For Venetian Carnevale 2020, I wanted some kind of harlequin outfit because that’s so iconically “carnevale.” But it had to be in my favorite gothic colors, and I couldn’t find any fabric remotely close to that. The obvious solution was to make my own, but wow, that sounded difficult! So I talked to my mom
Many of us have seen this delightful painting with an 18th-c. gent wearing leopard-print breeches and waistcoat. It’s the generically named “An Interior with Elegant Company” by Venceslao Verlin (d. 1780). While I can’t find much about this specific painting, there are other images from around 18th-c. Europe of men and a few women wearing
Meaning, my 15th year of attending CoCo. OMG, yes, it’s true. Back in 2004, I randomly decided to fly solo (literally) to this L.A. area event that I’d heard about from fellow members of the local Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild. I’d been to Costume-Cons and SF/F cons before, but I knew nothing of Costume
Everyone sees the pictures online — a francaise dinner, a steampunk picnic, Costume College, a cosplay meetup, the Fête Galante, Venetian Carnevale. The idea is the same, it’s a bunch of friends in fabulous costumes having loads of fun! How can you get yourself some of that??? Sure, you can try to wrangle an invite
Another CoCo has come and gone, and we survived! Well, except for some epically awful concrud, wherein most everyone I know came down with a nasty headcold immediately after Costume College. While I rarely, if ever, make elaborate new costumes for CoCo, I still have a blast attending for two reasons: I love teaching classes
My motto for this website and all my dress-up endeavors has long been, “We’re born naked, everything else is a costume,” which is a paraphrase of RuPaul’s “We’re born naked, everything else is drag.” Because Mama Ru and I have the same philosophy that all the clothes / makeup / hairstyle / etc. we garb
This has been a bucket-list costume for ages, yet I finally made it as a quickie last-minute version in less than a month. The occasion came about because Bella Donna Historical Performers were singing at the PEERs Bal des Vampires right after Halloween, and they decided that their costume theme would be around the Bram
Egads, I haven’t posted here since Costume College 2015. I did go to CoCo last year, but it was super-abbreviated — I flew in late Friday, taught one class Saturday morning, wore a modern cocktail dress to the Gala, and drove back with Sarah and Francis on Monday. I didn’t make any costumes last year,
I’m not ignoring my costume blog, but I really haven’t been “costuming” per se that much. Sure, I dress up for costumed events maybe once every six weeks, but I go huge stretches between making anything new. Until, dun dun dun, Costume College! Well, at least this year. I’ve gone back and forth over the
For the Investiture of the Prince and Princess of the Mists, I helped sew the outfit worn by her highness Marguerite. I made the yellow damask sideless surcote that was worn over a blue velvet gown made by Sarah. I also made a blue velvet and yellow silk hood that was worn under the coronet.
This is the gown I made to portray Veronica Gambara, the hostess of the “Feast in 1530s Correggio” at the SCA’s Collegium Occidentalis XLVII. I was running the event and wanted to cap off the day with a festive meal set in a specific time and place in history (which is not typically done in
Off & on for the past 20 years around Halloween, we held a party called the Famous Dead Person’s Ball. There are only two rules in this afterlife: You must come as somebody at least marginally famous & at least temporarily dead. We’ve had friends come as everyone from Che Guevara to Mae West to
The Société des Lumières held a Turkish-themed salon last night — because, of course, all things exotic & oriental (as it was called then) were quite the rage in the 18th century! So this was an excuse to wear turbans, Indian pajamas, caftans, kimonos, & other “foreign” garb to our articles of undress for a
I had an amazing time at the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild’s Last Dinner on the Titanic, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking on April 14, 2012. This costumed dinner & dance took place at the Bellevue Club in Oakland, CA. Everyone was seated at tables of 10, & our group decided
Last Saturday was Much Ado About Sebastapol (MAAS), where Sarah & I debuted Fockett & Cox. This was a different type of Renaissance faire, in that everyone was portraying one specific English village (Fenford, circa 1578), and the faire had an educational mission tied into local school’s curriculum. The artisan guilds (where we were stationed)