"I love Love - though he has wings,And like light can flee,
But above all other things,
Spirit, I love thee -
Thou art love and life! O come!
Make once more my heart thy home!"
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
On Monday, January 31, 2005 just before 4:00 p.m. EST, Laura Frances Purdy, known here as Lady Lory of The Pale Court, passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was the love of my life, and I hers. I was by her side through the whole struggle, and she passed peacefully in my arms.
This site previously hosted The Pale Court, Laura's clothing design gallery and business. The site will remain up as a tribute to her.
Kambriel's photo tribute to Laura is in the current issue of Gothic Beauty. I just received my copies of the magazine and the photos are wonderful. Click here to see a list of places you can purchase a copy of the magazine.
After Laura passed, I had the task of going through all of her belongings, some of which included a few giant boxes of unfinished garments. A fellow designer and friend of Laura's, Kambriel had been in touch with me, and offered to take the items, and complete them. Now, they are all done and available for sale. This is from Kambriel:
Happy Friday the 13th to you all!
After a year and a half, all of Laura's unfinished designs are finally completed and many have now been made available! After the fashion show we did in tribute for her earlier this year in New Orleans, several of these outfits were photographed in the UK for an upcoming memorial feature in Gothic Beauty magazine ~ a publication in which Laura had wanted to showcase her work. Now that these other important parts of the memorial have been completed, the final step is to offer these last remaining designs of Laura's Pale Court new homes so that her work and vision can be enjoyed by as many people as possible ~ some of whom may have ordered from "The Pale Court" in the past and well know and love her work, and others who may have never had the chance to do so before her untimely passing. I sincerely hope you will enjoy looking through these unique offerings and be sure to check out the upcoming issue of Gothic Beauty for the photographic memorial as well!
I want to punctuate this by adding that Kambriel sort of understates just how much work went into this. Many of these items were in very, very unfinished states. Some of them had small design errors, and were likely set aside by Laura in frustration, with the intention of coming back to them later. Some of these items were barely cut out. Looking at these photos... I'm totally astounded that Kambriel was able to actually complete all of them in a little over a year. It is completely amazing.
Please buy them. Kambriel is selling them at extremely reasonable prices, and there is a great deal of care and love put into all of them. And they are the last remains of Laura's works, barring a few items I have still. The money for these is going entirely to pay for Kambriel's photographic tribute to Laura, that will be featured in the next issue of Gothic Beauty magazine. There was great expense, as it was shot in England. It is a tribute Laura would have absolutely loved.
I also want to point out the Pale Court items Kambriel featured at Convergence XII in New Orleans last year. You can see some photos from that here: Kambriel's Pale Court tribute at CXII