The Dreamstress

Latest Posts

Fawkes the Phoenix: a Hogwarts Halloween Costume

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday, with lots of the best parts of Halloween: creativity, community, an awesome Halloween Costume, a little bit of candy, and tons of fun.

I’ve never grown out of my love of Halloween, but it’s only recently become a ‘thing’ in New Zealand, Usually there aren’t many cool events to go to – especially as an adult.

This year Zara of Off-grid Chic alerted me to a Haunted Hogwarts party. Exciting! We decided to be the weird fully-grown women who went along without any kids, in full Halloween costume.

Super last minute Halloween costumes! We’re both incredibly busy!

I went closet-diving, and found: the dress I made as my end-of-semester project my first year in Uni; a silk blouse with scalloped edges by NZ designer Blak; my red sequinned Dorothy shoes; and a mask, originally made as a tui by the Comtesse de Chambourd, and re-made by me as a Labyrinth Firey when the paint started flaking off, and bunch of wrist, ankle & neck pieces I’d made for said Firey costume (which never got worn – long story).

With the removal of the more Firey characteristics, and the addition of red feathers, the mask was ready to go. I went out and spent $4 on a red feather boa (never thought I’d see the day when I bought a chicken feather boa!) and some Christmas tinsel for a tail.

The dress just fits, the blouse became wings with the addition of a brooch to hold them on, and the Firey neckpiece became a girdle.

Instant Fawkes Halloween costume!

We discovered that we could make my tinsel tale light on ‘fire’ with a little help from the sun coming through the cat door:

Zara went as Aragog’s babies and looked fabulous. I’m going to let her show off her Halloween costume on her own blog.

We had pizza for dinner, and took photographs in the parking lot behind the pizza place while we waiting for it to cook (so glamorous).

It was a glorious day, so we went and sat on the beach and ate pizza in our full Halloween costumes. All the late-afternoon dog-walkers and sun bathers were equally confused and amused!

I’m afraid we scared at least two dogs, who weren’t quite sure what we were. 🙁

Then off to the event, which was AMAZING! I didn’t take a lot of photographs I can share (no pictures with other people’s children online!), but here is one Luna I got permission from:

And a little bit of the decorations, which were phenomenal:

I am NOT exaggerating when I say phenomenal. There were piles of teacups with actual wet tea leaves in Trelawney’s corner, and a phrenology head. There was a winding forbidden forest corridor, and Dementors swooping down from the ceiling. There were floating candles. Dolores Umbridge had an office with actual moving kitten plates. Yep, they went to the level of filming kittens in whiteboxes specifically for the event!.

There were lots of people in Harry Potter-themed Halloween costumes. There were a couple of Trelawneys, half a dozen Dobbies, a Rita Skeeter, and a Beaubaxton girl. Plus lots of Harrys and Lunas, and tons and tons of standard Hogwarts uniforms. People loved Zara’s costume (hugely because her spiders were not scary – very helpful for the little-ys). My costume absolutely delighted the Potterphiles. I had more than one person look at my slightly puzzled for a moment, figure it out, and then squeal: ‘You’re Fawkes!’

Halloween costume success!

Not everyone got it though. Some people asked, and I had more than one person respond to ‘I’m Fawkes’ with ‘You don’t really look like a fox?’

Nope, not that kind of fox!

Rate the Dress: 18th century Wild Man costume

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s Rate the Dress was a natural-form day dress in palest blue and silvery ecru. To no-ones surprise ever, the rosette bows festooning the lower front bodice of the dress were not popular. You deemed the rest of the dress both boring and fussy. It didn’t score a single 10/10 rating. The ratings, like the dress trim, mainly slid to the bottom of the rating heap. Overall ‘Whirlpool: The Dress’, as Rachel dubbed it, managed a paltry 6.6 out of 10.

Moving on: it’s time to look at a historical fancy dress for our annual Halloween Rate the Dress!

Before there was Tarzan, there was Hercules, Bacchus, and Wild Men: all costumes involving animal skins, and greenery. Variations on the theme date back to the ancient Greeks & Romans, (and possibly earlier). Wild Man costumes were popular throughout the Middle Ages. In the 18th century the wild man idea became linked to a romanticisation of nature and untouched society. Thanks to the Swedish monarchy’s fantastic habit of keeping their clothing, we have an extant 18th century Wild Man costume to rate. This outfit was worn by Karl XIII of Sweden as a prince.

Wild man costume worn by Karl XIII of Sweden, 1778, Collection Livrust Chamber, inventory number 29290 (17: 162), emuseumplus.ish.se

This wild man costumes features an with ivory silk jacket-bodice (presumably to create the impression of a bare chest) joined to a draped ‘skirt’ painted in leopard spots and faced in vivid red silk. The look is finished off with a bear skin (complete with claws!) and garlands of oak or grape leaves. It’s a considerably safer costume (literally) than the straw-and-tar Wild Man costumes of the 14th century Bal des Ardents.

Both grape leaves and leopard (or cheetah) skins were associated with Bacchus. However, the bear skin suggests a more generic wild-man look. The outfit might have been for a masquerade, or an amateur theatrical or dance performance.

Both entertainments were immensely popular amongst the upper classes in the 18th century, and the decadent Swedish Royal Court of the 1770s was no exception. Karl’s sister Sophie Albertine is shown with a masquerade mask in one of her portraits. Karl himself was known for being a rather good dancer. His stocking clad legs would be nicely displayed under the draped skirt of this costume (which may or may not have been worn with breeches underneath).

What do you think? Would this wild man costume have stood out? Would have been a striking figure at a masked ball, or in an theatrical performance?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

SaveSave

1910s Tricorne Revival Hat thedreamstress.com

A 1900s-1910s tricorne revival hat

Published by The Dreamstress

The Research:

About this time last year I became slightly obsessed (as I do) with the early 20th century bicorne and tricorn hat revival:

Woman in a tricorn hat, ca 1907 (probably a fashion model)

The tricorne revival was part of the overall 18th century revival that happened at the end of the 19th century, and flowed into an Empire revival in the late 1900s and early 1910s.

The Deliniator, 1916

Circa 1900 hat (back view) | Black fine straw. Bicorne style, via Ruby Lane

Hearst’s – Nov 1915

Page 12 Advertisements Column 5 EVENING STAR, 14 APRIL 1917, via PapersPast

Tricorne, 1912, French, straw, Metropolitan Museum of Art , C.I.65.22.12

(more examples are on my pinterest page for the topic)

What’s not to love about it? It’s 18th century meets my favourite timeperiod, it’s wacky and quirky and a little bit pirate-y!

There are mentions of tricorne & bicorne hats being fashionable as early as 1897, and the tricorne revival lasted until the mid 1920s. Within the period there are definite changes – early tricorne revival hats, are generally very large, like turned-up picture hats, and are overflowing with feathers and flowers. As the 1900s progress, the hats become smaller and more streamlined. Mid-1910s examples are often quite severe, with only one upstanding feather tuft, or a sculptural bit of ribbon. Asymmetry is another major trend in mid-teens examples. Bits of the brim cut away, or one corner of the tricorne made much bigger. Late teens and early 20s examples are very small, and have floral or other trim that covers the upturned brim.

Bicorne and tricorne revival hats were often made in black plush or velvet, but also came in straw of every shade, and fabric. Velvet, plush, and dark fabrics were appropriate for winter wear, straw for summer, dark straw and heavier fabrics for spring and autumn.

From enormous picture-tricornes laden with roses, to little ’20s numbers spotted with flowers, I like all the examples of the tricorne revival!

The Make:

With tricornes and bicornes on my mind, I went looking for something for a trial of the look, and found an enormous, terrible, 1990s black straw hat at an op shop:

With some help from Felicity, I removed the trim, re-blocked the crown slightly, and sewed the hat into a tricorne shape:

Then I rummaged in my feather stash (look at that face – she desperately wants to destroy them all, and she’s also terrified at the thought of the bird that could produce them!):

I settled on a big poof of black feathers on one side as my trim. The hat got worn that way for a fantail skirt photoshoot in December:

It was fun, but not perfect, even as a simple trial of the look, it just wasn’t finished enough.

So, in a spare moment over winter, I bound the edges of the hat in a rayon satin ribbon I bought at Costume College. Then, to hold the feathers in place, I made a rosette of the same ribbon, joined to be wider.

The Result:

The hat got its first proper wearing when I photographed my 1915 ‘Waiting for Bluebell’s’ dress. I’m still trying to figure out how to make it sit properly on a mid-1910s hairstyle. It’s fine on early 1900s-1910s ones, but in late teens it ends up perched on the side of my head.

I’m definitely not done with my experiments with tricorne revival hats. I want a rose-laden number, and a plush one for winter wear, and a 1920s one….

And, even though this wasn’t meant for that, now that I have a tricorne hat, it’s high time I did something pirate-y!