Venetian Carnevale Broken-Hearted Gown

One of the events I planned to attend at Venetian Carnevale 2020 was the “red party” held by friends — it was a dinner where guests had to wear a little bit or a lot of red. I went through quite a few costume concepts for this one because I thought I’d wear something from my closet, such as a fabulous red velvet 1920s opera coat. But then when I decided on the gown style for the harlequin outfit, I thought, hey, maybe I can wear that dress two ways. A black gown + red petticoat and accessories would be perfect and save some luggage space. Thus, a costume was born.

After the black silk 18th-c.-style gown was in the works, all I needed to do was whip up a red silk petticoat. I added a cute red and black straw topper that’s not a specific period — kind of 1940s? but kind of all-purpose — that was custom-made for me years ago by Rachael Pollock. Fabulous red and black jewelry was ordered well in advance from AliExpress.

And then, at quite the last minute, maybe a month before I was to leave for Italy, I thought of adding a “broken heart” appliqué. I Amazon-Primed the red sequined heart, cut it in two, and bound the edges (with some help from my friend Denise, who cat-sat during my trip). This was merely pinned to the front of the gown, and I think it really made for a good Carnevale look.

The day of the party, while wandering around Venice, I found a stunning red mask and had to add it to this outfit. Because you just need to wear masks during Carnevale!