There’s no rest after Costume College. The 2023 Dean and I, the 2024 Dean (in the photo below), are sharing reports, and I’m busy planning for next year’s event, and starting to gather my committee members together for it. So, finding time to gather my thoughts for this blog about it, and sharing my photos, had to wait.
My year at
Costume College again revolved around primarily running the Costume Exhibit
there, but I did get out to go to a class, shop in the Marketplace (for hat
pins, since I forgot mine, but also found an antique treasure there), and to
attend the Gala and the Sunday Tea.
Before I get
into sharing photos from the Exhibit, I’ll first share what I wore this time. For
the Gala, “Midnight in Paris”, I pulled an 1898 dress out of my closet that I’d
made and worn in 2011, but hadn’t been out much since then. I was very happy
with my floral garland I made for its neckline (details were in my previous post
on July 23). I had my ‘90s wig restyled since it was a bit fuzzy, and added a
huge rhinestone brooch to the back with ostrich feathers tucked in it. The
brooch was heavy and wanted to pull the wig down in back and off my forehead,
even though I had a few bobby-pins to hold it on. But when you have short
straight hair, there’s not much for it to attach too. But I got a lot of compliments
on my outfit that night, and I was very happy.
For the Tea,
“Heroes & Villains”, I wore my pink striped 1870s seaside dress. I don’t
often dress the theme, just whatever I’ve been working on and felt it would be
good for going to tea in. The only photo I had was one taken with my friend,
Gina, who was also wearing her pink striped dress. I thought the food served at
the tea was pretty good, although served a little erratically. They brought out
one large platter of sandwiches, and that’s all we thought we got, then 20 minutes
later another plate was brought out of the same thing. It could have saved us trying
to ration out the first plate we got. Also, we didn’t get any hot water for tea
until after our sandwiches arrived. So, we were just sipping water up until
then. I brought my own bags of tea because I didn’t care for Earl Grey or
herbal that they had on the menu. In fact, I shared them with others at our
table. The desserts were excellent, and I wished there been a menu list at our
table explaining what they were instead of just assorted desserts, because one
of them I’d REALLY like to know what it was. It was good, whatever it was.
These couple
are from the Gala.
And finally, these are photos from the Costume Exhibit, which I coordinated, and are costumes made by our attendees. There are some amazingly talented people here. The pink polka dot bustle dress was mine.
There was also 22 hats and headwear on display; some antique, some made by attendees. The four in the first photo were mine.
So that’s it
for me for this year. I’m still working through ideas for next year’s Costume
College main theme and all its event themes. Those will also be officially
announced at the CGW Annual Meeting on Oct 22. I’ve already started planning my
wardrobe, as we all do the day after that last event.
I almost forgot about the antique treasures I found in the Marketplace there. I bought a couple shoe button hat pins in black and white, and then saw this antique parasol with a tiny bone handle. I was floored when I saw the price tag was $12.50! I could tell it had been recovered, so I asked the seller if the frame was ok. She opened it up to show me some large stains on the canopy, which is why she marked it down. NO PROBLEMO! It had a pretty lace around the edge that I think can be re-used when it gets recovered. But the bone handle has some lovely carving on it, and the brass thing above it was repousse. Its full length is 34”, and a friend dates it to late 1860s-1880s. Now I wonder what color it should be covered in?
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