Category: Lumieres

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Lumieres Summer Pique-Nique

On Saturday, Lumieres held it’s seemingly annual summer picnic, again at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. It was just what I’ve been craving — running around a park in 18th century costume and being generally silly! Of course, it happened smack dab in the middle of packing to move, so I was exhausted, so wasn’t quite up to my usual silliness… There were a lot of very lovely gowns, including Sarah’s new black & white stripey (kill! kill!), Cynthia’s new indienne print en forreau, and Teresa’s new indienne print overgown… and many more! We had a gorgeous picnic followed by lots of socializing and a reading from the Sheridan play The Rivals. What more can you want from a summer afternoon?

I wore my green zone anglaise, seeing as I haven’t worn it in forever and have been over-wearing all my other 18th century dresses. I thought briefly about wearing my new mourning francaise, but realized that I want to tweak a few things before wearing it but didn’t have any time, and didn’t want to set myself up for that frustration when you put on something in a hurry and it isn’t right.

Photos!

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Lumieres Salacious Salon

Last Saturday night, Lumieres held our second annual Salacious Salon, where we dress up in our 18th century undies, eat lots and lots of dessert, drink champagne, and read/examine naughty 18th century items. Ahem. Lots of fun, although the rain made me grumpy for going out – come on, weather! Cooperate – I’ve got big hair here! We had soooooo many desserts it was outstanding (you’ll see Trystan having a chocolate mousse moment in the kitchen), lots of shocking attire (Bridget in a sheet – hey, a sheet is period, right?), and lots and lots of fun was had.

Trystan’s was a great place to have it, as her house is already very period-esque in its decor. The photos I took are relatively dim, so nothing too exciting, but you can get an idea of the atmosphere (I always think flash ruins atmosphere when you’re in candlelight!).

In other news, I AM sewing – it’s just that it’s mostly been for my secret Costume Con masquerade dress (which is coming along swimmingly). Did some work on my robe a la francaise yesterday, so updates soon!

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Lumieres Dinner

Oh my. On Saturday night, the Lumieres group held a fancy pants dinner that just totally rocked my world. Imagine, if you would, a room full of beautiful 18th century costumes; a long table set with linens and gold silverware and plates; food from a lovely French restaurant; champagne and wine; Mozart playing in the background; a cake straight out of Marie Antoinette; and candles, candles, candles; all while discussing the latest gossip from the courts of Versailles and Russia. I literally teared up at one point (okay, so yes, I’d had some bubbly by then) because it was such a fantasy come true. After dinner, we had a love game of Vampire where there was much silliness and dramatic dying. Sadly, my camera is dead (it refuses to autofocus!) so I didn’t get any pictures myself, but luckily Diana and Katie did (and I’m hoping that Sarah will post hers soon – hint hint!).

Edited to add: Here are Sarah’s pics – yay!

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A Bit of Salaciousness….

Last Saturday, La Societe des Lumieres held our first (hopefully more than annual!) Salacious Sleepover. The whole idea was to get together (as our 18th century characters) wearing our period undies, eating lots of dessert, and reading/viewing 18th century literature (ahemeroticaahem). Although we were a small crowd, it was WAY too much fun. Everyone looked fabulous, we had a huge spread of food that we didn’t even make it halfway through (champagne cake! yum!), LOTS of champagne, and some blush-inducing literary readings. Shocking, I say!

We lit the whole place by candles, which really added to the ambiance, but it means the pictures turned out pretty dark. Plus, we weren’t really going for standard “here’s my costume” shots but rather fun portraits. But, of course, as any good costumer, we did take lots of photos! So here they are. Don’t worry, all is SFW (it wasn’t THAT kind of party!).

You’ll note that I’m wearing a new corset — it’s not really new, actually. I’ve always been bored by my white and silver stays, plus the silk satin has been fraying at the seamlines. So I, crazy woman that I am, sat down and ripped apart my old stays (which I love the fit of, I should add!), and recovered it in peach taffeta (left over from my recent francaise) with green binding and corded seams. I’ll take some better pictures and post more info; plus, I also recovered some shoes (which aren’t done yet; I’ll also post some photos & info on those soon).

I’ve been sick as a dog, which is what’s been inhibiting all of this picture taking and posting… I’m nearly better, so I promise to actually START on my Gwendolen dress soon!

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Bastille Day Picnic

On Saturday the Societe des Lumieres held our inaugural event: a Bastille Day picnic. It was beyond lovely! We gathered at a historic cemetary in Oakland (the Mountain View cemetary in Piedmont) — or the grounds of my chateau, if you will. Myself (the Comtesse de La Valliere), Sarah (Lady Cecily Fiennes-Clinton), and Trystan (Lady Mourdaunt) arrived early; my husband Michael (the manservant) helped us set up and then stayed to take a bazillion pictures with his fancy new camera. We were joined a few hours later by other members of the group (the Marquise de Montesson, Madame de La Forte and the Raja of Kafiristan, Miss Laurie and Mrs. Morton, and the Comtesse d’Hivernage and Monsieur Chamfort), so there’s only a few pictures of them (the manservant only stayed for an hour or so).

We had champagne cocktails, bread and cheese, tomatoes and fresh basil, and truffles and a fruit galette. We gossiped, debated whether we should travel to India to purchase cotton print fabric, read a scene from The School for Scandal, took turns about the park, and called “BONJOUR!” in silly French accents whenever peasants wandered by. All in all, fabulous!

Et voila: the sketches done very very quickly by my Monsieur Fleming, the very talented portrait artist. AND because we are very silly, and because we are sheep and various LiveJournal costumers have started this, we took some videos (mine and Sarah’s).