Many of my costume friends and I were reminiscing about how many years we had all been coming to Costume College, and about all the changes that had come about in that time, especially with all the genres involved in it now. Many of us were around back when the smaller College was held at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, and when we outgrew it for classroom and event space, and room availability, we moved to the Woodland Hills Marriott. When the area around that was changing and we could see the writing on the wall of the changes the hotel was making, we moved on to our current hotel, The Sheraton-Gateway LAX, which is very close to the airport. All three have always kept us within an hours drive to our beloved Fabric District in downtown LA, which is one of the important aspects of our locations.
Over the years, class offerings have changed (we take
what our teachers offer), and many of us historical costumers were
commiserating at how few there were for us now. But one of my friends noted
that maybe now WE should start teaching more and sharing all our knowledge to pass
on to the next generation. So we’re all thinking along the lines of that now. See
how this is all relating the our recent theme of “The Costumer’s Journey”?
COSTUME EXHIBIT
Once again, I was going to run the costume Exhibit at
CoCo, where attendees display the amazing costumes they’ve made. My original
theme, “How Far We’ve Come”, was to tie it into the main theme and showing how
our choices of genre and abilities have changed and improved over the years.
But as we got closer to the event, as attendees were discussing doing
mini-theme, or shadow groups, I thought we really needed to have some of the
previous themed groups displayed there also. I contacted a couple of my friends,
ok, I begged a couple of my friends to please consider bringing them for the
Exhibit. I had a good response on that, and they ended up being a focal point
of the room. The rest of the submissions were historical and cosplay.
The second large group was “Regency Goes to the Ball”,
with five ladies and two husbands in their finest Regency outfits.
Other themed outfits were from the “Marvelous
Monstrosities” and “Constellation & Galaxies” but ended up with only one
from each to display.
These were the historical submissions, starting with
1870s to 1912 to 1920, on one side of the room.
The other side of the room were the Cosplay themes.
To fill in one area, I had a table of antique and vintage
hats, starting from 1883 to 1950.
FRIDAY NIGHT SOCIAL
–“The Adventurer’s Club”.
THE SPACE JANE BATTALION -our mini-themed group
Having been involved in multiple mini-themed groups for the last 10 years, I was happy to find one for the Friday Night Social: The Adventurer’s Club, where we could honor the original symbol for Costume College: Space Jane. She was designed by Chuck Koviac many years ago and combined the two favorite genres of Costumers Guild West, Victorian and SciFi. So we have an image of a Victorian lady outfitted for space travel.
Our mini-theme was the Space Jane Battalion. To follow
the image, I wanted to re-use a dress I’d made a few months ago for my outfit,
an 1873 blue striped Seaside dress. I like being able to just add accessories
to fit a theme. I wasn’t able to find a helmet as they were all sold out but I
did find an antenna ball headband, silver gloves, and a raygun with fun sound
& color effects.
CLASSES I ATTENDED
I only attended two classes this year, “How Not to Look
Awkward in Photos”, and a workshop, “Put a Bow on It”. The photographer’s class gave me a few ideas
of looking towards the light, and having my arms in graceful positions, like a
ballerina. I was able to use that while posing in my Gala outfit. The “Bow”
class demonstrated an interesting method of tying the ribbon around your hand,
in and out of your fingers, and then pulling the ends to make a bow. That was
confusing. But constructing a bow from 3 pieces of ribbon worked much better
and I liked the final look it had. And I can use this technique for giant bows
on my dresses.
GALA -“Roaring ‘20s-Choose Your Century”.
Most people chose the 1920s for their outfits, which included myself, and there were a few 1820s but I’m not sure about earlier time periods. And of course many chose to wear whatever they’re favorite outfit was, which I often do. My costume was a 1920s Erte-inspired dress. I really felt good in it and received lots of compliments. And it was so comfortable without having to wear a corset this time. I bought the dress on Amazon after doing a search for caftans, and this one popped up in the Middle Eastern designs. Then I found a velvet turban and added my black ostrich feathers to it. Voila! It was done. That was one of the easiest costumes I’ve even put together, and no sewing involved!
TRUNK SHOW
This was the first time I became a vendor, "Fiches & Pelerines", for the Trunk
Show on the last day of CoCo. It’s open to attendees who run a small costume-related
business and is only 2 hrs. We each had a 6ft table to set up our wares. I
bought a couple nice shirt display stands to put my samples on. Since 2017 I’ve
been hand-sewing fichus and selling them to my friends and on a Facebook sales
group. I just enjoy doing some hand-sewing while I’m watching TV at night, and
in the last few years I added pelerines to them and enjoyed adding pretty lace
to the edges. So for the past year I had been sewing and accumulating them
specifically for this event. I accumulated a total of 56 to bring this year. I
had to rush over to set up in time as I had to also close down the Costume Exhibit
just prior to it. And then of course we had the mad dash of the shoppers being
released into the room. It was so much fun, and I was rushed at times. I did
well with my sales and am considering doing it again next year. I probably
should consider bringing a friend to help me next time. Sadly I had no time to
shop there myself.
PURCHASES
I
didn't buy a lot this year (I have too much anyhow) but in the Marketplace I
bought some beautiful vintage white cotton trim that was wider than I've ever seen
and was told you could even run a ribbon through it. I bought a roll of pink
dotted white ribbon and the black feather with a loop that makes it so easy to
attach to a hat or your hair from the “French Kiss” vendor. I also a busk for
my much-needed new corset.
On the last day, I stopped into the Bargain Basement when it was $5 for all you can fill in the black garbage bag. I didn't expect to find much but there were still LOTS of fabric left to dig through. I'm most happy with the issues of Costumer's Quarterly magazines, and the bolt of black illusion net and the white stiff netting (great for sleeve puffs) I got. I bought the pretty flannel with pink flowers for one of my neighbors. The cream ?? not sure, just cuz. The sapphire blue silky fabric is enough to drape over maybe a 1912 dress. Or maybe just make a scarf.
