fitforafemme.com

Meet one of Brooklyn’s finest femmes, kittens! Here’s the delightful Bevin Branlandingham of FemmeCast and Queer Fat Femme. She and I ran a little workshop at the Femme2010: No Restrictions conference last Friday morning. We met for the first time in June at her incredible Re/Dress & Size Queen event in Oakland, after becoming fast internet friends through our mutual love of fashion, all things femme, and involvement on our respective committees with the Femme Collective earlier this year.

Also, her tomboy friends have the cutest puppies, don’t you think?

Of course, her outfit rules. This is one LBD that refuses to be outdone, and the little tart hair clip was quite the cherry on top of her ensemble. Here’s her really impressive bio, since it says it way better than I could:

Bevin Branlandingham is the Host and Producer of FemmeCast: The Queer Fat Femme Podcast Guide to Life. She is a flamboyant femmecee, writer, drag king, burlesque and comedy performer. She is Co-Head Madam of the Femme Family, the New York Chapter of the Femme Mafia, on the steering committee for the Fat and Queer conference and the media committee for the Femme Conference. In 2008 Bevin received a Commendation from the Mayor of Jersey City for her work with the LGBT community. Her writing has been published in numerous periodicals and she has performed throughout North America. Her mission is to make the world a safe place for people to love themselves, regardless of their marginalizations. Her website (including blog, calendar of events and workshops) is found at QueerFatFemme.Com.

She also blogs at Butch-Femme.com and The Femme’s Guide to Absolutely Everything and performs throughout North America.

This has to be one of my most favorite collages ever. Adorable puppy? Check. Pretty, multi-talented femmes? Check. Dildo? Check. Fancy hair ornaments? Check. DONE AND DONE.

I need Bevin to chime in on her outfit particulars, but here are mine:

Dress: Calvin Klein
Shoes: MaxStudio
Bag: Betsey Johnson
Earrings: Vintage
Necklace: Culp Baubles
Feathered Hair Clip: Buffalo Exchange

Waiting for Rufus Wainwright. After the closing remarks at the conference, M fetched me from the hotel and we set out for Napa. It couldn’t have been a more perfect evening. The temperature was perfect, the light falling softly at sundown was perfect, dinner was outstanding and Rufus Wainwright was absolutely wonderful, as always. At one point during the show, M whispered to me “How is he even a real person? His albums sound so good, but then you hear him live up there and he’s somehow much, much better than all that!” and I nodded with my tear-streaked face.

He made corny Napa jokes and told a few stories between songs, and he played La Complainte de la butte and Memphis Skyline (two of my favorites). Zebulon undid me completely. His sister brought the petite onstage and they all sang together (well, the petite cooed), and it was really lovely. I cannot wait until he’s back in November with the SF Symphony for Five Shakespeare Sonnets.

I am going to go every single day of the 3-day series, come hell or high water.

Sometimes we take time from our busy, fast-paced city life to ease into the slow lane, where the neighbors are quiet and polite (or best of all, nonexistent), the food takes its sweet time coming to the table, and everything is lovely. Yes, even if it’s storming out. Most recently, it took us to the Russian River Valley in the wine country. Specifically, to Guerneville. More specifically, to Korbel Champagne Cellars for a tour of the grounds and gardens, and a champagne tasting.  Don’t we look snug? That’s because the rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy the visit.

Look at all that stuff! We did not realize how old Korbel was, nor about the trio of brothers from Bohemia, with their Bohemian brides, and all the scandal and intrigue and Wasp-y newsletters, etc. It’s a pretty interesting history, and while Korbel isn’t edging out cava or champagne from France anytime soon, their organic Brut and Blanc de Noir reserve aren’t half bad! They certainly came in handy back at our rustic cabin, pairing nicely with the fancy cheese plates from Boon’s.

Sometimes we eat. Sometimes we eat A LOT:

I’m getting ahead of myself! The gardens! They were really very pretty, with some varieties of roses over 200 years old or something incredulous like that. Take a little stroll with us, won’t you? Try not to pick up random things on the ground and eat them, like the tomboy does. It worries me.

Sometimes we cuddle and sometimes the tomboy just looks too bloody adorable and NOM-worthy for her own good, don’t you think? I’m surprised I don’t need a new stick every week just to beat all the ladies (and the odd gay) off, honestly. I guess the choke hold down there helps. I guess this is a good place to tell you where she got the scratchy wool coat at, it was the military surplus store in San Jose, which has rock bottom prices. The jeans are Sevens and the shoes are the same Marc Ecko ones you’ve seen before.

Y’all? We expected sunshine and LOTS of it this weekend (this being Mother’s Day weekend, which is where all these photos are from), but we had a single day of light and then the storm came. My Oleg Cassini weekender bag and I were beside ourselves, considering the fact that I’d packed 84,000 sundresses and little else. Good thing I was able to assemble this backup outfit for inclement weather.

PANTS: Silence + Noise (I think officially these are “jeggings”, which might make my page views plummet wildly. I apologize.)
COTTON LEOPARD PRINT TANK IN NUDE: Elie Tahari
CARDIGAN: Kersh Essentials (Costco, basically.)
SHOES: Madden Girl
BAG: Emilie M.
NECKLACE: Betsey Johnson

This concludes your getaway weekend with Skinny + M! We hope y’all have fantastical Memorial Day weekend plans. Tonight is our Friday, so we have a lovely four-day weekend planned in which there will be Ethiopian food, a great deal of bloodshed and hopefully heart at UFC 114, the world premiere of Beautiful Child, a musical set to the staggeringly gorgeous music of Rufus Wainwright (there will be OUTFITS), homemade strawberry sangria, and who knows what else?! Perhaps there will even be some sun.