Batty Pink & Black Regency Ballgown

With Bridgerton still on my mind and a massive longing to travel again after being cooped up in my house by myself for a year and a half, I took a leap of faith and bought a ticket to the Empire Party at the Grand Trianon of Versailles. Which meant making another 1810s-ish costume, a type of fashion I’d never liked before but that’s what happens when you throw caution to the winds! (Note: No caution was actually thrown anywhere — vaccination, masking, testing, contact tracing, social distancing, documentation, verification, and weeks worth of worry went into the travel portion of this event; the sewing part was the easiest, for a change.)

Again, I used a Butterick pattern because IDGAF about historical accuracy. OK, I had a friend fit the bodice mockup over me wearing my Redthreaded Regency corset (which I wore with the gown). And I raised the neckline so that I could wear it over said corset since this pattern was a bit more “I-don’t-care-if-it’s-historically-accurate-I-just-want-my-tits-out” than I needed at the moment. I had this pinky-purpley shot silk taffeta in the stash and found the black net with sparkly bats on eBay.

The body of the gown went together easily, and then came the trimmings.

The jeweled trim is leftover from my black silk Carnevale gown (I bought a lot of it on AliExpress), and I backed it with strips of black silk. There are vintage jet buttons on the back. A bat brooch and a big silver-grey necklace go with the gown.

On my head, I planned to wear a tiara, several hairpieces to fill out my hair, ringlets, and this floral piece I made with three glittery bats on top.

I also bought some lace-up flats from Aerosoles to wear — faux Regency with comfort! I darkened the brassy eyelets with a sharpie though.

Then I schlepped all this stuff over to Paris (via a week in London), which wasn’t too bad since this era’s clothes are lighter-weight than others I’ve hauled around. The event at Versailles was GLORIOUS, starting at 7pm, golden hour, with the marble buildings reflecting the sunset. I met with Laina and Cathyn, who’d also traveled from the U.S., and we had such a wonderful time drinking champagne and roaming around the lovely grounds.