Merry Christmas one and all! It’s December 25th and hopefully, you’ve all got a mince pie in your other hand as you scroll through the internet on your phones today. 2019 has certainly been a year for me to remember, both personally and professionally. Of course, the majority of it has been spent with a heavy focus on celebrating my business turning ten and working on my brand new book – STRIP/TEASE – which released earlier this month through Working Class Publishing. If you’re a regular to my blog, then you’ll already know that I’ve blogged extensively about this throughout the year, but if you’re a new face then hello and here’s a link to some book-based back blogs!

However, I did also manage to squeeze in some other rather exciting projects and trips around the book this year, starting with spending the majority of April exploring central Japan with James for our honeymoon. Japan has been on our dream destination list for a very long time, so planning out our honeymoon took almost no time at all! Starting in Tokyo, we went on to explore Mt Fuji, Hakone, Kyoto, Kanazawa, Shirikawa-go and then back to Tokyo for a few days before heading back to reality. I keep promising myself I’ll get round to blogging about this in more detail, and now that the book is done I should hopefully get round to this in early 2020!

I also had the distinct pleasure of working on a full editorial this year with one of my all-time favourite designers, Emiah. Creator of the infamous ‘Pearly Beast’ corset, Emiah’s signature embellishment style calls out to my magpie nature and I literally cannot wait to get the rest of this set up on the blog very soon, including some very special behind the scenes content filmed by Richard Wakefield. Watch this space!

Book adjacent, 2019 has also been the year I FINALLY made it to the Burlesque Hall Of Fame Weekender and, honestly, I’m kicking myself that it’s taken me so long to get there! From watching Frankie Fictitious get crowned as the new Miss Exotic World and watching INGA’s Step Down act, to meeting so many incredible burlesque legends, it was a week I’ll never forget. If you love burlesque and haven’t yet been to the weekender, I highly recommend going. I’ve already booked my flights for 2020!

In August, I got to step massively out of my comfort zone once again with this incredible tropical greenhouse shoot with international burlesque sensation Eliza Delite. Factor in some hot, very humid conditions with full burlesque hair and makeup, whilst standing on soft topsoil amidst plants that can spike and sting you… and you can just about get a feeling for how much of a pro Eliza really is! This is another shoot I’ve not really talked about much and hope to bring to the blog properly in early 2020, so watch out for this too…

And, of course, it wouldn’t be Autumn without a Boudoir Makeover tour of Europe with my wonderful friend, hair and makeup artist Miss Victory Violet! This year we visited London, Bristol, Paris and Gothenburg – the photos are just starting to trickle out on social media now so look out for those over the festive break!

As for 2020? Well, now that my book is officially out in the world I have lots of free time to fill with exciting new plans! I have a few things in mind that I will be announcing in the next couple of weeks, including expanding my online print shop, announcing some long-overdue photography workshop dates and a few other surprises!

But for now, let me say a huge thank you for all of your support in 2019. I hope you’ve had a wonderful year and are looking forward to 2020 as much as I am! With love, Tigz x