Britney Spears Hops Onstage with Rihanna in Syren Couture's Leather Bunny Mask

Britney Spears Hops Onstage with Rihanna in Syren Couture's Leather Bunny Mask

Singer dons custom fetish-style mask to perform latest Rihanna hit "S&M" at Billboard Awards

LOS ANGELES, May 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pop diva Britney Spears made a glamorous guest appearance in a custom black patent leather bunny mask by Syren Couture during Rihanna's performance of her current hit, "S&M," at Sunday's Billboard Music Awards. Though the masquerade-style mask covered the upper part of Spears' face, the roar of an appreciative audience made it clear that they immediately recognized the blonde diva despite her disguise, when she rose into view partway through Rihanna's show, seated on a towering throne. The racy duet kicked off this year's edition of the annual awards show, which was held in Las Vegas.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110524/LA08133)

The elegant but mysterious fetish style mask is reminiscent of those by seminal Seventies designer Halston, who created one in white mink for Candace Bergen to wear to Truman Capote's Black & White Ball, as well as a black one for jewelry designer Elsa Peretti, who famously modeled hers on a Manhattan rooftop for Paris Vogue in an iconic image by fashion photographer Helmut Newton.

Syren Couture also made both a black and a white bunny mask - the white one was intended for Rihanna, to go with her all-white bondage-inspired costume - but only Britney wound up wearing hers at the Billboard Awards. However, Syren designers O'Shay Nunn and Christina Wheeler actually based their creations not on the Halston rabbit masks, but on photos of earlier versions made by Rihanna's stylist, Mel Ottenberg, who brought them the project.

Nunn revealed that he and Wheeler did not skimp on the handcraftsmanship that Syren is known for, despite the fact that they had only a single day to pattern; fit; and actually make the masks. "It was challenging but fun to engineer and finish the pieces so quickly without compromising the quality," says Nunn. "But we pulled it off."

Nunn explained that the most intricate part of the process was constructing a three-dimensional shape from a two-dimensional piece of leather. He and Wheeler were determined to use a single sheet of leather for each mask to get the smoothest look, but in order to be as flattering as possible, each mask had to be tailored to suit the contours of each of the pop stars' facial features. This meant conflating the process of making samples; doing fittings; and then further refining the designs into a tightly-scheduled 24-hour timeline, in order to deliver the finished products to Ottenberg in time.

This is not the first time that Los Angeles' Syren Couture - the world's premier supplier of handmade erotic clothing and costumes for feature films, television, and the red carpet - has made headgear for Ms. Spears. Spears recently wore the company'slatex Muir Cap - a police-style brimmed hat of gleaming black rubber - when she debuted her single "Big Fat Bass" last month at the Rain nightclub in Las Vegas. The singer also wore the Muir Cap to portray a sexy chauffeur in her video for an earlier hit, "Womanizer," from her previous album, Circus.

ABOUT SYREN COUTURE:

Los Angeles-based Syren Couture is the world's premier erotic atelier, renowned for their handcrafted creations of latex rubber and leather. Acclaimed for the sleek superhero suits created for Malin Akerman's Silk Spectre II in Watchmen and for Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in Batman Returns, Syren's colorful and exotic body-conscious designs have been worn by stars like Katy Perry; JanetJackson; the PussycatDolls; and ScissorSisters.

Contact:
German Lopez
1-213-484-3882

SOURCE Syren Couture

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110524/LA08133
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Syren Couture

Web Site: http://www.syrencouture.com

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