Démodé

historical costume projects & resources

An Excessively Halloween-y Weekend

I had an excessively Halloween-y weekend the weekend AFTER Halloween.  On Friday night, we had the Lumieres occult dinner, which was spooky & lovely — mediums and aristocrats mingled over yummy French food, champagne, and candelight.  I went as a medium — Mlle Marie Anne Lenormand, who was more Napoleonic than Rococo era but who’s double checking!  I wore my gaulle, which I accessorized with lots of black — black sash, jewelry, and hair ribbons.

On Saturday night was the PEERS Ball des Vampires, which is about 10 min. walk from my house – yay!  I went with Bridget & Katherine — we had great Italian food beforehand (and scared the locals), then walked over to the ball.  There were lots of fabulous costumes (lots of Victorian & 18th century, one sparkly Edward who I had fun teasing, etc.).  I spent most of my time downstairs in the goth-y DJ room (they played Hong Kong Garden, so I got to have my Marie Antoinette masquerade moment!) — only did one-half of one waltz!  I don’t know, I just wasn’t in the mood to jockey for partners.  It does make me want to make the effort to hit the ball scene a bit more frequently (altho that means talking some of my friends into going too) — it’s a great chance to dress up and socialize, even if you’re not in the mood to dance.  I was feeling very “this old thing” about my black francaise (the other option was Nell Gwyn, but it didn’t feel terribly Halloween-y) so I resisted the urge to attempt to make anything new, and focused my time and styling a new wig and making wig accessories.  I ended up making a “cake,” and my rockin’ husband made me a guillotine out of balsa wood (the man is a talent!), plus giving me a scary guillotine-d neck scar.  Jenn absolutely took the cake (ha ha) in her gorgeous black & orange francaise, with black wig that had a jack-o-lantern that LIT UP.  It ROCKED.

A preview of photos is below — you can find the rest of my Flickr account (which I’m going to be using from now on for event photos) — here’s the Lumieres occult dinner and the Vampire ball.

4 thoughts on “An Excessively Halloween-y Weekend

  1. WOW, super awesome! I wish we had more events like this down in the LA area. (not that I’ve had any time lately anyway… ) but really enjoyed your photos!

  2. you could probably hear me squee from across the pacific. You all look fabulous and to be having a good time. The guillotine is such a good idea. The illuminating pumpkin a stroke of genius 😀

  3. I love it all! The Occult Dinner pics of the Lumieres are fantastic and Jennifer’s jack-o-lantern poof is to die for.

  4. *squeeeee* I can’t TELL you how much I love the little guillotine and glowey pumpkin hair ornaments! 🙂

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