset (actually an underwear corset – an awesome present from my wicked cool sister)
• Spider thigh-high socks
• Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots

I am so happy with the sock garters. My legs as so skinny my socks and stockings constantly fall down, and these are the only sock garters I’ve ever seen on the market with a slightly feminine, but with a bondage twist, feel to them. They are no good for REALLY thick socks, but these are a thick-ish cotton/wool blend and the garters hold them up just fine. They’re extremely well made, and I love the little swan on my right leg. I love buying and wearing handmade products and supporting independent designers, and if doing that means I get to wear cool things like these, then I will continue to do so with a smile!

The only terrible thing is, since they fit my upper legs so well, I am going to have to get another pair for my shorter socks. Oh no, so sad!

Since this was an industrial gig, I wanted to do something with my hair. I don’t own any dreadfalls (although I am eyeing up these “steamfalls” from SteampunkCouture), so I DIYed my own hair ribbons using … shoelaces. I just put my hair into pigtails and tied the laces around the hairties. CDH thought it was hilarious, because I was worrying people would think I looked stupid, but no one could tell in the dark. I should really know by now NO ONE in this community would care if you wore shoelaces in your hair.

Socking’ it to ya.
Steff Metal

How do I promote my metal band on the internet and stand out from the other 666 million metal bands trying to promote themselves on the internet?

***

I think this is a rather important topic to cover. With the music industry still in turmoil, and even major label bands losing out on funds they used to rely on from record sales – most metal bands wonder how they will even manage to get noticed. Promoting music online has become the new gospel of DIY band success – in some cases, more even than touring. If you’re trying to get ahead as a musician today, you need a plan for marketing, and your plan had bloody better include the internet.

Disclaimer: I am not a musician. I have never promoted my own metal band online. However, I do know a thing or two about online promotion – I’ve created two successful websites and promoted them, and sold hundreds of ebooks. I’ve also helped create online campaigns for successful small businesses – a gothic corset company, and a dentist (yes, seriously!).

Online promotion tactic – when done right – can be applied to any form of art or business, and used to create the audience for your music, art, clothing, jewelry, craft, or writing.

So, how should an up-and-coming metal band promote their music online?

Amon Amarth - some call them gimicky, others call them awesome. I call them - good promoters.

Create the Best Music You Can

Before you start promoting, you should have something to promote, and it shouldn’t be some half-assed demo recorded in your garage with pillows on the walls (unless that’s the sound you’re after). Take the time to hone your songs, save the money, and either bring your band to a studio or invest in the equipment yourself, then hire someone experienced to master it. Then find someone to create the best cover art possible.

Because if you do everything else in this tutorial, but your music sucks, ain’t a man alive who can help you make it big. Metal fans are rather discerning – we want it to be good.

Find Your Point of Difference

So you’re in a melodic death metal band, eh? – what makes your band different from every other melodic death metal band on the planet? Why should I listen to you when I can listen to Arch Enemy?

You have to figure this out, because it’s the key to your marketing strategy.

It could be a gimmick. I’m not knocking gimmicks – in fact, most of the music I like has some kind of gimmick:

• Amon Amarth – death metal about Vikings
• Arch Enemy - melodic death metal with a female growler who actually sounds good.
• Blind Guardian - Lord of the Rings themed power metal
• The Hate Project – black metal electronica with female vocals.
• Behemoth – black metal from Poland

In essence, their “gimmicks” are that little catchphrase you use to describe them to your friends. Their “gimmicks” beget the word-of-mouth marketing that bands rely on to make a go at music. Their “gimmicks” are the essence of great marketing.

What do you want people to say when they describe you? What would your one-line tag be? Figure this out – because it’s the key to your marketing strategy.

Create a Web Presence

I personally believe every musician should be on MySpace – I know MySpace is shite, but until Facebook allows you to set up a band page that allows streamping music with such ease – MySpace is the site to be on.

But I also believe you should buy your own domain name and create a website. Professional bands have websites – and you want to be a professional band. I would start with a simple template on WordPress – you can always hire a designer later to make it look uber.

On your website, you need a NEWS page, a page of upcoming tour dates, a contact page, a page of bios of the band, a page with your discography including links to buy your work. You might also include a merch page, photo shoots and live gig photographs, and reviews and interviews from the press.

You website and your MySpace page should reflect your point of difference. Take a look at the pages for the bands I listed above – Amon Amarth’s website looks like a Viking hangout, Blind Guardian’s is heavy on the fantasy themes, Behemoth’s looks dark and evil, The Project Hate’s looks dark and arty.

Mailing List: whether you use Myspace or your own website, or both, you should have a mailing list. Send a mail out to announce a new song streaming live, an interview in a magazine, a new tour schedule or merchandise going up for sale on your website.

album cover for "In Hora Mortis Nostra".

Social Networking

Now you’ve created your website, you should experiment with social networking. Myspace is your first stop – start adding your friends and bands you love to your page – eventually, people will start adding you back – go and leave a personal comment on their pages – not one of those automatic “Thanks For Following Death Beetle Apocalypse” graphics – an actual personal comment.

Some bands are having success making Fan Pages on Facebook, so you could always try there too. I’ve observed the fan pages that tend to go viral are the ones about completly ridiculous things or with crazy, funny titles. Two of my favorites are:

• If 1 Million People Become Fans of This Group, My Girlfriend Will Let Me Turn Our House into a Pirate Ship
• My Potato Brings all the Irish to the Yard, and They’re Like, My Famine’s Better Than Yours. Damn Right, It’s Better Than Yours.

So maybe you’ll have more success if you create a fan group like “metalheads against spiked wristbands in the mosh pit”, than simply a group about your band.

Next, consider Twitter – the darling of social networking. It’s simple, you sign up, add some people, link it from your website, and start tweeting about life in the band, upcoming shows, and other random stuff. Follow major bands and make friends with their followers, and gradually, you’ll build up a list of loyal twittering fans.

Act as Though You’ve Already Made it

By this, I don’t mean become an arrogent rock star (Hi Axl!). I mean treat your band in all your correspondance and online dealings as though they’re an important act – worthy of discussion and review and respect. Don’t belittle your music or say things like “well, the production could be better, but we tried our best.”

Oh, you can think it, but don’t say it. If you don’t believe in your music, no one else will. Be proud of what you created, and know you’re worthy of success.

Offer Something More

Offer more than just music – offer unique content on your website, like short stories or historical data about your themes, or a useful blog on tips for promoting a band and interviews with other musicians. Offer merchandise – and don’t just stop at t-shirts and beanies. Collaborate with indie designers to produce unique, limited edition pieces. Offer other services – create music tutorials, online clinics, “Make your own drumkit” videos.

Offer yourself – your mind, body and spirit. Be a genuine, kind and awesome person – the kind of person your fans would want as a friend. There is no substitute for good old-fashioned likeable people – because when people see you as a trustworthy, open-minded and generally good person, they want you to succeed. And they will help you.

Learn to Write Press Releases

because until you can afford to hire a publicist, you’re in charge of them, and you won’t get any exposure in print press until you’re writing and submitting press releases regularly.

I am pretty good at writing press releases now, and I can tell you the key is finding a newsworthy story – someone once told me “if your press release is printed in the paper, word for word, with no changes, you’re doing it right.” A press release is like a mini-news story – you’re showing the journalist they can write an article about you.

I could write an entire article about creating effective press releases (in fact, I’ve devoted a chapter of my blogging book to the very subject), but this here article is getting quite long as it is. So here’s an article to get you started: How to Write a Press Release for Your Band.

Make Friends with Podcasters and Internet Radio Stations

Your formet is primarily auditory, and so is theirs – so embrace them. Send demos and press releases, and offer to help out in other ways – maybe you could do a segment where you review another band’s album. Maybe they would like a guest presenter – or someone to create a theme song for their show.

How do you find podcasters and radio stations? Well, ever since I signed up to receive Blabbermouth updates via RSS, I’ve learnt about an awful lot of new radio stations and metal podcast I hadn’t realised existed before.

Make Friends with Bloggers

These days, bloggers are the voices of the internet. We drive the sales and decide who’s popular, who’s good, and who’s shite. So get yourself noticed by the metal bloggers – email in your press release, coment on their blogs, send them a copy of your album. Give them prize packs to giveaway.

Speaking of which, if you are a band interested in promoting here on Steff Metal, email me and we can talk ideas.

Extra for Experts

• Using Last.FM to promote your band in 6 easy steps by Jimmy Shelter.
• Stories of Success: Online Band Promotion by Sean McManus.
• If I were in a band: how I would promote online by The Daily Rock.
• How an Indie Musician can Make $19 000 in 10 hours using Twitter by Amanda Palmer (obviously not a metal musician, but you can learn a lot from this article, and it’s given me some great ideas for promoting my book next year).

You will find lots more advice on using blogs, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter in my ebook – the Grymm and Epic Guide to Blogging – due out in April. Until then, best of luck, and I hope to be hearing your wicked and brutal tunes soon.

Spreading the Blood of the Innocent on her Hot-Cross bun
Steff

A really cool pair of distressed jeans can run you into a good $200. Want some studs on it? PAY EVEN MORE! Seriously, who can pay for that? I know I can’t! So, what’s a stud feign to do?

All you need is a old pair of jeans (Stained? Even better!), a knife, Sandpaper/nail file, chalk/washable marker, a pack of studs, a small nail, and pliers/tweezers (Depending on the size of your stud).

Once you’ve got your materials together, you’re ready for a crash course on jean distressing.

Distress 101: Types and techniques:

The Slash

The slash mark is achieved by rubbing a knife up and down on the jean fabric. To make sure that you don’t make a hole, completely stop after a few slashes and check your handiwork until you get the look you want. These usually appear in the wrinkle zone, or the area where the leg meets the hip.

The Fray

Rub a knife from side to side along the seams around your pants pockets, zipper, and foothole. Remember to stop regularly and check out your work.

The Hole

For a hole place a hard round object (Like a stone) underneath the area you planned hole to appear. Rub   with the nailfile until a hole with fuzzy edges appears. You’d likely see holes above, at, or directly below the knee area.

The Fade

To get the fade look, the easiest thing to do is to rub the area with sandpaper or a nail file until you start seeing those white threads, then continue up or down depending on where you marked. Keep a close eye on the area you are distressing as you wouldn’t want all those glorious threads to snap! Fades appear from midthigh to the area directly below the knee.

Now that you know the techniques, it time to plan out the look. Check out pictures of distressed jeans to get a feel of where the distress organically occurs. Put on your jeans and start drawing where you want your holes, fades, frays and slashes.

Be sure to wash your jeans after you have distressed them, to get the true wear and tear look. In the end they should something like look like this:

Now for the studding section.

First you need studs. To buy studs at cheap prices check out Crust Punks, Studs and Spikes, or Angry Young and Poor, where you can buy them under five dollars in bulk. Absolutely do not bother buying the bedazzler (Just saying.)! Also try holding on to those old studded belts, studs can be recycled.

First mark out where you will place your studs (Around pockets and on the seams are great places). Hit the web for some inspiration if you are stuck. Once you know where you are putting your studs, it’s time to put them in.

Take a look at this picture of some studs.

Note that the underside of the stud has two spokes. You are going to place the stud over the place you plan to put it with the spokes poking out the underside of the denim. Push the stud really hard and note where those little spokes left a mark. Use a small nail to open the lil holes up. Push the spokes through and turn to the underside. Use your pliers or tweezers to push those spokes in so that the underside looks like my favorite emoticon : >.<

Continue to stud along your marking until you are finished

Enjoy your new jeans!

You can find Faith’s other DIY projects and “Look of the Week” posts over on her blog.

Happy studding!
Steff

Ah, anime, is there anything you can't teach us?

This post deals with the second half of a question I recieved last week, about dealing with being a metalhead at high school. I wanted to deal with the topic of school uniforms seperately, so we could have some fun without belittling the first part of this reader’s question, which is something quite near to many of our hearts.

As a teenager at high school, this reader wanted to know how to look “metal” while still obeying the school’s uniform policy.

We metalheads do love to look the part and I’m the first to admit I devote more time than perhaps necessary to sourcing the perfect metal fashion and accessories. It’s fun, it fosters community spirit, expresses my deep, unending love for all things metal, and supports other independent, subculture designers, so it is all good.

Except if you’re at high school, and your school has a uniform or a dress standard that forbids Slayer shirts and pentagram necklaces. What’s a teenaged metalhead to do?

You can’t do anything about the uniform. Well, you can write angry letters to the school board about the lack of ability to express yourself and the high cost of uniforms for low-income families and the anachronism of uniforms in the modern world, and you might get somewhere, but chances are, the school wants a uniform, and with a uniform it shall stay.

And yes, I was a student who wrote letters to the board about the anachronism of uniforms in the modern world, and I believe I did indeed use the word “anachronism” and possibly the word “post-modernism” and it got me nowhere, although the principal did enjoy my letter.

You could flout the rules totally and show up in your favorite band shirt and leathers – but you might get expelled, which is totally metal but might make it difficult for you to get a job.

You have to think of uniform policies as less of a set of “rules” and more of a challenge in lateral thinking.  The teachers enforce these rules in order to get you to think of ingenius ways of flouting them without getting caught. It’s a mental challenge to you, and also an exciting game for them: teacher’s collect confiscated items like trophies – and the more interesting the items, the more “teacher scene” points they get from their colleagues. These are cultural rituals important to every teenager’s experience of high school, and should be regarded with spiritual devotion.

Who's gonna confiscate her accessories?

Despite my own high school’s strict policy regarding accessories, every student wore their own “bling”. We kept it understated, so we couldn’t get pulled up for it, but a statement we did make. The Christians wore crucifixes, the Hip-Hoppers wore hundreds of rings on their fingers, the popular girls wore necklaces from their boyfriends, the cute girls decided to forgo the generic blue and gold school scarf for soft, fluffy pink ones. My BFF Shane wore a monkey t-shirt under his white shirt and a bead necklace, my other friend Amy wore a pentagram necklace which caused her no end of grief, another friend wore a spiked dog collar under her shirt. Everyone had more piercings than the alotted 1 per earlobe.

And sure, this stuff got confiscated regularly. But you could always get it back, after the teachers had bragged about their catch and earnt their scene points, of course. Plus, you’re rebelling against the system, which is all kinds of metal.

If you have to wear a necktie, find one in your school colour with a screenprinted design. I love the steampunk and skull designs from Rok Gear. You probably won’t get away with wearing this tie for long, but you never know.

Steampunk Skull necktie, $25, from Rok Gear

Hats! You need a hat to keep the sun off, right? Some schools issue those horrid baseball caps with the school logo, but who’s going to notice if you wear something different, eh? I am a particular fan of anything procured from an army surplas store (although maybe stay away from the pith helmets. A little conspicuous).

Necklaces can be worn by guys and gals. I find anything on a leather thong looks great tucked under the collar of a white shirt – Thor’s hammers, occult symbols, even Wacken dog tags. Try to keep jewellery to only one statement piece: if you’re wearing a metal necklace, put plain studs in your ears. If you have a spike through your nose, don’t wear any other jewellery. You don’t want to overdo it!

Metal wristbands

At my high school it was a mark of honour among certain groups to wear the wristbands from a New Zealand Christian music festival for months or years after the festival took place. Having never been to said festival, I can’t comment on whether it warrented such elite treatment (it could have been awesome. I don’t know). But if you’ve been to any metal fastivals, consider keeping the wristbands on year round as a sign of your kvltness.

The other oft-forgotten totem of individuality at high school is the school bag. I’ve never heard of a school placing rules on the colour and style of school bags allowed, so metal yours up with spikes and studs and band patches. Throw it in the dirt so it looks all old and scungy. If you don’t want a backpack, opt for a messenger bag or army-surplas store utility belt instead.

Carry your essentials in pencil cases made from army ration tins, PVC and spikes, coffin-shaped purses, Viking-style leather pouches and remnants of old metal shirts.

Hair – wear it down, wear it long. Keep a hairtie around your wrist in case you’re told to tie it back, but pull it out again later. You can’t practise

Go all-out on mufti days. Seriously, go crazy. You have nothing to loose, save your dignity, and you’re a metalhead, so you don’t give a fuck about that.

Remember that above all, metal is an attitude, not a fashion trend. If you are metal, you will look metal, no matter what you wear.

Horns up! \m/
Steff Metal

CDH and I like a “laid-back Viking” style – lots of ancient treasures everywhere, but not a full-on “welcome to the longhouse, please wipe your feet” experience. Of course, we will be able to go crazy when we build our own place, but that’s a few years away yet.

One of our bookshelves. You can see my Egyptian thingies, the clay pot from a kebab shop in Cappadocia (the kebab was INSIDE the pot), the candle we lit at out wedding, and a bunch of books we like to read

Aside from black, my favorite colors are red and orange, and CDH’s favorite color is sea-green. We keep a dark palette of colors, because I prefer to be in dark rooms (light-sensitive, you see, like a vampire) and darkness ist krieg. We have wooden floors, which look awesome but are a bitch to look after, so we’ve covered them with heaps of multi-colored rugs. I love how it makes our lounge look like one of those alleyway antique shops.

We have too many books, so we had to buy more bookshelves, which double as knick knack stands. Sooooo many knick knacks.

I made this dreamcatcher. I collected the duck feathers from beside a pond while on holiday.

My office (which I haven’t taken pictures in yet because it is a MESS) is decorated with inspiring paper ephemera, including fantasy greeting cards by Ann Sudeworth from Avebury in England, a lace duck card from Bruges, and a personalized WANTED posted and box I made in the printing room at MOTAT. CDH’s office is decorated with transformers and train books.

So, that’s what we do. What about you?

More of our bookshelves. Here we have a celtic cross, a small display of my fossil / bone / stone collection, our wedding album, and an Aladdin lamp CDH brought me in Syria

Heavy Metal Décor is what you want it to be – if you think heavy metal décor is tiger-striped rugs, black leather couches and 80s kitsch, then you’ve created yourself a metal haven. If you liken a metal interior design to a minimalist black and red design with elliptical lampshades and a dining room table so shiny you could play air hockey on it, then metal it up my minimalist friend!

I believe your house should be filled with objects and colors and details which make you happy. You should walk in the door and just smile. And because you are a person with very specific tastes, your home tends to become full of things you like, and this creates a cohesive style without you needing to think about it.

My perfume, brought from Egypt. I have this displayed in the bathroom. Don't you just love the little bottle and the vial shaped like a camel?

What to look for: Old gig posters to frame, (I love reading I want your skull for truly unique gig poster artwork, straight from the artist themselves), horror film memorabilia, black and red and purple and gold, spikes, studs, eyelets, bondage features, ancient talismans, artifacts, skulls aplenty, natural fabrics in dark shades, leather and faux leather, Vikings, crosses (you can easily invert them, if you so choose), steampunk, Scandinavian and German design, metal inserts, metal everything, “alternative” artwork, old vinyl record sleeves, skulls, taxidermy, paper ephemera.

Viking Soap Dish. The BEST thing we brought back from Europe. Everytime people go to the bathroom they comment on it \m/

I painted both these viking ships. I am working on making prints so others can have their very own Steff Metal viking ship.

CDH's office guardians

Visit: second-hand and thrift shops, alleyway antique shops, swap meets and car-boot fairs, fabric sales and hippy craft fairs, medieval markets and pagan festivals, eBay, the “classified” sections of metal forums. Scandi-design books.

Remember, interior design evolves over time. There’s no sense throwing everything in a room away and going out to buy a whole new set of furniture and “decoration”. It’s about spying that perfect painting in an artist market in Berlin, or sewing latex cushions while listening to Darkthrone. Your décor won’t be finished until you die, and even then you might return to rearrange the sofas.

So, what are your favorite aspects of your interior decorating? What items do you more hope to attain? What would be your dream room?

If people are keen and we get some ideas flowing I am happy to do more posts on this subject.

Steff

Why do my presents never look so neat and tidy?

But sometimes, I forget people. Sometimes, those people are quite important, and for whatever reason – usually what my husband calls a Brain Fart – they just totally illude my radar. Sometimes, like this year, CDH and I go overseas to Europe and the Middle East and do all our Christmas Shopping over there, and because we’re on holiday everything seems really awesome and expensive. And then we get home and realise some of our gifts aren’t going to cut it. We need “Gift padders”.

And here I am, with a week before Christmas and a couple of forgotten people and a few gift-padders, and NO money. NONE. Therefore, I am thinking industriously, and if you’re a little crafty or creative or fun, you might benefit from some of these ideas too.

Top Ten Last-Minute Homemade Heavy Metal Christmas Gifts

1. Homebaked goodies never, EVER go amiss. biscuits, chocolates, preserves, breads, cakes … it will be gobbled up with abandon. You can probably find the ingredients for a basic chocolate chip biscuit – flour, white sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, chocolate chips – in your pantry, all ready to turn into something delicious for your loved ones. Wrap up in cellophane with a nice bow.
2. If your culinary skills extend to writing gross autopsy lyrics for your gore metal band, why not write a funny Christmas song and get some musician friends to help you record it, than distribute it to all your friends and family. Make a humorous CD sleeve to go with it.
3. Create a homemade card. I always make cards like little comic strips, with something funny that’s happened throughout the year.
4. If you’re known as the culinary genius among your ilk, write out a short cookbook of your favorite recipes, tips and tricks. Fill it with pictures of previous parties, and you making silly faces while you make vol-u-vants in your Slayer t-shirt.
5. Create a memory scrapbook for the year. Memories mean more to people than more store-brought Junk
6. CDH and I get these huge collage posters printed up for our friends, with a selection of 50 photos from all throughout the year, and they hang them on the wall. You can get these for quite cheap from Snapfish, and they deliver super-quick.
7. Paint or draw a picture and have it framed
8. Write a short story (or a novel if you’re a fast writer) about a crazy adventure, starring the intended gift recipient. I’ve done this on three seperate occasions and – barring one for my ex I mentioned in the Heavy Metal Christmas post, they’ve been incredibly well-recieved. One, called ‘Rock Star: Mayhem” and starring every single one of my friend, was a 40k novel. We had two “Dramatic Readings” where my friends all got together and I read out the magnum opus in a dramatic voice and friends cheered when their names came up. You can’t buy that kind of awesome.
9. Give Vouchers. I don’t mean “$25 at Glassons” kind of vouchers, I mean “Good for Seven Free Hugs from Steff” and “1 hour of listening to you whine about your latest boyfriend issues without rolling my eyes ONCE” vouchers.
10. If your a gardener, give seedlings to others so they can discover the joy of watching a plant grow too. I would give fruit and vegetable plants, like strawberries, tomato or gourgette, so they can nibble away at the fruits of their labour!

Readers, what are you doing for last-minute Christmas Gifts?

I’m off to bake some (grymm and frostbitten, of course) biscuits!
Steff Metal

One problem with being a female metalhead – t-shirt designers forget you exist. Sure, some bigger bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer carry girl’s shirts in their concert merchandise, but the designs are never as epic as the guys ones, and they never have back patches, which I love. In contrast, men’s metal shirt are rugged, robust, totally krieg, and never, ever in my size.

What’s an Iron Maiden to do?

Well, ladies, we don’t have to bemoan the lack of ill-fitting t-shirts. Help is at hand!

Make your t-shirts more flattering with a little alteration. Simply unpicking the side seams (if they have side seams) and re-sewing can drastically altar the fit of a t-shirt.My other favorite technique is to find old, fitted tees at second-hand shops, cut out the designs on your metal tees, and sew them on.

You can use scrap fabrics, lace, ribbons, bows and patches to totally personalize your new shirt.Several Threadbanger episodes feature clever projects from oversized t-shirts. With a name as kreig as Threadbanger, you know they’ve got good stuff.’99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim and Tie Your T-shirt into Something Special‘ is a spiral-bound instruction booklet by four crafty chicks. It will be your saviour if you want to start altering t-shirts. Most of the projects require a sewing machine or a LOT of patience with a needle and thread.For even more out-there designs, transcending the <> of the t-shirt, read ‘Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt‘ by Megan Nicolay.The Livejournal group t-shirt surgary offers some excellent inspiration pics and tutorials.For a quick-fix, scrunch and fold a section of t-shirt on your back or your hip, and fasten in place with a pin. You’ve instantly made your t-shirt a more flattering shape. Cover the surgary with a black cardigan or – with the right folding – wear your pin out as a rad accessory!For a winter t-shirt look, wear close-fitting long sleeved shirts or jumpers underneath. I love wearing a fitted red shirt with the collar turned out. It instantly adds a detail to the neck and makes the t-shirt look ‘nicer’.


Megadeth shirt clipped at the back with a broach

Wear waist-cincher belts and corsets over large men’s tees. Tres sexy!

Sometimes, a short overall dress and ballet flats can look adorable paired with the right band shirt. Think school girl charm meets bad ass babe.



I'm wearing CDH's Iron Maiden 'Matter of Life and Death' tour shirt, cheap supre sparkle belt, blue leggings from Farmers, and skull wrist cuff from a friend



Iron Maiden shirt with belt. I love this look!

Wear a sheer blouse over your t-shirt with most of the buttons undone. Add a cute vest or braces to really dress up a shirt. I’m a big fan of vests because they allow most of the design to show through while giving you that gorgeous shape only a vest can provide.



A snazzy vest over a blind guardian shirt (pinstripe vest from Shanton)

Skinny jeans and a cropped jacket give a hipster look – what about capri pants for a summer look? When wearing t-shirts with tight bottoms, use t-shirts that end on the lower half of your hip. Trust me on this. Team with clean makeup, a nice hairstyle, a pretty necklace, nice heels and a belt slung around your waist, and

Leggings are a big look this season. I adore the ladies on Stockholm Style and Hel Looks wearing their t-shirts in multi layers over a mini-skirt or short shorts and leggings. I love how the skirt or shorts takes the pressure off having visible panty lines or a wobbly bottom. A kick-ass pair of boots completes this scandinavian hottie look.

Add two rows of vertical holes down the back of a shirt and punch eyelets into these holes. Thread a ribbon through and pull tight. Voila – instant t-shirt corset!

I’m digging t-shirts tucked into high-waisted pencil skirts, made of denim or other vintage materials. I especially love skirts with big bras buttons or zip detailing on the front. Team with a pair of vintage heels, a pin up hair-style and some bangles and you’re every bogan boy’s wet dream.

For some cool altered t-shirt ideas, check out these Etsy shops:
ToxicVision
MeowKiki

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff