A couple months ago I was contacted by the Old Poway Park
(CA) manager asking if my group, The Historical Dressers, could possibly put on
a fashion show for their Rendezvous event in October with a time-period of 1840-1900.
If anyone knows me well enough, they know I don’t like to do any events in the
summer because I don’t like the heat. And I know October is notorious for being
especially hot. But I said if they had an air-conditioned building we could do
it in, I would see if I could get a group interested.
It turned out they did, and it was in fact a cute
historic building, the Templar Hall, in the middle of the park with a gazebo
nearby and a lovely park setting. The rest of the park has a train museum and
train rides. https://poway.org/452/Old-Poway-Park
I began putting out queries to all my available models
and got about 12 who were interested, although 2 would also be running a vendor/demonstration
booth at the event. Other than the requested time-period, I left it open to
whatever one they wanted to do. Once it looked like most were filled, I took
the open 1850s spot. It was also the coolest dress I had that I could wear,
made of cotton voile.
About two weeks before the event, I drove out to the park
and met with the manager to get familiar with the area, check out the parking,
and look over the interior of the building to get an idea of what we would be
working with. It was a decent size, well lit, with a small stage with only two
steps up. It had a small room in the back behind the curtain that a couple
ladies could use to dress in but it wasn’t big enough where we could be back
there, and one by one come out on the stage. So my plan was to have them seated
along the sides of the stage and just step up onto it. The manager also gave me
a flyer they would be posting around the park about our first 19th
century Victorian fashion show. It was a nice one too! She was really excited
about having us.
I was happy to find out one of our previous young models
was excited to be returning and joining us again for her 4th show,
wearing a new dress her mother made her, who was also in the show. Another
young girl would be doing her 2nd show with us, wearing a dress her
grandmother made her, who was also modeling, and then her older daughter was
pulled into the group too! One of my other regulars was sadly going to be out
of town and had wanted to be in it, and she generously offered her 1860s green
plaid ballgown to her friend to wear in the show. So our group was up to fourteen
models.
As the next two months moved on, I began writing everyone’s
descriptions as their information came in. I was still writing some of them the
week before the actual show, as that’s how these often run. Dress choices
change, sizes change, accessories change. And as I feared, our weather forecast
for that weekend was dire with extreme heat warnings. Each day it was saying it
would be 97d, then up to 101d, and on the weekend, THE Saturday we would be
there, it was now going to be between 103-104d. I wasn’t happy. The manager
fortunately worked with me and would coordinate with my finding a close parking
spot, hopefully a handicap space, and would help carry my things in. We would
also have to contend with the Farmer’s Market closing off part of the road that
day and would have to maneuver our way in. But it sounds like most of them
found decent parking spots not too far from our venue.
When I arrived on the day at 10am it was already 97d. But
I didn’t have very far to walk, and the manager was very helpful bringing my
things in. The room was all set up, with lots of chairs for the audience (I
think around 50) and chairs for the models. While the ladies who had to get
dressed were behind the curtain, some of us were putting last minute additions on
to our costumes there in the room when people started showing up at 10:30 to
get out of the heat and get a good seat. Oh well. I just started pulling up my
hoop and even got some questions about what I was wearing underneath my dress.
Even though that information would be part of the show, I humored them and
showed off my undies.
Finally it was time, the room was full, and thankfully
the a/c was handling it well. As I read each of the model’s descriptions, some
of them chose to walk the stage and some stepped off and walked down the middle
of the room, as we often do at some shows. I hadn’t given any direction of what
to do, so this was their choice. And I think it worked well. I was busy prior
getting everything together, so I didn’t have time to take any candid photos of
the ladies like I usually do, or even during the show. But two of my friends braved
the heat and came and took photos for us. So I’m grateful to Susan D. and
Lauren M. for sharing these photos they took. And we got some nice group shots
of us.
And also thankfully, we got some nice individual shots of
us too. These are in the order of their time periods.
We’d been considering cancelling our second show due to
it being the hottest part of the day but one of the Farmer’s Market vendors who
was there begged us to stay as the Market was winding down and more people
might come then. In fact she went back and started telling everyone there about
the show and the “carrot”, it has air conditioning. LOL! Some of our models
went out front and were also announcing it to people walking by. So as some
started showing up early again, we decided the show would go on. We only had
half a room this time, but everyone still enjoyed it. I opened it to questions
from the audience at the end and we got a couple, then some stayed after to ask
us more questions about our costumes.
Afterwards the manager came up to me and was so excited
about how well it went. And she started talking about “next time”. So it sounds
like we’ll be getting another invitation in the future.
In the meantime, I don’t have a lot to report on my own
costume sewing. I did start a new 1750s caraco and skirt. I started the skirt
first and got that done, and now that the fashion show is over, I will start on
the caraco. I’m planning on making a brown market bonnet to go with it.
My next two occasions to wear a costume are both related
to Halloween. On October 17, I’m going to a “Witches Tea” with friends and will
be wearing my Disney Haunted Mansion maid’s dress, and then on October 31 (on
Halloween) I’ll be in a fashion show at the Harvey Girls Museum in Perris with
our theme of Halloween & mourning, etc., for their fundraiser tea. On
arriving home, I’ll keep it on and wear it handing out candy to the kiddies. So
I guess that’s three times!
