Behind the Design
Every so often a piece starts not with a sketch but with a heart — an anatomical one, sculpted by hand. This is the making of a one-of-one Vex latex look: hearts and rib cages built from scratch, thousands of crystals set by hand, a caged bustle, a crown, and a cape, all made for the Queen party.
The finished look — the Sacred Heart Queen, head to toe in latex.
Some looks you design on paper. This one we built like a body. The concept was a queen out of sacred-heart iconography — the flaming heart, the crossed daggers, the rib cage, the cross — translated into latex and crystal and worn as couture. What follows is how it came together, from the first sculpt to the last rhinestone to the night it walked into the room.
Before any latex was cut, the centerpiece had to exist in three dimensions. We sculpted an anatomical heart and a rib cage by hand, building up the forms until they read as real — veins, chambers, bone — then painted them. A sculpted appliqué like this is the anchor of the whole look; everything else gets designed around it.
The sculpted heart and rib cage — built and painted before a single panel was cut.
Alongside the sculpt, the flat iconography got worked out: the flaming sacred heart pierced by crossed daggers, the cross, the barbed detail. These are the symbols the whole piece speaks in, so they were drawn and painted large before being rebuilt in crystal.
The sacred-heart motif, painted at scale.
This is where the hours go. Each sacred heart, each cross, each rib was rebuilt on black latex in hand-set crystal and rhinestone — placed one at a time, following the drawn lines. Set against high-shine latex, the stones catch light the way the material does, so the whole surface moves. It is slow, meditative, unglamorous work, and it is the difference between a costume and couture.
The motifs, rebuilt stone by stone on latex.
Then the panels came together on the form — the sculpted heart and rib cage married to the crystal work, built into a corset that could actually be worn and moved in.
The corset taking shape on the form.
A queen needs more than a corset. The look was completed with a styled wig crowned in gold, a full-length hooded latex cape, a choker, lace-up latex gloves, and the caged bustle skirt that would give the silhouette its drama. Each piece was made to work with the others and to survive a full night of being worn.
The crown and the hooded cape — the finishing pieces.
The night of the Queen party, all of it came together on the body: corset laced, crown set, choker on, makeup done. Latex has a ritual to it — dressing takes time, and there is a moment where the pieces stop being separate objects and become a character.
The look was made for one night in particular — the Queen party at the Globe Theatre in Downtown LA. Rain, marquee lights, a room full of people who understand a statement. The cape came off for photos and went back on for the entrance. This is the whole point of building a piece this way: it has to hold up under a room's attention and still look hand-made up close.
Photographed clean, the components show what the night's low light hides — the crystal density, the lace-up construction, the way the caged bustle was engineered to move.
Corset, caged bustle, ruched skirt, and lace-up gloves — the full build.
Commission a One-of-One
This is what a Vex custom looks like from the inside — sculpted, set, and constructed by hand for a single wearer and a single moment. Custom commissions start at $2,500 and scale with the build; a look on this scale sits higher. Made-to-measure on an existing style is a smaller commitment: base price plus a 70% fee.
Start a custom design Shop the collectionMade in California, worn like armor
Tell us the piece you have in your head. We will tell you honestly what it takes to build it — and then we will build it, by hand, to last.
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