We all love anything sparkly and shiny…oh come on it’s true. Be it a sparkly jumper or Christmas card, a huge engagement ring or even shiny cleaned windows at home. Anything which is reflective and bounces back light, I feel gives us all joy. We adore the sunshine bouncing of the water on the beach, a crystal glass in a bar, or a freshly polished shoe. We humans are like magpies. Attracted to sparkle.
If you think, sparkle also denotes your place in society. Stereotypically in films like Annie and Oliver. The poor working class kids are in dull, browns and grey clothes, the wealthy in diamonds and tiaras. We link shiny stones to wealth. Marilyn Monroe had the right idea with her diamonds and material girl wishes.
When I was creating my style and look as La Voix, I knew I wanted to resemble opulence, glamour and style. Not to try and be better than anyone, but I know this is what people enjoy to see. When you buy a ticket for the opera, you want big dresses and big voices, when going to the theatre you want escapism and a wow factor. That’s what I wanted La Voix to create. So I started my journey of creating the most glamorous woman in the world.
When I did Britain’s got talent, and I got through to the live semi finals, it’s then that ITV take over and make your costumes for your act. Up until then you have to turn up and do your thing with what you’ve got. With this in mind, when they asked me what song I wanted to sing, I chose “Diamonds are a girls Best Friend”. I’m not stupid. I knew by choosing that song they would have to make something dripping in Swarovski and Preciosa stones. I wanted to dazzle on that tv show. And I certainly did.
Since them I’ve realized the importance of the costume to my act. You can walk on stage with a dress and get nothing, until you sing or tell jokes. If you invest in encrusting of flat back stones, large sew on stones and I mean on mass! Then a dress can get a massive reaction just from walking on stage, before you’ve even started. That’s a no brainer.
James Maciver who makes my dresses now, knows that making a dress from just sequin fabric isn’t enough sparkle for me. I want stones encrusted over the sequins. I hate any flat matte fabrics or small dribbles of stone work, I want impact as that for me gets reaction, and now its what people expect.
My shoes are bespoke stoned, by Jane White, who runs Crystalled by Jane. She can stone anything, and has. It started with Shoes. I wear high 6” platforms and she can use anything from 7000 to 8000 AB stones on each pair. She has to date stoned me around 10 pairs of shoes, an entire microphone stand, microphone, stool, clipboard (don’t ask), handbags, jewellery, cups, mugs, hats, t-shirts, masks, bowties, pieces of set…it goes on and on….
In a world were people are sometimes too reserved to dress like they used to in past periods, we are caught in a trend of playing things down, I adore La Voix to be the opposite. To be drenched in crystals and feathers and let the world of sparkle transport people away from their troubles. All in the blink of a jewelled eyelash.
With Love
La Voix
xx