Category Archives: EleganceStudios.com

Restrained Elegance is 22 years old!

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Hi everyone,

1st April marks Restrained Elegance’s 22nd birthday! I didn’t choose to launch the site on April Fool’s day – it had been intended to launch a few days later on or around 4th April. But the billing had already gone live, and such was the fierce interest in fetish sites in the early days of mass internet access, I got my first member before I even knew the site was open for business.

So here we are, stuck with April Fool’s Day. Let’s celebrate!

For RE members, I’ve opened up the site so the updates and archives go back a whole year. If you missed out before, take the chance to catch up this weekend. I can’t keep this much material on the site for long, the bandwidth bills would be crippling, so don’t miss out!

And if you are not a member today is the day to join – you’ll get 112,493 photos and 277 video clips (total duration 67 hours, 38 minutes) but the offer lasts for THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Now’s your chance to get double the bondage for your money!

If you prefer to purchase clips and sets individually I am also running a 50% off SALE on our eStore, THIS WEEKEND ONLY.

That includes all our Elegance Studios films like Scarlett’s First and Second Sessions, Slave Auction, all our D&D Feature Films, the Pony Girl trilogy plus all our updates from the last five-plus years!

I won’t be running another sale like this this year, so don’t miss out!

March already!

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Hello friends,

It’s March already, how did that happen? I’m very much looking forward to this week for three reasons. First, because I have a two day shoot with two stunning models for some creative custom videos. Second, because that shoot is the last in my mega-hectic run of shoots catching up on content since the pandemic. And third because that means I get to switch gears a bit and head into the editing suite to work on a lot of the 3 years’ and more worth of content I’ve shot in the last twelve months… not least to finally deliver a few outstanding customs which haven’t been edited yet.

In retrospect I took on too many customs in the last six months given that I was also shooting three times as much as I do in a normal year (to replace the “stock” of stuff on disc that I put otu during lockdowns when it was forbidden to shoot with external models). It’s been fine keeping up with the editing for the 20 minute straightforward ones, but some of the outstanding ones are cinematic films with lots of camera angles, multiple scenes, multiple models, visual effects work needed, which will benefit from careful sound design and grading scene-by-scene or shot-by-shot. So apologies once again to the three customers who are still waiting on their grandest and most cinematic commissions from me – I should have the time in the next couple of months to spend the multiple days your films deserve!

The same applies to my own more cinematic projects – Lucy’s D&D film shot just before lockdown still has all its complicated and thrilling outdoor sequences to come, there are full-day or full-weekend location films with multiple models that will take a week to edit, more in the Horror-film inspired pipeline of work, five hundred unedited photosets, a hundred a twenty unedited video projects – some of which are two hour long “proper” films or multi-part storylines.









Normal production for the rest of this year is going to feel relaxed after twelve months of crunch. I have four one-week location shoots booked which form the spine of the year’s filming, and I’m just starting to book in the shorter shoots now. My aim is to work with many new-to-RE models, get more of established RE favourites and do a bit more trade shooting (where I film for the model’s productions as well as shooting them for RE). I love shooting for RE and Silk Soles, but it is super-interesting to have a few days where I shoot different fetishes and work in different styles – stops me getting stale. Very often the model will say “well I’d like it to look like an alien operating theatre” and I’ll think – I have some props and stuff I can pull out of the kit room to make that happen. I love creative collaboration!

If there are any UK based models you’d like to see on RE drop me a line to suggest them. (I’ll work with non-UK models too if they are travelling here but it’s easier to schedule with British models).

I’ve got pet projects of my own. More Horror-film inspired stuff (I’m toying with giving this it’s own little mini-site at BrideOfDarkness.com . Working more with the anamorphic lenses. More in the “visit to the pro dom as a treat” series that I’ve shot with Lucy Lauren and Faerie Willow so far – got a few models in interested in that, you’ll see the first scenes on RE next month. I want to shoot some more gothic or baroque sets with overblown storylines. I want to shoot more polaroid sets – got an idea for a “found footage” storyline where we see what’s happening through the eyes of the heroine’s polaroid camera, Blair Witch but for bondage.

If there are themes, styles, storylines and stuff you’d like to see me do more of this year, let me know! And if you want any customs, I’ll be opening custom requests once I’ve got shoot dates booked in with models. There will not be anything like as many slots this year though as I want to avoid the editing logjam this time around.

Silk Soles has a bunch of shoot ideas bubbling around too – I very much enjoyed last year’s trade shoot with Faye Taylor, I’ve got a bunch of ideas to shoot with Ariel, I’ll be grabbing more stuff on location throughout the year, and I’ve even shot some foot fetish horror sets with Scarlet Foxett to treat you to as soon as I get into the editing flow. I’d be up for shooting more Silk Soles videos this year but they’d need to be customs, for some reason the Silk Soles videos never sell as well for me on Clips4Sale as the RE bondage ones do, so I’d need a bit of help to make sure the production costs are covered. Please drop me a line to webmaster@restrainedelegance.com if you are interested!

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Bamboo Silk Rope

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I have been selfish in keeping this to myself. But OMG bamboo silk rope! I’ve been buying from Reborn Ropes on Etsy. The rope has a bit of bite (less than hemp, more than nylon) and does have quite a bit of elasticity, so not for suspension. But the colours! And it is so soft!

I find it an absolute pleasure to tie with. Even with tied rather than whipped ends and having to hide the tassels. I may get around to whipping all the ends someday (yeh, right). It’s displaced nylon in every colour I own it in. Hemp’s only staying for load bearing purposes.

I’ve just put in an order for another four standard Hywel sets in the few remaining common colours that I didn’t have. So once I’ve selfishly got that order you can all bombard them with sales
It’s honestly the nicest stuff to tie with I’ve tried in 25+ years of rigging.

If you wonder what a standard Hywel set is, it comes from measuring and cutting ropes in “Hywel arm spans”, which turn out to be 1.3m. We use 2’ers (=2.6 m) for wrists and ankles, 3’ers for frogties, 4’ers for chest & crotchropes, 6’ers for decorative stuff/ropes to ceiling etc.. Their standard length is 8m, which is just exactly wrong for that – it cuts down to 4m (not quite a 3’er) and 2m (definitely too short for a 2’er). But they kindly made me custom 10m lengths, which cut down into a 2’er and a slightly over-length 4’er (which is fine) or 2x3ers.

So 7 x 10 m lengths make 4 x 2 ers, 2 x 3 ers, 4 x 4 ers, 2 x 6’ers, with the longer lengths running a tiny bit long rather than short (which was REALLY ANNOYING cutting down the 8m ropes).
It’s not cheap but I’ve absolutely fallen in love with tying with it.

I may have a go at whipping ends or maybe dipping or taping. It’s not the knots I mind so much as the tassels, which can spoil the look of a really neat rope rig a bit. So I might try taping past the knots and see how that works. Trouble is with 12 ropes in each standard set, 2 ends per rope, and 20 or so colours, we get up to 500 or so rope ends needing treatment! So I’ll have to be sure I’m doing the right thing because it’ll probably take me a full work day to do them all.

2022 Plans – Part One

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We always have a January meeting to decide our priorities for Restrained Elegance and Silk Soles. It’s a bit of a weird one this year because of Omicron: we don’t know whether there’s going to be lockdown, or it’s going to burn itself out, or what. So Ariel and I have planned conservatively and are planning on working from home for January at least.

We shot a mountain of material in Autumn/Fall while we could get models in to the house and I’m excited to get stuck in to the editing. You’ll already have seen the first results from the stellar shoot with Alba Zevon, there’s three days’ worth of that shoot to edit. There’s some red-hot footage with Scarlett Foxette, some sultry steel with Bex White, and multi-girl adventures with Lucy Lauren, Chloe Toy, Faye Taylor and Ariel. I’ve still got plenty of Charlie Ten, Stephanie Bonham-Carter and Kitty Quinzell to edit, and a stock of material with people like Sophia Smith, Rachelle Summers, Natalia Forrest, Zoe Page, Anna, Temptress Kate, Lauren Louise, and more.

New Year’s Resolution is to get stuck in to editing the rest of the Cosplay Dungeon D&D film we shot with Lucy Lauren in March 2020. This was the last thing we shot before lockdown, and I’ve been superstitiously sitting on it because it’s really really hot and I’m very proud of it, and for some reason I didn’t want to “lose” it from my stash. Bad Hywel, get it edited and get it out there because it is super – and hopefully we’ll be shooting the next one in a few months!

Alexander Lightspear has been an absolute superstar working machine over the last couple of years, shooting
as many different models as possible to help me keep up the variety of new faces while it’s been tricky for us to schedule so many shoots. So I’ve got literally dozens of sets of Delta, Cheryl, Irene, Nicole, Elaine, Sylvia, Kitty, Agnes, Thelma, Anne, Annette, Peggy and Suzanne to come. Best wishes to him in 2022 especially as he got COVID in the Delta wave – hope Omicron leaves you be, Alexander.

In total I have over 400 stills sets on disk right now- back up to a good couple of years stock, which is what I always liked to run at. It’s a bit short on variety of models and variety of locations (because COVID) but I hope you’ll somehow bear up under the strain of more Delta and Alba Zevon?

Videos we have about 100 – a bit shy of two years’ worth, again not with as wide a variety of models as I’d usually hope for in my on-disk stock. We’re going to book more video shoots with more different models as soon as we can.

I’m excited to expand our video shoots this year because we’ve got more custom requests coming in. We also have an increasing number of sales of videos on video platforms like Clips4Sale and ManyVids. Buying patterns have changed the big platforms now have their own dedicated pool of customers who don’t buy via other routes.

To sell well on these platforms ideally you need to update daily to stay on front pages. You’ve allowed two versions of each clip, so that means a new video every two days. I refuse to sacrifice the hard-won RE technical quality, so that might not be achievable. Ramping up from the current one video per six days to one video every three days seems like a good start!

We’ll see what that means for RE updates as the year goes on. I’ve stuck to two photosets to one video since we changed update schedule, but as I said at the time that may have to change as the industry evolves. So we might experiment with more like a half-and-half mixture once we’ve got more videos coming down the pipeline. I LOVE shooting stills so I’m never going to stop, just adjust the mix.

I’m really excited by the shoots Ariel and I have planned for the start of the year, and getting geared up for the two big multi-model shoots we have in the calendar for April and May already. Fingers crossed they will all go ahead as planned! Then I’ll be fitting in solo model shoots focussing on customs and videos with as many of the RE regulars as possible to fill out the variety on disk, and grab some more of
the rising new bondage stars as soon as I can too. 2022 should be very exciting!

For the moment, SilkSoles is going to stick with its stills format. Confession: I’ve not cracked the formula for shooting SilkSoles videos that sell well. The growth side of the business is clearly bondage videos. I LOVE shooting beautiful barefoot babes but I can’t justify the extra time and editing to do foot fetish videos when a bondage one will sell ten times as many copies.

Elegance Studios has been overtaken by events. When website videos ran to 5 minutes, a 45 minute Elegance Studios video was a real event and quite distinct. Now website videos run to 30 minutes routinely, the lines have become so blurred that almost everything is shot like an Elegance Studios video was back in the day! We’re still doing big productions like the D&D cosplay series but it’s integrated into the video pipeline to go onto clips stores etc. as well as appearing here.

We’re excited for 2022 and we hope to see a lot of you this year!

Where are we on customs?

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Apologies to the ten or so people waiting on me for a reply on custom video commissions. Just wanted to post a general note as to where we are with them.

All 2021 Restrained Elegance custom slots were filled, the customs have all been shot, edited and have now been delivered. If you’re still waiting on something from me, get in touch because I’ve sent out the links to you and they should already be with you.

We have a small number of custom slots with Ariel (and me) still left available for shoots in December which she is producing. Contact her via AskArielStudio.com if you want to grab one for 2021.

We’re due to do the last big shoot of the year this week with a visiting star model but I don’t want to jinx it by saying who or taking custom requests.

I prefer to work with someone a couple of times to learn their comfort zones and limits before I accept customs with them anyway, and I’ve got MORE than enough ideas of my own to shoot with her.

This is the last in a run of shoots over the last few months trying to squeeze a year’s worth of shoots into 3 months, which we’ve succeeded at really well- we’ve shot over a hundred photosets and 70+ videos (some of which are an hour long) since the summer and I’m blown away by how spectacular some of the performances have been. A lot of us have missed working with creative collaborators. I haven’t shot this many sets in this short a space of time since the very early days of the site, when everything was quicker to shoot because I didn’t know what I was doing and had neither the skill nor the equipment to do it properly.

This shooting schedule has been hectic, which is one of the reasons I’ve been putting off thinking about 2022 customs. The other is that we don’t know what the COVID situation is going to be like over the winter. I’ve booked the first big shoots of 2022 for April and May because I’m reasonably confident they will happen unless the situation deteriorates drastically. It’s a lot easier to schedule one model coming here for three or four days or a location shoot with two or three models for a week in a controlled environment where we can get food delivered and function as a unit than it is to figure out the usual custom-friendly one day here, one day there shoots with lots of different models.

Since I’ve got BIG plans of my own for those first two big shoots in the calendar for 2022, I don’t have many free timeslots for them. I’ll offer some “lucky dip: five elements you choose, the rest we improvise around it” timeslots for the first big location shoot nearer the time when I am more confident that we’ll be able to do it.

What I hope and plan is to do some smaller shoots with other models sooner than that, COVID situation permitting.These shoots with other models will either work on the lucky dip customs, or on the basis that you will have to cover at least half a day’s filming with the model you want, more if she is coming from a long way away. Natalia Forrest might be able to get here for an afternoon, but Penny Lee needs to come for at least two shoot days to make the drive worth her time.

So once I’ve got through this week’s big shoot and caught up a bit, I’ll start to put together the 2022 schedule and post requests for customs with particular models. The more requests we get, the sooner I’ll be able to schedule them to come and shoot. I will reply to everyone waiting for me to get back to them once this big shoot is done, too.

Cheers, Hywel