travel – Page 2 – Démodé Couture

July 26, 2013January 15, 2026

Costumes at the Chateau pt. 4: the white ruffly camisole & petticoat

Last project to blog about from France! For some reason this was the project I was most excited about making, and ended up loving the most while wearing — I think I just had a fixation on being WHITE and FROOFY and RUFFLY. In all caps, natch.

I posted a bit about the early steps on the project here. After that, it was all a matter of borrowing Trystan’s embroidery machine to sew the scalloped edges on the miles of windowpane ruffles. I had a small crisis when I thought I’d run out of the windowpane before trimming the skirt, but managed to find a bit more of the fabric — I had to wing it on my machine for doing the scalloped edges, as I don’t have a fancy machine like Trystan, but it all worked out. Minus the scallops, all of the rest is handsewn.

I added some striped lavender and white bows, from ribbon that’d been lurking in the stash for years, to the CF neckline and sleeves to bring some color to the ensemble. And I wore it with the hat I originally made for Vaux le Vicomte, although I changed up the trimmings a bit to suit the lavender color scheme.

The one thing that’s bugging me is that, since I was worried about wearing stark white with my warm coloring, I used a slightly off-white lining for the jacket — and in these photos in the shade, it really changes the base color of the jacket. I’m not positive it looks that off-white in regular lighting, but it’s annoying, as it’s made of the exact same fabric as the skirt!

July 23, 2013January 15, 2026

Speaking of Wigs…

I still have at least two more posts to write about France, so I really should get busy! And speaking of wigs, I wanted to post about the wig I made for France.

Luckily, somehow, all of the projects to which I was drawn were right around 1780, so that made it easy — one wig to rule them all! I did contemplate making a grey wig for a more historically accurate look, but realized that a big trip like this wasn’t the time to take a risk — if I was going to have only one wig, I wanted to know the color would work on me.

Here’s my inspiration board, which I had up while I was making the wig:

My first try needed rework, which seems to always happen (yes, that advice is going in the book!), as it was TWICE as high as the final version. I almost went with it, then reminded myself that that wasn’t the era I was going for. Here’s how the wig turned out:

I have a vintage 1960s hatbox that I use for my wigs when I travel. The wig block never fits, so I stuff the head portion of the wig with plastic bags or newspaper or whatever is on hand, and if the wig isn’t as tall as the box, I do the same with any empty space. This wig was wide enough that I had to take off the rolls to pack it, but part of my plan was that I could move the rolls around for different looks, so that was fine. The other thing I planned was different ways to style the chignon (the back hair) and various hair accessories, to mix things up… didn’t want to get bored of wearing the same wig over and over!

Here’s the many ways I wore it:

First day with redingote, no hair accessories finished so nada, cadogan in back:

Evening look, with fake flowers pilfered from my room at the château (and returned), chignon looped up:

With purple ribbon and feather:

With ridiculous hat — I love the “floating hat” you get in this era!

With an organdy pouf, feather spray, and brooch for redingote rewears:

The rolls were looking a little shabby by the end of the trip (note to self, fix those up before CoCo!) but otherwise the thing made it through the whole trip!

July 11, 2013January 15, 2026

I Want Candy

Put nine historical costumers into one 18th century chateau with a professional videographer, and this is what you get:

May 24, 2013January 15, 2026

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:

(C) Thomas Dowrie. Currently I'm sleeping in the building to the right, next week I'll be moving into a bedroom in the chateau!

The view on a rainy late afternoon -- we actually have a view of the snow-covered peaks of the Pyrennees when it is clear, which I'll post once I've remembered to take a photo!

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!

May 23, 2013January 15, 2026

Paris pt. 2 – Au Temps d’Elegance

On Friday night, after all my previous museum shenanigans, I met Fanny, Olympe, Carmene, and Anne — all fellow costumers — at Fanny’s shop, Au Temps d’Elegance. It is, I believe, the only shop of its kind in Paris. Fanny is a very talented costumer who does custom work, plus sells all sorts of bits and bobs for costuming (hats, feathers, jewelry, etc.) in her shop. It was fun to see all the shiny things in her shop, plus she brought out two real extant eighteenth century pieces — one a jacket, the other a dress — for us to peer at. It’s always fun to meet new people and talk costume — many of them go regularly to Vaux le Vicomte, Carnivale, etc. And if you’re in Paris, you should definitely check out her shop!

Now I’m at “our” chateau, so tomorrow: costume posts!