Whoa — outta nowhere, tons of costumers have decided to create their own standalone blog (most previously posted mostly on LiveJournal). In case you’re interested, here’s a raft of new (or reinvigorated) costuming blogs to check out and see if you’d like to follow:
First, thanks to everyone for your kind words about my riding habit and Brunswick! I really liked them, and I’m happy that you liked them too. (I mean, what if I had horrible taste?) I’m still irritated about the giant bust wrinkle on the habit, but oh well!
So, now I want to post about the Costume Accessories exhibition (next post, the symposium)!
The exhibition was really cool. Not huge, but big enough. What I really liked was that precisely BECAUSE it was focused on accessories, it made me notice tiny details that normally I would miss because I’d be looking at overall gowns/outfits. A lot of people have been posting photos from the exhibition, so search around on Flickr if you’re interested; here are some of my highlights:
(Note for those reading on the LJ feed — LJ drops my image captions, so you may want to link to the post on my site if you’re interested in reading the notes that go w/ the photos!)
There were so many linens — like this stock — that had the TINIEST, WEE-EST gathers and hems, that it all made me want to lie down!
Tiny hems! Agh!
Wee gathers! AGH!
Some great shoes were included – I loved the two-tone-ness of these.
The stripe on these shoes is a tiny flat braid. SO fabulous!
Some sleeve ruffles that button on, for easier swapping between outfits. Brilliant!
I love packaging, so seeing items like these shoe buckles in their original case made me swoon.
TONS of wee-ness – this case had all these tiny implements that went with it, like this tiny notecards, pencil, and manicure set.
Sadly only a reproduction, but we found Trystan’s boyfriend! Isn’t he HAWT?
Some lovely wigs and accoutrements, including these wig curlers.
Gorgeous gilt braid stomacher.
A few different garments used ribbon – like on the waistband of this apron – that looked identical to petersham. It made me VERY happy about using petersham for 18th c.!
There were some lovely items in other exhibitions. Someone should really make this waistcoat (or adapt it to a woman’s riding habit?).
Pearled ostrich plumes in the background of a portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh!
SQUIRREL!!
These photos and more from the exhibition can be found on Flickr.
Phew! With the first of what will probably be a few posts:
The Costume Accessories Symposium was faaabulous. So many interesting research presentations, so many lovely people to meet. Plus, chances to dress up and run around Colonial Williamsburg!
First, my outfits! Everything came together relatively well. I finished most of the habit shirt ruffles and cravat on the plane, although I didn’t have sleeve ruffles until day 2.
I had been planning to do cream bows on the Brunswick, but at the last minute came across some vintage blue ribbon in my stash, and had the genius idea to use that instead. I was seriously not wanting to wear the Brunswick — I was worried I was going to look like a combination of Aunt Pittypat and a butterchurner. Luckily, when I put it all together I actually quite liked it, and then when I put the hat on, I loved it. Yay!
Friday night was an in-costume dinner at the King’s Arms, followed by a chamber music performance, organized by Barbee. It was really lovely, as almost everyone was in costume, the food was good, and the music was gorgeous. Both venues were only lit by candles — be still my beating heart! And afterwards we had dessert at a local home. I got to meet Abby (shout out: I had no idea that wasn’t a wig! We kept calling you “the girl with the fabulous wig,” guess we gotta revise that!) and talk rumps, and Gwendolyn and talk about her work at the Costume Design Center. I wore my “this old thing” peach francaise.
Saturday was riding habit day. I loved this outfit too, despite the ginormous wrinkle that developed at my bust point (WTF?). I felt all sporting (in the 18th c. sense) and tailored, and it was fun to wear it with others in their habits(es) as well. I wore the habit again for dinner on Monday night.
For some reason this picture makes me happy - I feel like an 18th c. woman on the Grand Tour, looking at antiquities!
I wore the same hat & wig with all of my outfits. I really wanted to make one of the black hats with tons of feathers that I see in so many riding habit portraits; I was particularly lusting after Lady Worsley‘s hat. Thanks to all of your good advice, I ended up getting the wool felt hat blank from JAS Townsend in the largest size they had, which as you can see isn’t large enough to really settle down on my wig as far as the hats in portraits, but it worked. I did the most craptastic job shaping the brim — I couldn’t find anything in my house that was the right shape, so I used a series of bowls and just moved them around as I steamed the crap out of the hat. Then I covered it in black feathers, some of which blew weird ways in the wind, but I finally figured out how to attach them so that by riding habit day, the hat was looking like what I wanted.
For the wig, I took apart one I had styled before. I really wanted that particular style that you see around 1779-81 (example), which is somewhere between a pouf and a hedgehog. I made a lower form than I normally do for a pouf, and ginormous curls.
In the next post, I’ll talk about the symposium and the exhibition! In the meantime, you can see all of my photos on Flickr.
I’m half-way packed, and mostly done sewing (just some handsewing to do on the plane — ruffles for my habit shirt) — aieeeeeeeeeee! SUPER excited! I’ve been too busy to take photos of the final bits, but I promise to post some photos and updates while I’m gone.
I’m terrible with connecting names and faces, so if you’re in Williamsburg, come on over and say hi!
