In late September, GBACG held their Wives & Daughters Picnic in Tilden Park in Berkeley. Despite being a touch too warm, it was a lovely event, and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many costumers get all 1830s-ified! Lots of silly sleeves and even sillier hair. Unfortunately the heat killed me, so I didn’t stay long enough to take TOO many pictures, but the few that I did get are now up. I think my favorite was the perfect recreation of the 1830s Manchester Galleries archery dress!
Lumieres Autumn Supper
Lumieres held a supper last night at Cynthia’s house, and it was one of the more magical events I’ve attended. The group was smallish but wonderful company. We held it in Cynthia’s backyard, which she decorated to the nines with a chandelier, lanterns in the trees, hanging glinty bits — but best of all was she has amazing glassware, dishes, candles, etc. etc. etc. It was just warm enough to eat outside, and sitting in the dark with all of these beautiful people in gorgeous costumes, surrounded by candles and shiny dishes and glasses and everything (with period music in the background) was just FABULOUS.
For the second time we ordered food from Gregoire’s, a French restaurant in Piedmont. Their food is spectacular and we’ve found that we can easily share entrees, so we each choose two and get to have multiple courses. I had sesame cod with ginger sauce, and Cornish game hen with some kind of something – don’t remember! Plus lots of champagne.
We played the game from Marie Antoinette, where you stick a piece of paper to your forehead and then guess who you are based on yes/no questions of those around you. It was very funny, especially watching Trystan try to figure out that she was Jesus, and then in a funny irony, I was Nell Gwynn.
I wore my black francaise and my 1770s pouf wig, which I decided to finally dress (most of the big wigs being dressed in some kind of theme or style — the obvious one is the ship in the hair, but they would do “a la zodiac” or “a l’inoculation” etc.). I was stuck with what I could find at my local craft store, so I ended up doing a “night” theme, with a peacock in front, silver moon in back, and silver stars throughout. Of course, it’s important to note that when wearing a HA-UGE wig with a big bird on top, one has a slightly higher clearance level than usual – so I kept getting stuck in the tree/hanging. You can see my original wig design in the first few photos – later on, after tree wrangling, my peacock was sticking out at a weird angle (which of course I didn’t know, as I couldn’t see) – sigh!
I’ve posted my photographs, which are mostly atmospheric. Now I want to do it again!
Costume College 2009 Membership Info Available
For anyone interested in attending Costume College 2009, they have updated their information on memberships. Basically, it’s going to be a lottery, with Costumers Guild West members getting first crack, then a second lottery with all CGW members who didn’t get in the first lottery and everyone else. In other words, if you want to increase your chances of getting in, join CGW before Sept. 1st. CGW sister organization members (Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild and San Diego Costumers Guild) still get discounted pricing, but don’t get in the first lottery.
Costume College Report & Pictures
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I’m not sure I can adequately write enough to properly describe this weekend, but I’ll try! As previously reported, we (Sarah, Trystan, and me) drove down early Thursday and made it to the Garment District at 3pm with a perfect amount of time to shop (there was actually some oversleeping and traffic trauma, so we were worried we weren’t going to make it). We were focused shoppers, and I quickly found the fabric that I was looking for, plus some that was looking for me. The court dress fabric is just stunning – I’ll take some pics this afternoon of all my purchases and post them.
Thursday night was the LiveJournal meetup. It was fun to see everyone and a mellow evening. Friday was classes – in the morning I took “Historical Influences in Fashion,” which was fun as this is something I’ve always noticed (for example, 1840s being so heavily styled on 1660s). Had some down time in the middle of the day, so I did some hanging out and chatting in the cafe with many LJ friends and talked to those who wandered by. In the afternoon, I took a class on fairy wings that was very inspirational, although less involved than I’d expected. I did wear my 18th c. tart costume altho took no pictures!
Friday night was the GBACG meetup followed by the pirate and Pretty Pretty Princess parties in the Hospitality Suite. I wore my black francaise and REALLY BIG WIG, and after feeling like the dress looked kind of blah on the mannequin in the CC26 exhibit, I was worried I’d feel blah about the whole thing. Instead, it looked FABULOUS on if I do say so myself, especially with the wig that turned out just amazing (don’t worry, I took lots of pics to post a tutorial on the wig, and I’m going to offer to do a demo next year at College). Had a ton of fun that night running around, having pink drinks and being ridiculously silly and inappropriate with all my friends – we ended up in Diana’s room at the end of the night, dancing on the bed and singing.
Saturday was more classes. Sadly, I overslept and missed Trystan’s class on stripes (I’m really hoping she’ll do it again?), went to our panel on the Eugenie project which was good but needed more time (basically, we talked about what we made and the experience of a group project and being in the masquerade). I wore my what-was-a-1780s-jacket, which became a 1740s jacket (I of course had a last minute yen to wear something totally new, and was inspired to finish that project up – yes, will update the dress diary asap). There was a class cancellation a few days before College, so I volunteered to teach my 18th c. printed cottons class in the afternoon. I wasn’t sure if it went so well as I taught it – it’s always so hard to tell! Especially as I’m really NOT a textiles expert so much as a costume expert, so while this is a topic I’ve geeked out on, I don’t know EVERY in and out.
Saturday night was the gala. I felt like I’d blown my costume wad on Friday night and wished I could have switched so that I wore the black francaise to the gala (as evidenced by my total lack of pictures of the Eugenie dress), but it was also fun to wear the Eugenie dresses with most everyone from the group. As always there were tons of amazing costumes there and I was really impressed by so many. Had lots of fun stalking costumes to take pictures, and dancing and running around with my friends. Ended up going to bed relatively early (11:30ish? shocking!) as I did get a bit grumpy at the end of the night.
Sunday was yet more classes. I wanted to be comfy so went for a repro 1940s dress and sandals. Caught the end of Victorian Ladies Evening Gowns which had lots of nice eye candy, then taught my 16th c. Venetian women’s costume class. Later that afternoon, I taught my 18th c. hair & makeup demo, which was really fun – I’m so into hair/makeup as it so ties the costume together, and I’m just SO into 18th c. right now. The people in the class were fun and had great questions/suggestions (I was extremely flattered that Tara Maginnis of the Costumer’s Manifesto took my class!), and the demos went really well (you can see the results of the 1760s hair/makeup in my pictures).
Sunday night we meant to get out of the hotel to eat, but realized with such a big group it’d work better just to stay in the hotel. I was glad we did, as it meant more time for running around and socializing in the evening – the best part of which was when we ended up in Tara’s room, where she had Marie Antoinette playing on her projector against the wall – got to alternately laugh about ridiculous things and then geek out about the costumes in MA. And then we drove home Monday!
Now my mind is ABSOLUTELY WHIRRING with about 5,000 costumes, all of which I need to make RIGHT NOW… However, I need to stay focused on my new Venetian gown. Gah! I also already know what I want to teach next year, and my mind is whirring with class plans.
So here you are: pictures! And one video: What REALLY happens at Costume College…
Costume College Day 1!
I am at Costume College! Yesterday we went to the garment district where I was VERY BAD, to the tune of 12 yards of embroidered/striped silk taffeta for my 1750s-ish French court dress. And some white taffeta for an 18th century masquerade dress I’ve been planning for a while. And 2 more yards of the purple & white striped so I can make a day bodice (the Daniel Deronda dress!) for my 1870-1 evening dress. And jewels for my Tudor dress. eep! Took a class today on historical influences in fashion, off to fairy wings in about 30 min. Wearing the 18th c. tart and looking fabulous, as does everyone else! Yay! More soon.