Costume College 2019

Another great weekend event! So fun to spend time with old friends, and meet SO many new people – even if you’ve been following me for years – yay!

After all the online drama that occurred this past year regarding Costume College (specifically at the beginning of the calendar year) I was doubting my attendance. And I’ve been going pretty much every year since 2000! 

Yes – even the negative discussions were forcing ME to question why the event is my favorite of the year and pushing my thoughts to not want to be involved. Yikes!

Just being honest here. But I do LOVE our “CoCo” weekend. It has shaped my skills, inspiration, talent, friendships and business. My life, and service through my blog and online classes, would not be the same (or even in existence) without this fantastic, educational event.

Then the initial drama subsided and I pushed forward with my sewing – starting in March for those costumes to completed by July. And for the FIRST TIME EVER I had all sewing (and class prep) 100% finished before traveling to the hotel! What a feeling!

I got to spend time wondering the halls, sitting at the Info Desk helping attendees, shopping the Marketplace (all the silks, ribbons and hats!), dancing in the Friday Showcase and Saturday gala, tea with ghosts, and generally being with my favorite crowd. 

I took one limited-attendance class: Making & Weaving 1760s Fly Trim – which was perfectly fabulous despite my leaving and returning a few times due to other responsibilities. Christine Millar was helpful when we were confused or needed some extra help in class. 

I learned that this trim is absolutely do-able but takes MANY hours of practice to get the tension down for good looking gimp and fluffy flies. Go follow Christine on Instagram to see her drool-worthy embroidery ensembles and see more on her fly trim creations.

This year I taught two classes: Dressing the Silhouette: The Suffragette and All About Cotton. 

I learned from being back in the classroom this year that I utterly love to teach and share my knowledge, and that the Silhouette class is still a popular one and well-liked. It also brought to my attention that there’s entirely too much info to share on cotton in 75 minutes. (My apologies to those who attended but still felt something was missing.)

Thinking about what to teach next year and I may narrow down the cotton topic to either time period (e.g. Bustle Era), or a specific fabric or two and how that has been used in clothing since the 18th century. Still lots to think on this. 

And someone asked me to bring back my Sleeve Fitting class. We’ll see…

If you’ve followed me over the last year you might be familiar with the Butt Ugly Brigade. Our wonderful BUB group had 13 of us represent the group as a whole in the Friday Night Showcase. (Catch a view of our “performance” here.)

We had the ugliest and most awful collection of creative work – and it was awesome! Ha! This group happened with amazing support from the community of people wanting to be a part of of standing up to bullying in the costuming community and to honor ALL creative costuming. Much love to you all!

The costumes were brilliant this year! Oh my! The creativity and execution were really outstanding. Bravo to all who wore their creative work!

(But please don’t let that statement keep you from attending if you feel your costumes are not on the same level as what you see online. I wore modern clothes (and dirndls) for most of the days, along with so many other people. We don’t all dress up for the entire weekend, and some attendees don’t wear any costumes at all!)

It’s been quite the journey to see how costuming has changed over the last 10 to 20 years – and how attendees at Costume College have transformed with the community as a whole. 

The Thursday Pool Party, Friday Night Showcase, Saturday Gala, Sunday Breakfast and Afternoon Tea brought out the range of simple vintage, fancy hats, modern patterns made up beautifully, wedding gowns, mourning wear, historical ensembles, cosplay, film and painting re-creations, and full-blown 18th century Venetian. 

And don’t forget late 1870s Natural Form Era gowns with trains. 😉 Victorian was well represented – huzzah! 

Another great year of Costume College! The event is truly what you make of it – your planning, your expectations and desired outcome. (Please read Lauren’s fantastic post on attending and not having any costumes to wear.) See you next year!!