Okay, so finding the time to post is a lot harder than it looks. Not only are we playing dress up right and left, there’s all that relaxing to get to! So instead, here’s a few pics, with more content coming later:
Plus des Shenanigans!
Shenanigans at the Chateau!
(Yes, I am shamelessly stealing that post title from the talented Cathy Hay!)
Aiee, we’re here! In France! In an ancient chateau, originally 16th century but restored in the 19th century, and very appropriately eighteenth-century themed inside!
Here is the lovely Chateau de Pys, in the southeast of France near Toulouse:
And we’re having a blast. So far there have been sewing circles, cocktails, Eurovision final watching parties, yummy dinners…. and costumes! Most of us are here for two weeks, so we’re spacing out the costume events to basically every other day, so nobody hits the wall. It’s so lovely to BE in the place you’re going to be playing dress up — no hassle to get dressed and pop over — plus to then be able to put your pj’s on and have a late night, post-corset snack in the kitchen with everyone else! I could SO get used to this…
Our first costume event was a picnic lunch on the terrace/outside. It’s been drizzling on and off, so we set up the lunch buffet-style on an outdoor table. After food, we took TONS of photos, rambled about the grounds to see the nearby pond, woods, and lawns, played some ninepins, and lounged about on the steps. As I keep repeating, This Does Not Suck.
Tomorrow: details on my redingote and wig!
WonderCon 2013 – cosplay!?!
WonderCon 2013, a set on Flickr.
Last week I went down to Anaheim to help my husband, who is a professional illustrator, sell his art (originals, prints, cards, etc.) at WonderCon. This is an annual convention, officially for comics, but also for scifi, fantasy, video games, and all things geek-y, and is organized by the same people who put on ComicCon. I’ve been to this convention a few times to help my hubby, mostly when it was up in San Francisco. I spend most of the weekend sitting in a hard plastic chair helping Michael out — selling stuff, getting food, letting him go on breaks — but it’s also fun from another perspective: cosplay!
I don’t really do cosplay, but it’s (obviously) the most popular area of costuming and growing by leaps and bounds. It’s fun to get to watch people who are just as obsessive as us historical costumers get their costume geek on, even if I do spend most of the weekend asking my husband, “Who’s that character? And who’s that?” Okay, I can spot a Disney princess, Captain America (very popular this year!), and Game of Thrones (okay, so I am considering making a Game of Thrones outfit because they’re PRETTY and sometimes they have crazy hair!).
There are some things that don’t grab me as much about cosplay, mostly the purchasing items and putting them together into a costume part of things (some people make their own costumes, and others purchase and repurpose stuff — not saying there isn’t a ton of work that goes into that second option, just it’s not MY thing!). But what I do get is loving a character, show, book, etc. so much that you want to literally BE a part of it, and find some way to take on that character/world. I think part of what I love about reproducing paintings and fashion plates and historically set movies is that I am trying to put myself into that person or character, so in some ways it’s very much the same!
We’re generally in the small press area, which means we aren’t in the heart of things, so I know there are tons of cool costumes that I miss seeing. But here’s a few photos of costumes that I liked. I think my favorites was Daenerys from Game of Thrones, and the Dr. Who girl who had a hand painted Tardis parasol!
Lumieres Russian Dinner
On Saturday, Lumieres (our 18th century role-playing group, for lack of a better description) held a dinner at the court of Catherine the Great of Russia… or Babushka restaurant in Concord! It’s a small restaurant out in the burbs, but perfect because the food was great, the staff were super accomodating (they even dressed up in loaner costumes!), and the decor (if you ignored the disco elements) was oldey-timey enough to look great by candlelight!
It was an absolute blast — everyone was literally resplendent in gorgeous gowns, fabulous wigs, and sparkling jewels. There was lots of in-character banter (my favorite), nice champagne, and flirting. Francis and I got together ahead of time and practiced the minuet, which we learned a few months back, and we performed it for the guests with only one false start!
I wore my this-old-thing black francaise. I was itching to do a c. 1780 super powdered wig like one of these Roslin portraits, so I set to work with a blond wig I had bought a while back, hoping powdering over blond would maintain some warmth and work better on my skin tone. Well, I can report that powdered blond hair is still blond — duller, yes, but still blond — which totally doesn’t work on me. So that wig will get finished and sold on Etsy! Instead I pulled out the 1760s tete de mouton wig I styled for the Vampire Ball, which actually fits the era of the dress better, and powdered that. So nothing new, just a slight tweak. In the candlelight, it ended up looking like this:
Although here’s a flash photo that shows the warts & all — I’m posing with Trystan’s fabulous husband Thomas:
We were welcomed by Catherine the Great herself:
And there was a LOT of scrummy scrummy costumes:
You can see the rest of my photos on Flickr!
2012 Recap – Costumes & Events!
Now that I’ve finally posted about the last costume event of 2012, I can finally post my end-of-year recap!
In late December/early January, I made a 1575 Florentine veste & petticoat to wear to Sarah’s laurelling ceremony.
In January, I wrote an article on 1912 evening wear…
…and another on hair, makeup, and accessories.
In April, I bought some Indian wedding jewelry, slightly altered my 1910 Lady Maud evening dress, and went to the GBACG Titanic event.
In May, I made a new Venetian Renaissance dress to wear to Bella Donna performances….
…and it had its first outing when Bella Donna performed at the Valhalla Renaissance Faire.
I spent way too much time in June handsewing an 18th century Turkish ensemble, which I wore to the Lumieres Salacious Salon.
In July, I made the 1938 Marie Antoinette sorta-rocket dress, which I wore to Costume College.
Over fall, I worked on a tambour embroidered fichu, which is nearly done (but not quite).
In September, I performed with Bella Donna at Much Ado About Sebastopol, a benefit Renaissance Faire that is really breaking new ground in terms of authenticity AND entertainment.
For Italian Heritage Day, Bella Donna walked in the SF Italian Heritage Parade and performed for two North Beach Italian restaurants.
In October, Bella Donna got dressed up and took a gondola ride on Lake Merritt in Oakland with Gondola Servizio.
In early November, I recovered and trimmed a had, did some stage makeup, and wore my Maja dress to the Vampire Ball…
…where I performed with Bella Donna.
Later that month, Bella Donna performed at the SCA West Kingdom fall Collegium feast, a beautiful dinner and dance set in 1530s Corregio. I actually reworked my green Venetian dress a bit, but I have no photos yet so I have yet to post about it!
In December, I reworked the failed Champagne fancy dress costume, which I wore to the Dickens Fair.
At the very end of December, I added a placket and wore my Gwendolen dress and had tea with the GBACG.