COSTUME COLLEGE 2025: MY 22nd YEAR ATTENDING

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 first large group was the “Montgolfier Balloon Accession” of 1783, and they chose to wear Regency  outfits with it. The “balloon” was a Chinese lantern they decorated and hung on an IV stand. And they made banners to go with it. They had shown up at the Gala in 2024, and I knew I had to have it in the Exhibit.

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 their 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 ever put together, and no sewing involved!               

       

TRUNK SHOW

This was the first time I became a vendor, "Fichus & 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 on. 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 bought 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. 

As always, I came home excited about making a couple new costumes, and surprisingly, they are all from the 1850s, along with an idea for a new Halloween costume. My next blog will be about my 1850s ideas.

COUNTDOWN TO COSTUME COLLEGE 2025

 

With only 13 days left until Costume College, I’m in the midst of getting everything together that I have to bring with me. On top of that, I also organized the Costume Exhibit there of costumes made by attendees. I hope everyone who is attending this year has some time to stop by and see these amazing outfits up close on display.

In planning my costumes, I determined I was only going to two events there that I would need them; the Friday Social “The Adventurer’s Club”, and the Saturday Gala Time Traveler’s Ball “Roaring ‘20s: Choose Your Century”.

I heard there was a mini-theme group for the Friday Social called the Space Jane Battalion, dedicated to the original symbol of Costume College, Space Jane. She was designed as a Victorian lady with spacewoman accessories since in the early ‘90s historical and SciFi were the popular genres at the conference.

Since I had recently finished and worn my 1870s blue striped seaside dress in Port Townsend, I knew I could just add accessories to that, and there was my costume. Easy peasy! I spent the last six months searching through Amazon and other websites for my accessories. I had hoped to buy a clear acrylic globe helmet, but the couple advertised were all sold out. So on to Plan B, wearing a headband with antenna balls. I found silver ones, and then some silver metallic gloves that coordinated very nicely with them. My raygun came from a party supplier and was very cheap, only $6! It has lights, color, and sound! It’s going to be fun with our duels! So yeah, this costume will be fun. And I only spent $23 total on my accessories.

My ideas for the Gala became more complicated. I don’t normally wear 1920s, and even though 1820s would interest me, I was too busy to try going into that decade. I was actually working on two Regency dresses and Spencers and wanted to focus on those.

I also wanted something that might be worn again, and in the daytime, so was looking at making a cotton dress in the right fabric that could pass for evening with some accessories. I looked at Egyptmania and Art Deco fabrics and even bought a digital pattern that I thought of using for one. It seemed simple to make but in reality, looking at the directions I wasn’t so sure. It would also need enlarging. It is really cute though.

And then I came across this photo on Pinterest, Erte! It was all drama! I wanted that!

So I made a deep dive into finding more Erte pictures. The “wings” appeared quite often too. I even have a pattern for a caftan but did I really want to make one just for this event. So off to Amazon for a bit of shopping!

I found lots of caftans but the bejeweled ones seemed to be more of what I was looking for and I found this one. Reviews for it said it was very long, and boy, was it! It was six inches longer on the floor. Hemming wouldn’t be a problem but the fabric was a pain. It was chiffon, so it fought back against my scissors the whole time I was cutting it. The neckline was also very wide and on my short shoulders, it was being dragged down in front by the heavy metal beading. In fact, later I noticed the gold design was much bigger than the photo on Amazon. To solve that, I had to take up the shoulders which gave me a smaller neck opening but it worked. My dress cost me $60.

 

And then off I went to Etsy to find some accessories, hoping not to spend too much on them. Since none of the photos show them wearing black gloves, I’ve decided to skip those. The easiest was a purse while searching for gold metallic ones. But it had to be big enough to hold my cellphone. My dress has no pockets, “gasp!”, and no way to add them that I could access. So it was a priority. I found the perfect one on etsy for $22 with plenty of room.

The earrings and a turban were the hardest to find. Yes, there are lots of Art Deco earrings but they’re pretty pricey for a one-time wear. I thought I found the perfect ones that were really cute and the length I wanted, but in real life, they’re more bronzey than the gold shown in the photo, and I’m not really happy with them next to my purse and dress trims. But I still have a bit more time to maybe find something better. “Sigh” if only they were gold but I’m looking for around $22.

  

 

 

I finally found one lady on etsy who made black velvet turbans and ordered one. But when it arrived, it seemed smaller than the one shown in the photo. She must have a very small head because mine doesn’t go down that far to my neck. Nor does it have any height. It’s a stretchy velvet, so I’ve stuffed it with tissue to puff it up a bit. I also ordered the one with a rhinestone on the forehead for more drama.

To copy my inspiration photo, I bought some black ostrich feathers, then gave them a haircut so they were very narrow. I cut a small hole in the front behind the rhinestone and sewed them in. I used some Fray-Check on the hole just in case it wanted to stretch. The feathers do have a tendency to twirl around though. I still want the turban to be a little more fluffy on my head so I may add “something” inside to do that. I don’t have a lot of hair and didn’t like the ‘20s wig I had under it. So it will just be my bangs hanging out.

 
My flat black ballet slippers are my final accessories, hoping not to trip over the chiffon hem, and I’m done. All under $120, unless I end up buying more earrings.

This is the pose I’ll be going for while at CoCo. Maybe also both arms up to the side. It all depends on how shy I’ll feel at the moment, or if I’m ready to bring on the drama.