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historical costume projects & resources

Costume Depression

Agh! I simply CANNOT find anything I like to make for the Costume College gala/GBACG guillotine picnic! Yes yes, I have a few 18th century options so it’s not like I’d be naked at the picnic. The real focus is having something fabulous to wear to the gala, but I literally can’t find ANYTHING that’s making my toes curl. I’m pretty settled on 18th century (last night I went through my image files on all other eras that I like, and they BORED [gasp!] me!). What I really need is to find a portrait that I really love and want to reproduce (but they’re all white, blue, pink, and yellow — zzzzzzzz) or some fabric (STRIPES??!!) that knocks my socks off (but so far, no go). Sob. Is this the end??!! And I’ve actually been working on my Meg dress, but my husband went off for four days with the camera, so I have no proof!

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4 thoughts on “Costume Depression

  1. Kendra, there is a reason why all those pastels are boring you! It’s because red-heads dont look good in pastels! No matter how well-fit the dress is, if you make it in an unflattering color, you will hate, hate, HATE it. So, my advice to you is, pick a portrait that you love, then change the color to be something that you Like!

    Subconciously, you know what looks good on you. There’s a reason your costumes all are similar colors. It’s not a bad thing, it means you always look good, and that is never boring.

    BTW, it also means your mother was right about that Color Me Beautiful stuff! Who knew?!

  2. Have you looked at the “Dangerous Liasons” book from the Metropolitan Museum of Art? It has a lot of photos of extant dresses. Mostly the brocades that you don’t see depicted in paintings. The color palate is a little different and includes greens and bright corals.

  3. You guys are totally right — I actually did go back to some of my color books, although I already know what works on me!

    I’ve realized I just have to get patient and wait for the right stripey fabric (in one of MY colors) to show up on ebay. Deep breaths!

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