Once and awhile, our guest authors will be delivering you titillating information about designers and performers who have previously appeared at Festival of Sins.  Check back regularly to avoid missing any articles!  The first is an interview by beautiful model, Madame Bink, of the retro-fabulous Nikita Sablier (lately of Kingly Court):

Nikki, owner of Nikita Sablier, is an amazonian lady. Tall and curvy, who else could understand how well corsets show off all your best assets then her? I met Nikki in her old shop just off Carnaby street, first I was modelling for her shop, then at FoS Pride in April 2009. Most of the times I get to see the lovely Nikki she's working away, but Festival of Sins has been an event we've not missed since her fashion show there. Today I got to catch up with her over a drink and talk about her shop, her shows & her love of corsetry.

I started off by asking Nikki how she felt when she was given the opportunity to showcase her shop at  Festival of Sins. As soon as I asked her face lit up and she was beaming at me telling me how "...happy it made me feel to be approached to perform at Pride. It's such a suitable sin for the style of the shop and everything just seemed perfect. I didn't want to just do a standard catwalk style show, Pride enabled us to easily do a little show instead. Starting with the dressing table as a focal point with one central model, the Queen Bee - the rest of the show just fell int place!"

 

Overall did you and your models feel the show went well and have a good time?

"There were a few hiccups, but everything came off OK, including the Queen Bee's dress!! (Nikki's grinning very cheekily by now) All the models and make up artists turned up on time and which put me at ease right away so we could all just enjoy ourselves."

You showed off numerous designs from your shop, how do you decide which designers to stock and what lines/ranges to include?

"The main point is that everything features around the hourglass silhouette. Sablier is French for hourglass you see? Corsets obviously give this effect and 1950's shapes always focused upon the waist too giving the wearer the desired shape. Designers such as Angel's Carrying Savage Weapons & Freya Gushi are such high quality, being hand made, they set the standard for all the items in my shop."

What's your best selling item?

"By far our Bettie Page Clothing 'Captain's Dress' is our number one seller. Fitting and flattering to everyone, regardless of shape or size." I know this, I've been in the shop oh so many times and seen so many people try on and fall in love with that dress. I'm a size small but my curvaceous friends suit that dress so well too. There's no escaping it, don't expect to be able to try on that dress and walk away from it, it won't happen. You will buy it.

You just closed your first store, how long till your re-opening and why did you close?

"Filled with fabulous boutiques and retro hair stylists (run by the fabulously named Miss Bettie and Mr Ducktail) it i a fantastic area. But still it remains too much of a secret, quoted as "The best kept secret in London". Obviously we're still trading online with a grand opening planned for just after Easter - we won't be gone long!!" Phew.

It's not just FoS you've been featured at, where else can we see your wares?

"Numerous fashion shows, including one for Team Boundaries launch party. Featured regularly in Scarlet magazine editorials too, which is great! Then of course when celebrities come in and buy and later get snapped wearing things from my shop and get splashed all over magazines then too!"

How does it feel then when you see things bought at your shop out and about on others?

"At Ascot races I spotted a lady in one of our Captain Dresses which made me feel very proud of whats been achieved. one of my favourite parts of the job is regular customers who pop in just to show us their in one of our items & want to show off how much they love it. That's great, knowing that they want you to be a part of it, and to see how happy they feel when they are in it."

If you could dress any one person who would you wish to come and visit your shop?

"Because of the clothing we stock we can create an hour glass shape for anyone and that's a service we aim to provide for everyone that walks through our door. It's about feeling good about yourself and looking you're best, and that's something we can help with. Due to the ranges we stock, we can cater for everyone, so having an ideal customer is hard. But saying that, we're still waiting for the super sexual May LR to come in to be dressed by us!"

When people come in looking at corsets, what's their most common mistake when selecting one?

"A lot of women with a dress size - which just isn't accurate, especially in shops like ours. Also many people don't actually know their waist size, some don't even want us to measure them, but they assume their under bust size is an accurate rule of thumb when selecting their corsets!! Another mistake is assuming that off the peg will give you a perfect fit, when most women would benefit from our free made to measure service."

Being a regular attendee of FoS, any plans in the pipeline for a return visit?

"Personally, I'm always my own little fashion show, but I'm waiting on the launch of my new shop before planning any more shows. FoS would be a fabulous opportunity to showcase our new lines. Freya Gushi are going to be making 'hello kitty' designs available exclusively from us! So we'd love to do a show to launch that definitely. We're just waiting for our invite..."

For now you can contact Nikki at www.nikitasablier.com until the new shop re-launches with a fabulous grand opening some time after Easter.

Note from the Festival of Sins Family:

Did you know Kylie Minogue went and bought a considerable number of delectable items from Nikita Sablier's store, and Ms Minogue liked it so much that she leaked her visit to the press?  You can catch Nikita Sablier's fashion show at Festival of Sins later this year, to launch her new glamorous, decadent London store.