The best party of Carnevale 2022 was Tricia’s Pirates and Mermaids Party on a historical ship that sailed around the lagoon all night! It was a super fun theme in a kick-ass location with awesome people. I didn’t know it would turn out so great, of course, when I was planning my costume, I was just happy for something to get creative with.
And it started when the GBACG had a virtual workshop on making mermaid crowns. The technique was surprisingly easy — “baste” everything together with hot glue, but seal it all down with E-6000 glue asap. I bought a ton more and bigger shells than included in the workshop kit, plus a wider headband, and soooooo many sparkly bits. Once I started added gems, it was so much fun to keep adding more in every little nook and cranny.
See a video of the crown in all its sparkly glory on Instagram.
I planned to wear the crown with my favorite big curly purple wig. Then I decided to go simple with the actual costume — I already had an elaborate pearl body harness from AliExpress that I’d intended to use for some kind of Bitchy Roman thing in the future. So I put that over a semi-sheer black body suit and black waist-cincher I already had.
I wanted a mermaid flare type skirt, so back to AliExpress, where I got a huge, very cheap fitted skirt with a giant mermaid flare and short train. To make the hem stand out more, I bought a cheap hoop skirt on Amazon and sewed that into the bottom of the skirt. None of that really shows in pix, and it was kind of annoying in the tight quarters on the ship, so maybe not my best idea.
But my makeup worked! I got a sort of rhinestone half-mask sheet on AliExpress, so all the gems surrounding my eyes come in one piece. I just added a few more pearls and gems with eyelash glue.
The last accent was a new purse that I embroidered with “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and an octopus. This outfit is a little bit of an homage to Ursula from The Little Mermaid because she’s fat, evil, and she wears black and purple, just like me!
The party was amazingly fun, even if it was too dark to get great pix. I still had a blast!
At the hotel where we met for cocktails first.
On the ship with Karen & Jenny.
Sitting on the ship.