Put nine historical costumers into one 18th century chateau with a professional videographer, and this is what you get:
A Call for Help
One of my best friends, Trystan, has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Many of you know Trystan — she’s a longtime member of the GBACG, teaches at Costume College, plays in the SCA, performs at Renaissance Faires. Hopefully you’ve had a drink with her and had her make you crack up — it’s her specialty. What you might not know about Trystan is that she’s ALWAYS there to help. If you’re putting on a costume event and you need help setting it up or tearing it down (late at night when everyone’s exhausted), Trystan is there. If you have a crazy costume idea and aren’t sure if you should go for it, Trystan will say “do eeet!” (hey, she’s the creator of the sushi Victorian dress! she’s down with the crazy!). She was a longtime board member, including president, of the GBACG, and personally created their first website way back in the dark days of the internet — you know, that site that is such a great resource, particularly the pattern review? She was a major organizer of Costume Con 28 (San Jose). A few years back she joined the SCA, and despite statements that she had too much on her plate, she’s now autocratted (ie organized) events, put on Collegium (their workshop series), become Arts & Sciences minister (the person who puts on competitions, classes, and more for medieval crafts, skills, & technologies), and is currently a Queen’s Artisan (where she is involved in a project to make “largesse,” or medieval reproduction items like costumes, bags, and more that are given as competition prizes and more — meaning she is spending her own time and money to make things for people she may not even know). I have been with her at SCA events where we couldn’t figure out immediately where to pay our “site fee” (aka the entrance fee or event ticket). While some of us grumbled, she personally set out to find where to pay since, as she put it, “I’m a supporter” — and truer words were never spoken.
Well, now she needs our support. Trystan is a contract employee, and her husband is a freelancer, which means they have to buy private health insurance… which is sadly really expensive, not just on a monthly basis but also for co-pays for doctor’s appointments, prescriptions, and everything else. So not only is she dealing with “OMG I HAVE BREAST CANCER,” she’s also dealing with “OMG HOW AM I GOING TO AFFORD ALL THIS?” Oh, and since she’s a contractor, all the time she needs for surgeries and treatment will be unpaid. Good times.
If you’ve met Trystan or in some way been supported by her, and you have a few dollars or a small amount of time to spare, please consider supporting her: by donating a few dollars (seriously, $5 would be fabulous), looking over her list of other ways to support, or buying something from her costume garage sale.
Luckily, Trystan is a fighter, so I know she’s going to come through this. But it’s going to be hard, and right now someone who has supported many of us needs our support. I hope you can help — even if it’s just to let her know you’re thinking of her.
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!
Very Inspiring Blogger Award
Thanks to Loren of The Costumer’s Closet for nominating me for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award!
To accept the award, one must:
1. Display the award and link back to the person who nominated you.
2. State 7 facts about yourself.
3. Nominate 15 bloggers for the award.
4. Notify the winners.
Okay, here we go…
7 Facts About Myself:
1. I hate nuts. All nuts. No, I’m not allergic. I just think they are abominations. Peanuts are the exception (except they’re not nuts, they’re legumes), but they can’t be in or on anything. Peanut butter ok, pb icecream etc. is gross.
2. I can’t whistle, but I can type over 100 words per minute.
3. I have a propensity for making up my own words and/or my own pronunciations.
4. When I’m in the mood, I count the number of dogs I see on a given day (and squirrels, cats, etc. but I don’t see them as frequently). No, I don’t have OCD – it’s an optional thing. It makes me happy. Dogs! Always having a good time! Yay!
5. I am very right-brained. I don’t do math (pattern drafting requires lots of calculators and talking out loud). When I was in high school, my math teacher wrote “Kendra has a very intelligent brain, but she refuses to use it for math.”
6. I don’t drink coffee or tea… and I get up & out the door in the morning under my own (non-caffeinated) steam. I do drink sodas, altho I gave them up for about 2 years.
7. I am terrible at remembering names but great at faces. I’ve probably offended many people who I’ve met multiple times because of not remembering their names. I now warn people right away when I meet them that I won’t remember their name… don’t know if it helps, but at least I’ve tried.
And my nominations – 14 instead of 15, in order to try to avoid duplications with other bloggers’ nominations:
10. Rococo Atelier
Historical Hair Did-You-Know?
In doing research for my 18th century hair/wig-styling book, I’m coming across a lot of weird and/or hilarious bits of info that aren’t going to fit into the book. So this is just a random accumulation of bits and bobs that are making me laugh!
Did you know…
- “Dildo” was a 17th century term for the sausage corkscrew curl of a man’s wig
- In the 1860s there was an attempt to scare women off of wearing their hair in chignons by claiming there was a particular “chignon fungus” you could catch by wearing that hairstyle
- There was a Russian hairdresser working in London in the 18th century named Ivan Peter Alexis Knoutscheffschlerwitz
- There were dog wigs marketed in the 1960s
- Mono-brows were fashionable in classical Roman times as well as in the Arab world (not sure exactly which periods, but I know it was fashionable in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th-18th century)