It’s only taken me about 3,000 years, but I’ve finally posted my pictures from GBACG Day at Dickens Fair.
Planny McPlannersons!
GBACG has announced our list of events for next year in the latest issue of our newsletter, although most of the info isn’t on the web yet. Of course, being on the board gives me the inside scoop, which has helped me plan my projects for next year. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Events:
Open House – 1/28 – of course! I’ll wear whatever is itching to be worn and doesn’t take up much room.
Queen Elizabeth I & the Pirate – 2/24 – I am so going to this fancy shmancy Elizabethan banquet (at the same location we did Lord of the Rings last year). Bella Donna may perform a few songs. I’ll wear my courtesan dress, of course.
GBACG Goes to the Gaskell Ball – 4/21 – I’m organizing this as have for the past 2 years, so I’d better go! Our theme is Victorian fantasy (fairies etc.). Not sure what I’ll wear — probably add wings and my butterfly mask to one of my bustle evening dresses?
Little Women picnic – 5/20 – again, I’m in charge so I’d better be there! I’ll be going as Meg (I get to be the girlie one!) and I’ve been on the hunt for the right fabric for MONTHS. Apparently it IS really hard to find a sheer cotton lawn or voile with a white ground and small lavender flowers – who knew? Grr.
Hogwarts End-of-Term Celebration – 6/23 – unless I’m randomly in Europe at the time, how can I miss a Harry Potter party? I’ll probably be going as Professor Trelawney, unless Bellatrix Lestrange’s costume is so good that I get a strong yen to throw something together. Trelawney rocks, because she has hilarious hair.
Surviving the Guillotine: A French Revolution Picnic – 7/14 – again, I’m organizing this. I’ll probably wear my anglaise or my polonaise, unless I miraculously become a faster costumer.
Bustles and Baseball – Aug. (date TBD) – although this sounds fun (going to a vintage revival 1880s baseball game), I doubt I’ll have time to make anything for it, and I don’t have anything 1880s in my closet. Boo.
Gatsby picnic – 9/9 – I’m so there (pink drinks! yay!) and I’m going to have something new this year, come hell or high water!
Walk/picnic at Cypress Lawn cemetary – 10/13 – totally depends on my mood whether I go. Costume era is 1850-1942, so that’s easy.
GBACG Goes to Dickens Fair – 12/8 – of course!
Edwardian tea – 2/9/08 – I am SO there, and so will my stripey 1908 suit.
So that means the docket is, in order of how I’m planning to tackle them:
1. Gwendolen’s 1874ish day dress – so I have something fabulous to wear to the Costume College gala!
2. Meg March’s 1860ish day dress – design contingent upon finding the right fabric.
3. 1924 day dress for Gatsby – made on my newly acquired vintage 1924 Singer (how can I not?)
4. 1909 suit
I’m sure other projects will sneak in there, of course.
FYI, I’m slowly integrating a new form of commenting on the site – those who’ve commented on recent projects have seen the new format (hosted by Blogger). If you have a Blogger account, you can sign in — otherwise choose Anonymous and you can put in your name and website/livejournal (if you want to). Let me know if you have any problems with it. This means that comments posted previously on main page posts are gone, but hopefully those discussions have ended already. This sucks, but there’s no other option.
For My Bay Area Peeps
The V&A exhibit on Vivienne Westwood is coming to the de Young museum in 2007! Here’s the info on the exhibit from the V&A site. Woot!
Also, GBACG has been busy planning our events and workshops for next year. Something to mark your calendar for is Elizabeth & the Pirate on Feb. 24 in Oakland. This is going to be an amazing event: join Queen Elizabeth I and the Irish pirate Grace O’Malley for a banquet at Sequoia Lodge (where we held the Lord of the Rings dinner). Break out your fanciest Renaissance costumes, or your dressy 16th century pirate gear — or come as a cleaned up peasant. It should be magical — I can’t wait!
GBACG Let Them Drink Wine
On Sunday I attended the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild’s Let Them Drink Wine, an 18th century picnic and wine tasting and Chateau St. Jean winery (Sonoma County, north of San Francisco). It was lovely, lovely, lovely!
The weather was nicer than expected, my hair only uncooperated a little bit, there were about FIFTY people there (wow!), and everyone looked smashing. I wore my peach francaise (naturally) pulled up through the pockets (no train on the ground, thank you!) and Bridget borrowed my new indienne print 1780s polonaise.
The winery itself was beautiful, with a big lawn (set for a wedding later, with lanterns and a beautiful table), lots of trees, and a lovely garden. We hauled my table and chairs which always ends up being so worth it (I so don’t enjoy laying down in costume!) and had a lunch that included savory pies, fresh fruit, rice salad, bread and cheese and meats, dolmas, and a fruit galette for dessert. Then there was a wine tasting, where we got to try four different varieties (including the $75/bottle merlot, which was outstanding). There was much taking of pictures as we strolled in the formal garden (see if you can spot the one we called “the Kyoto picture”!) and admiring of costumes; a stunning range was there with many more sacques than I expected, some lovely anglaises and jacket/petticoat outfits, as well as men in SILK (hello!). I only got pictures of about half of the beautiful costumes; hopefully others got the ones I missed. After a while we had a dessert contest, where Peri’s fabulous chocolate lavender truffles won, and I adored the strawberry/pear/sour cream/cheesecake confection (yum). Things ended too soon, although I was dead by the time I hit the car — but here are the pictures quickly, because yay for outdoor day photos — no red eye to correct, no backgrounds to blur!
Can we do it again next weekend?
Oh right, it might help if I linked to my pictures, wouldn’t it?
GBACG Goes to Gaskells
So this past Saturday GBACG went en masse (well, some of us anyway) to the Gaskell ball (semi-monthly Victorian balls in Oakland). It was really really lovely — there were less of us than last year, but we did a better job hanging out together so I actually got to talk to lots of people. Plus there were lots of lovely people, like Trystan looking stunning in a purple and gold dress, Sarah all the way out from Utah in her Colonial Coquette dress, and Jwlhyfer in her Elizabeth Siddal posing gown. Our group theme was costume in bloom, and everyone did a great job accenting their costumes with flowers.
I didn’t dance much (still recovering from a knee injury) but those that I did dance were great. We were even awake enough that Jwlhyfer, Bridget (in my brown 1830s evening dress) and I met my husband and a friend at a bar in Berkeley afterwards — where we made MANY friends (nothing like drunk frat guys who actually know what a bustle is!).
aaaand… PHOTOS!