2023 COSTUME COLLEGE & THE COSTUME EXHIBIT

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. 

So that’s it for my own dress photos. Here are some I took of attendees that caught my eye. I know there were a lot more fabulous ones being taken in the photo studio, and in the Gala, but it was dark in there. Some of these are some amazing ones who came in the Exhibit to visit.

These couple are from the Gala. 

Yes, that's an elephant. 

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. 

The mosaic dress was made out of tiny pieces of colored tile. 

This was a miniature 1830s dress my friend, Elizabeth, made and I asked her send to me for the display on our entry table.

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? 

 

2023 Port Townsend Victorian Festival “Memories of the Seashore”

 

This year’s theme for the Port Townsend Victorian Festival in Washington, held on April 28-30, was “On the Tide”, relating to the seafaring history to the town. I waited this time to come up with a theme for the fashion show until they had decided on that. I chose “Memories of the Seashore”, and asked all the past models to come up with something that related to the sea, and in the time periods of 1830-1910. The organizers also put out a request to the local townsfolk for the same to be in the show, as we’re trying to have them more involved in the fashion show. The focus would be outfits pertaining to the sea and seaside, such as summertime, nautical, stripes, polka dots, picnics, and bathing suits. But I can usually work whatever they're wearing into a story for it.     

In January, once the themes were decided, some of us started making our hotel reservations there as we all have our favorite places to stay, and rooms fill up fast. Mine is The Swan Hotel, one of the historic buildings in town. It’s at the far end of Water St, which is the main street of downtown, and just across the street from the American Legion Hall where many of the festival events occur, including our fashion show. How convenient is that?  Its very cottage-y looking and is a nice cozy place to relax. There’s even an outside deck where we can enjoy the views of the harbor.

In the following months, I was working with our regular models and finding out what they wanted to make to wear, or pull from their wardrobe. I already had mine half done, when I started it a few years ago in 2020 to wear, but was delayed by you-know-what. My previous blog told all about its construction, and I actually finished it a few weeks before I was leaving so I could focus on writing the fashion show narratives. I reused a previously trimmed hat by removing just the red cherries, and adding hot pink flowers to tie it into my dress. 

I needed as much time as possible to write the narratives because it seemed like every day someone new was being added to the list. We had a cut off date of March 1 for adding models, and actually had to do it sooner because we were up to 26 of them! That’s almost double what I usually do! I knew we might lose a few later, which we did lose two in the last couple weeks. But it was still going to be a big show.

An interesting note; we had a young lady show up at the door shortly before the show, dressed in a black Edwardian outfit, asking if she could be in the show. Sadly, it was too late, but we did give her contact information for next year.

Other than the downtown and uptown walks and visits to historic homes in the area, there were a couple presentations put on at the American Legion Hall on Saturday. There were a couple on Sunday morning too. I stopped in to listen to “How Bees Arrived in America” (yes, it WAS interesting), and an update to the renovations one homeowner was doing to his Victorian house. I’m always fascinated by those, and remember my dreams of doing the same. Afterwards, while the room was being set up for the fashion show with the temporary walls on one side for our “backstage area”, I helped at the desk at the front door directing people where they could buy tickets or rent costumes across the street. Our models started arriving, and we gave some of them a couple last minute tips, and let the young girls do some practice walks down the room. Our show is on the main floor, not the stage, and chairs are set up along both sides of the room.  It’s a very long room, so there’s lots of space and time to walk. I think there was 105 attendees to the show. (Next photo by Peninsula Daily News)

Just before our show, there was a presentation on some antique dresses displayed up on the stage, along with a slideshow, by Tracy Wirta & Julie Cheetham.

While we all were waiting backstage for our turn in the fashion show, I took my usual candid photos of everyone, because sometimes we don’t get any of us. But this year there were a couple photographers in the Hall, including one from Peninsula Daily News, and we’re waiting for those to show up. 

Our final model in the show portrayed Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic, where he was advertising the latest and greatest unsinkable ship about to embark on its maiden voyage, and was offering a free ticket to a lucky winner in the audience. We had already picked someone ahead of time, so she played along with him.

After the show, most of the models did a promenade down Water Street, along with any of the attendees in their costumes too. It was a beautiful sunny day, about 67d, and was perfect for photos.

Save the date for next year! I’ve offered to do my two presentations then on Accessories: 1800-1850 & 1850-1900, and got an enthusiastic response to that. 

The next day 14 of us attended one of the afternoon teas at The Old Consulate Inn, a beautiful B&B up on the hill. We totally filled up their 1pm sitting.

While we waiting outside, we took the opportunity to take photos of each other in the beautifully landscaped gardens and on the porch. I wore my 1870s purple floral dress. 

The indoors was a delight too! Agnes even played the piano for us. 

The room we were served in was also so beautiful!  It felt very warm and inviting, and the food & tea served was delicious! 

Unfortunately, I forgot to pass my camera around, so only took some of the opposite side of our table.

I love that each year a couple of the historic homes host fundraising teas for the festival, but sadly we can only go to one of them each year. It always makes a special ending to my trip to Port Townsend, and yet another chance to wear our costumes to. 

*I'll write up a new blog post when more photos come in from our show and the festival.