73 Search Results for: costume college

Costume College, or How I learned to stop worrying and have a fabulous time: advice and reflections for first timers.

This July/August I got to go to Costume College in LA for the first time.  It was amazing, and  I had a fabulous time in every possible way. Now that I’ve been, I desperately want to go back, and can’t believe I didn’t manage to get there sooner! I also can’t believe how stressed I was about the thought of Costume College.  I’m a worrier, I fretted and built up huge obstacles in my mind, which prevented me from really attempting to go for years, and which also made the run-up to it much more emotionally fraught that it needed to be. I think a lot of the things I worried about with Costume College are pretty common among first timers, so I thought I’d address my biggest fears, and how they turned out to be not at all a problem, which will hopefully reassure some future attendees! Worry #1: I’m not good enough, and my work isn’t good enough. Like many people in the arts, I’m hyper-critical of my own work. I know every …

The Costume College Gala 2016

Oh my!  My first Costume College has come and gone, and with it, my first Costume College Gala.  Oh, the joy!  Oh, the frocks!  Everyone looked amazing.  The theme was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ I have a couple hundred photos of the night, but, with much hand-wringing, I managed to narrow it down to a few favourites. The Gala starts with a ‘Red Carpet’, and an announcer. Waiting for the red carpet is quite fun too: it’s a more relaxed time to see everyone’s frock, and to make delicious discoveries, like finding out that your entire group, quite without any planning, has shown up in coordinating pastel frocks (aren’t they delicious!): The red carpet is a chance to get photographed and complemented, and then you are shunted through to other end, where everyone else who has already walked is mingling and admiring and waiting for the Gala ballroom doors to open. There are more delicious discoveries, like finding out  that someone’s outfit is as amazing as your hair: (That’s Chris of The Laced Angel and …

A favourite Costume College moment (and a preview of my gala dress!)

There were SO MANY wonderful  moments at Costume College this year, and I’ll be blogging lots of them, but for now I just want to share a little one that really shows how fun and fabulous the event is. There is a tradition among many costumers of taking ‘shoe shots’: images of everyone standing in a circle, pointing their toes inwards and showing off their shoes.  I meant to take some, but forgot all weekend!  (I’ve definitely seen ones from other costumers from CoCo). Very late at night on Saturday, at the absolute end of the Gala, I ended up talking to Molly of Avant Garb (who started the night in a near-perfect* Kaylee dress recreation!) and Meg of Nutmeg Sews**  about how amazing  everyone’s outfit was and which 1,000 dresses were our favourites, etc etc.  It was late, and we’d danced and posed and generally looked gorgeous  all night, so, without really thinking about it, we all ended up taking off our shoes and standing there in our fancy gowns and historical stockings. The …