Another Costume College has come and gone! This year marked my 9th CoCo, but my 10 year anniversary! It’s hard to believe that I once had the courage to fly across the country by myself to meet up with a bunch of strangers, but I did, and that first trip (and subsequent trips) introduced me to some of my closest friends. It’s funny to think how much Costume College has changed in the past ten years. Its grown significantly, with so many people and amazing costumes both during the day and at the official evening events, that it can be very overwhelming to a quiet, shy person like myself, even after all these years.
We started the weekend out with a quick beach trip on Thursday. I love the water, so I take any excuse I can to visit it. We went to a new place this year, Leo Carrillo State Park, and it was an excellent choice! Like any beach in southern California, it was a bit crowed in places, but it had the most gorgeous rocky cliffs and seals! It was crazy windy though, so I spent the entire afternoon holding on to my hat for dear life.
Then it was back to the hotel for the official start to the weekend, the Pool Party! I rarely dress up for this, but I love seeing everyone’s creative takes on the theme! Thursday evening is always a bit of a blur, as you frantically try to say hi to everyone you haven’t seen in a year or more.
I was particularly bad about taking photos this year. This holds true for most events, but I find I enjoy just soaking up the atmosphere more than taking photos. Thankfully, lots of people I know are good at taking candid photos, as well as posed, so I don’t have to worry too much about it. Also, I only brought one new outfit for the weekend so I wasn’t worried about documenting everything I wore.
I didn’t take many classes this year. I was still so worn out from the Jane Austen Festival, that I didn’t have the energy to do much, but the classes I did take were so worth it! Both Trystan’s suffragette fashions overview, and Leimomi of
The Dreamstress's lecture on how WWI affected fashion were fascinating, and inspired me to explore more Teens fashions in future. I enjoyed "Finishing Your 18th C. Look" by Abby of
American Duchess; it confirmed a lot of things I had been noticing myself in portraiture, as well as things I felt were missing from my own costumes over the years. I’m excited to read more of their research on this topic in their upcoming book. Finally, I caught part of Cindy of
Redthreaded’s talk about how professionals organize their costume shops. Talk about inspiring! I immediately wanted to go home and redo my entire set up. Of course, I don’t have space for a giant workshop but I do have some new ideas to make my sewing room more efficient that I'm excted to try out.
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8/23/2017 6:32:23 PM by
Aubry | with
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