Photography by Kimberley Emberey
A fun-sized burlesque babe with exotic heritage and exciting curves, Ruby Corvette is as sweet and delightfully plump as one of her mama’s BBQ pork buns!
This adorable Brisbane beauty was lucky enough to win a vintage styling course with the Bombshell Burlesque Academy and consequently fell head over (kitten) heels for pinup and rockabilly. She first took to the stage in November 2016 as a finalist in the Connor’s Christmas Appeal Miss Show n Shine pageant and is delighted to be appearing in the upcoming Rods and Rockabilly Pinup Fashion Parade. And vintage is not just for the weekend – Ruby always makes sure that her colleagues get their daily dose of “corporate rockabilly”!
Ruby says that taking the time to sew beautiful garments, set her hair and look after her appearance makes her feel amazing, inside and out! Ruby loves looking in the mirror and feeling like she has accomplished something before she even sets foot out the door. She also cherishes the connections that she makes as a pinup – genuine smiles from random commuters, being approached by kind strangers with compliments or questions, and discovering like-minded friends to add to her “burly girl gang”!
As a child of Chinese descent growing up in a regional town, Ruby had very few friends with “exotic” ethnicity and was singled out for being different. She remembers being chased around the playground with jeers of “Monkey Magic!” ringing in her attached-lobed-ears. When blowing out the candles on her 8th birthday cake, her wish was to have brown hair, just like everyone else. As a teen, she had her heart broken when her crush told her that “Asian chicks just didn’t do it for him”. Fortunately, since discovering pinup, Ruby says has learned to love her unique appearance and celebrate her cultural identity, particularly by recreating hair styles and poses from her grandmother’s glamour photos from the fifties!
Modeling and dancing have given Ruby the unique opportunity to share her cultural heritage and exotic look with a wonderfully inclusive audience. It was very moving for Ruby to have the chance to shoot this photo series featuring traditional food that she was taught to make by the women in her family, served on Chinese patterned Willowware (which her grandmother collects), wearing a cheongsam purchased in Singapore, where her cousin lived.
She says, “I am very passionate about the #pinupsofcolor movement and promoting diversity in burlesque. I feel very strongly about cultural misappropriation and make every attempt to ensure that our burlesque and pinup community is an intersectional safe space for everyone.”
Ruby Corvette 