Feature. Victorian Secret with introduction by Rae Bradbury-Enslin

Transcription

1 Feature Victorian Secret with introduction by Rae Bradbury-Enslin A team of talented costumers puts on a Victoria's Secret fashion show, reimagined for the Victorian era wings and all!. Victorian Secret is one of those ideas that I had a while back that just sort of evolved into a full blown concept. We had a costume party for my birthday several years ago. I wore the undergarments from a period costume I had made and called myself a Victorian Secret model. A few years later at a regional convention, I got a couple of friends together and we did it as a presentation. At the time, only one of us had made our own corset, so we just entered it Out of Competition to get some more bodies onstage and fill out the roster. (The funny thing was that we still got a Judges Choice award, prompting a friend to look at me disgustedly and say, Next year, I want to see you win something without actually BEING here! ) The original presentation took place before I had ever actually seen a real Victoria s Secret fashion show. I had no idea about the beautiful wings, the costumes, or the gorgeous theatrical elements that make Copyright 2010 Silicon Web Costumers' Guild A few of us started discussing the idea, and several more costumers were invited in. One was from the original presentation years earlier, and she was delighted with the idea of really doing it up right this time around. I don t remember who came up with the idea of theming each costume, but once we all had period appropriate themes, we were off and running. Our Victorian Secret Fashion Show is set in 1898, and our entry takes a similar approach to costuming over undergarments of the time. Each one imagined what a designer with a 19th century aesthetic might have created to bring our themes to life. Artistic license was taken with undergarment colors. Victorian Secret cast: Reagan McHugh, Lisa Ashton, Gypsy Ames, Rae Bradbury-Enslin, William Kennedy, Karen Schnaubelt, Leslie Johnston, Gaia Eirich, and Abigail Weiner. Photo: Ken Warren. the show what it is. We just paraded around in our undies and had a good time, to the appreciative hoots of the audience. Years later, I actually started watching the fashion show regularly, and it finally occurred to me that it would probably make a pretty spectacular historical entry if I got enough people together. -12ISSN

2 In many cases we opted to use modern materials to emulate period items. Our goal was to create fantasy imagery with a Victorian air, rather than specially adhering to historical methods. We decided to make our documentation for the Costume-Con 33 historical masquerade look like a catalog from the Victorian era, and we opted to simply outline our concepts without going into a lot of construction detail, to keep it a manageable length. The Victoria s Secret Fashion Show has evolved from a simple lingerie fashion walk to a glittering, musical extravaganza punctuated by spectacular costume elements, wings, headdresses and props. Instead of photos, Gypsy Ames and my husband Robert Quill created the design drawings you'll see that we put into the catalog, and we each had a page that showed our inspiration theme. We left the final costumes as a surprise to be seen first at prejudging and then later on stage. I ve never been a fan of doing group presentations where I had to micromanage. Our group had a wonderful pool of talent, and none of them needed any help from me to design their costumes. We were from many different regions, so only a few were able to actually get together to work. Most of us worked independently, and we kept tabs on progress via a Facebook group where we could post photos and check in with each other. Our Victorian Secret Fashion Show illustrates what it might have been like if the show were set a little over a century ago during the Victorian era, using themes that the designers of the times might have chosen. Our first rehearsal was Friday night at the convention, and we managed a few more here and there until everyone had had a chance to learn their part. Fortunately, as a fashion show, a lot -13- Designers on the modern show routinely make use of fashions from the past. We set our parameters to undergarments during the Victorian era ( ). of intense rehearsal wasn t necessary. As long as everyone knew their running order and what to do onstage, we were good to go. In the same spirit, I'll leave it to each member of the group to describe their costume and its theme, and talk about any aspects of the construction and the wings. Our Costume-Con 33 historical masquerade presentation started with John Philip Sousa conducting the music for the show, so William Kennedy, who played the role, leads us off. Maestro!

3 John Phillip Sousa favored Navy style uniform jackets covered with elaborate Soutache. Sadly during this particular period of time, there were no major military events, thus finding a pattern was difficult. Luckily, I was able to find a modern pattern and by using images of his style of jacket from the U.S. Military archives, I was able to replicate a pattern. Mr. Sousa had several elaborate jackets with a wide variety of Soutache with thick embroidery seen on his collar, cuffs and hat. John Philip Sousa William Kennedy About a year before this presentation came together, we had just finished a CostumeCon presentation in Denver when my friends Reagan McHugh, Rae Bradbury-Enslin and I where discussing the potential for the Victorian Secret presentation and suddenly Reagan in a grand manner announced that I resembled John Phillip Sousa and, well, the rest is history. It was a thrill to bring such a historic figure in history to life in a way that was not only historically accurate, but also fun and entertaining to the audience. The Victoria Secret fashion show is known for its glamor, glitz and its use of popular music artists of the time. For our presentation of Victorian Secret, we needed to identify the "rock star" of the time and who is better than March King John Philip Sousa. Mr. Sousa was revered across the country and is known for such hits as Stars and Stripes Forever, as well as his service in the Marines and the Naval Core Bands. As seen in the photo at left, my design matches this particular jacket. However, there are no details or photographs of the back of the jacket. I extrapolated a design based on existing information and came up with a stylized eagle for the back. To begin, the jacket was made out of a medium weight red wool. By having the original photos enlarged and printed, I was able to replicate the soutache patterns on the sleeves and jacket front. (above right) Jacket William Kennedy used as a pattern for soutache braid The technique for soutache requires creating a pattern fit to the fabric drawn on removable tissue paper. For this costume I hand stitched over (Brace yourself!) 24 yards of soutache. Soutache applied over removable tissue with actual pattern from Sousa photo enlarged to full size. Cuffs, hat band and collar (next page) were completed with machine embroidery. Although the main jacket was constructed with machine stitching, it should be noted that based on the jacket's structure, the majority of the jacket's assembly (ie: cuffs, collar, jacket lining) was completed by hand. The pants are based on 1800's Navy issue uniform pants. The shirt is based on an 1888 men dress shirt pattern with high collar.

4 Hat band (above) and cuffs (below) with machine embroidery. Jacket front showing hand-stitched lining. Finished Sousa costume. Photo: Ken Warren. Jacket back showing design adapted for coat. -15-

5 Angel of the Placards Leslie Johnston The Angel of the Placards was conceptualized as a framing mechanism for the Victorian Secret presentation. There is a recognized trope in vaudeville and variety shows of the late 19th and early 20th century where different acts were introduced with an explanatory placard or title card located at the side of the stage on an easel. This trope is also well-known from silent films of the same period. Given the structure of the presentation as a fashion show which required an explanation of each costume, adding a character to turn the title cards, or placards, made sense. laced corsets and fully exposed legs, I chose to interpret the style of stage costume most often worn by singers in the 1880s, with bared shoulders, knee length skirt, and visible petticoat and bloomers. I was able to find an extensive set of reference images from period theatrical posters and photographs. These costumes were quite colorful, so I selected a deep teal, purple and metallic gold plaid taffeta, accented by black to improve readability from stage. The plaid was lined up on the bias at every seam. The complete outfit includes an off-the-shoulder bodice with reinforcing steel boning and hook and eye closures, trimmed in teal braid, teal and purple fabric flowers and ribbons and black velvet trim; a full knee length skirt with button closure and trimmed in velvet ribbon; a black 1870s-1880s style satin coutil corset with The costume is inspired by the singers, dancers, and show girls from the Music Halls and Vaudeville theaters of the mid to late 1800s in Europe and the United States. This is a genre of variety entertainment, where a performance was made up of a series of individual acts on a common bill. Acts included musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, acrobats and jugglers, and extracts from plays. While costumes were often daring and risqué with very tight Angel of the Placards, based on Music Hall singer's costume of the 1880s. Photo: Ken Warren. -16-

6 steel bones and drawstring top, trimmed with venise lace; black lace trimmed cotton drawstring bloomers; a black lace trimmed cotton drawstring petticoat, and a small headpiece of fabric flowers, ostrich and peacock plumes. The ensemble is completed with period accurate reproduction buttoned boots made by American Duchess. I made a decision not to build wings for this costume as it was not part of the Angel fashion show; after the fact I created a small pair of black cocque feather wings for wearing as a hall costume. Split crotch bloomers. All seams fully turned and flat felled. Ribbon flowers, ribbon, braid, and lace on bodice front. All petticoat seams reinforced with braided trim for Drawstring on bloomers, made of eyelet trim with velvet ribbon. extra stiffness. The skirt closed with hook tape and buttons. -17-

7 The Starry Night Gypsy Ames I was invited to join the Victorian Secret group about a year before our presentation at Costume-Con 33. It seemed like a very interesting and fun project, plus the other participants were wonderful designers, so I jumped right in with enthusiasm. My Victorian Secret piece was based on the 1889 painting titled The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. (below) I had seen the original artwork in New York, and the powerful imagery of this particular painting remained in my mind s eye for decades, and served as the inspiration for my presentation. Vincent van Gogh: A Starry Night inspired this angel. My goal was to interpret the painting into a design that captured the feel of the canvas in a costume that fit within the framework of our joint theme of the Victorian Secret Fashion show and Victorian under-garments. I concentrated on three compositional features of The Starry Night to create the design: the amorphous vertical green mass on the left side of the painting, the landscape scene at the bottom and the glorious night sky. The wings, which portray the signature nighttime sky in the Starry Night, were by far the most challenging and difficult part of the costume to create. They are the central feature of the design. The night sky on the wings begins with one wing tip representing the left side of the painting, then the design carrying through across the body with the other wing tip representing the other side of the painting. Bags of silk voile snipped into bits to make feathers Wing framework of 9 gauge wire with additional struts. Upper edge of wing framework padded with foam. My method for realizing the sky was to use a painterly approach with the feathers to re-create the bold paintbrush strokes on the canvas with layers of colors and textures on the wing structure. There are ten colors of silk voile snipped into bits to make the feathers. (left) The wings started out with a skeletal structure made of 9 gauge galvanized wire bent into a framework with added struts of a lighter gauge wrapped around the main frame and bonded with metal epoxy for strength, and the upper edge was padded. (above) The wing is covered in a tie dyed cotton cloth slip cover in the finished shape.

8 Support for the wings comes from a thermoplastic back piece molded to my back. (below) Douglas and Sturgess was my source for the 1/8 solid Protoplast. color be consistent with a natural direction of feathers. (below) One trick that helped me with the feather distribution was making a rough cartoon on paper, roughly tracing the design on tulle, then drawing right through the tulle with a disappearing marker onto the cotton base. Perhaps the most daunting part of this phase of construction was when I finally finished one wing face and then it sank in that I had to do three more. Moulded Thermolplastic back piece for wings. After dying it blue, metal rods just large enough to accommodate each strut on the wings were wired and glued to the back piece, and shoulder straps riveted on. Extra twill tape with Velcro straps across the wing bars and under the flap holds them together to ensure they don t fall out. The back section is finished with wool felt for comfort, a flap that velcros down to cover the strut support, and more feathers. The combination of straps and molded back are enough to keep the wings in place with no other attachments. (right) Seven yards of silk voile, cut into bias strips and then snipped into little pieces created the feathers. These were glued on to the Back piece painted, with straps and wool felt added. The Starry Night, inspired by the Vincent van Gogh painting. Photo: Ken Warren. This was my first ever group entry for CostumeCon. Building costumes is always a satisfying endeavor, but the experience of sharing ideas and mutual support with my fellow designers on this project really made this project extra special for me. cotton base with a mix of SOBO and water. The gluing process was particularly challenging because I wanted to capture the flow and exuberance of Van Gogh s painting style with textiles, yet I had to make this flow of Gluing silk voile "feathers" onto cotton base. -19-

9 Flights of Fantasy Lisa Ashton My costume for the Victorian Secret group was the only one that had a contemporary inspiration rather than a Victorian-era motif. It's rather ironic, given that I am known to be completely infatuated with Victorian clothing and preside over Miss Lizzy's Traveling Historical Fashion Show, a non-profit SIG attached to the ICG. Maybe that's what made it so much fun to build and wear! It was also a design decision to make pale pink chemise and drawers, since everyone knows I avoid pink. (It turned out that everyone made different color drawers, which it made it more visually interesting than all white ones.) It's more of a challenge for me if it's a color I dislike and anyway, I like pink now! My costume was inspired by a real Victoria's Secret outfit that had feathered wings in blue ostrich feathers, with curlicues and ribbon bows that translated beautifully to my Victorian design. (left) My wings are modeled after them. I started with the Laughing Moon Silverado corset (left), a mainstay for Victorian costumers, and tweaked it to fit me better (i.e. 2 medium bust gores on each side). I made the bust gores with a layer of pale lavender lace, and then attached lace motifs over them as well. The corset is really durable--the outside layer is a satin jacquard, there is an interlining, and waist tape, and the lining is heavy coutil. Pale pink trim. It can be laced quite firmly and yet is very comfortable. The Fantasy Bra is an annual Victoria s Secret tradition. They are always decorated with diamonds and precious gems. Victorian designs wouldn t have included a bra, so my design was, of course, a Fantasy Corset that was totally covered with Swarovski crystals. I laid down a sort of paisley design with 2mm and 3mm violet crystals, they worked with 1mm silver-backed clear crystals. Did I mention that each crystal was placed individually? -20- The crystals are attached in sections, working with E6000 clear glue using a syringe with a very tiny tip. I think I averaged about 1 square inch per day, and I worked on it almost daily for 1-2 hours for many months. The E6000 stays flexible even when dry. I know someone who does this crystal embellishment for a living (!) and she showed me the basic technique. I used a very pointy chopstick with a small bit of Sculpey molded on the end to be slightly tacky and pick up each individual crystal and then place it on the wet glue. It got tedious quickly, but it was VERY sparkly, I bought the Swarovski crystals in the Czech Republic in bulk a pound of them at least and didn't use close to all of them. My initial concept was to have the wing staffs slide right into the back of the corset on both sides so there would not be any bulky harness. I was warned that they would be too heavy for that, but I worked on it anyway. Meanwhile I made the chemise and drawers. They have some machine embroidery in pink, and layers of silver-gray lace, interspersed with tulle scalloped with little flowers. I wanted them to be very feminine.

10 making yarn rugs. I sewed a double layer of these in place with utility thread on the shaft end of the wings. It sounds super-simple, and it is!!! The flat backs slid right into the corset back, and once the corset was laced firmly, they didn't move, and were light and comfortable!! Even though feathers were glued on to the front and back, the wings did not move significantly, nor did I have to hold them all the time, they just looked natural. Heavy gauge wire, was bent to shape, and covered with stuffed silver lame fabric tubes.. Photo: Ken Warren. A wig from Lacey, and a small feathered hat, and shoes I got Victorian looking white short lace-up boots from a flea market, new in the box, for $10. The shoes were also completely covered in Swarovski crystals. I only need a little help to place the wings The wings are built on heavy (9 gauge) wire bent to the shape I wanted, then covered with silver lame fabric tubes that were stuffed to make the wing structure. I hot-glued a double layer of heavy tulle into these, to become the matrix for holding the feathers. There are square pieces of that heavy plastic mesh stuff that craft stores have for Flights of Fantasy, inspired by a Victoria's Secret costume. Photo: Ken Warren. inside the corset back and then finish lacing it up. I can dress myself otherwise. The wings are light enough to be worn for hours because they are balanced well. Boots from flea market embellished with Swarovski crystals. -21-

11 Easter in St. Petersburg Gaia Eirich I was invited into the Victorian Secret presentation the previous year and was absolutely thrilled to be included in such an amazing group of costumers. I loved the opportunity to learn from everyone else, who I consider to be very high level and high quality costumers. Everyone chose a different theme or item from the Victorian era. I decided to pick an item so we would have a nice mix of concepts and specific pieces. I chose the Memory of Azov, a Faberge Egg, to recreate because of the color (to work well with the rest of the set) and time period that it was created in (1891). I decided to build the egg itself into my corset (the shell of the costume) and the surprise in the egg, a miniature ship, went on my hat. The wings were smaller than some Memory of Azov, created by jeweler Peter Carl Faberge in 1891 as Easter gift from Tsar Alexander III of Russia to his wife, Czarina Maria Feodorovna. of the others because I had the hat to compliment the costume. The chemise and bloomers were made in a soft green. The real focus of this costume was the hat, corset, and wings. I used EVA foam and craft foam for most of the details on this costume. I wanted to recreate the rococo scrolls on the outside of the egg on my corset and wings. These needed to look as much like metal as possible and I wanted nothing to be flat or painted on. I even pondered 3-D printing and recasting the items to get them to be as accurate as possible (this idea was discarded due to cost). I have never worked with EVA foam before this, so it was a learning experience as I went along. Car space was at a premium for this convention, so everything comes apart in pieces for easier travel. For the scrollwork, I took images of the egg and blew them up and printed them, then used the printed image to create the basic shapes for each scroll piece. I took thinly cut strips and wedges of foam and glued them with rubber cement on top of each base to create the divits, dips, and swirls that the scrolls had. I sanded down all the rough edges and cut lines with a Dremel, then hit them with my heat gun to smooth the roughness out and seal the foam. I m still finding grey dust everywhere! For the few pieces with an extra ruffle on the -22- outside curve, I used a single layer of craft foam that I then heated with my heat gun and stretched gently in stages to give it the right look. A coat of primer, several coats of gold spray paint, and some large rhinestones to give the look of the diamonds set into the gold work completed each piece. The wings are wire frame (12 gauge) and dark green velvet because the egg was lined in dark green velvet. The velvet was sewn into a pocket, and raw edge was left at the top of the wing and encased in two pieces of matching scroll work glued back-to-back so it looked the same from the front and back. I left extra wire after forming my wing frame and hand sewed the wire (twisted together) down to a rectangle of plastic mesh (double layer) one piece for each wing. I glued some scrap fabric on top of the wire/mesh with rubber cement for extra stability. The right and left wings stack on top of each other and slide into a pocket made from the corset fashion fabric. That was then shoved down the back of my corset. The wings are very light and did not tip out, come apart, or do anything but bounce amusingly. There are no straps, and the tightness of the corset held the wings where they needed to be. The whole thing comes apart in two main pieces so I can stack the wings for travel to take up less room.

12 Wire-frame wings covered in green velvet, with matching scroll work. Mesh squares slide into pockets on corset. For the corset, there are hooks glued to the back of each scroll piece and bars sewn to the corset, so the pieces come off for travel and storage. The choker is more foam worked to look like the clasp and middle band on the egg. For the hat I created a miniature, simplified version of the Imperial Russian Navy cruiser Pamiat Azova (which is what is in the egg). from EVA foam, craft foam, plastic straws, and gold cord. I carefully picked a historical hat pattern with a large brim so I could make the ship large enough to be noticeable. The ship rested on a piece of aquamarine with a gold bottom, so the top part of my hat is in a shiny pale blue/greenish material and the bottom brim is gold lame. The ship is removable with some snaps glued to the bottom of it for easier transportation. This was my first ever CostumeCon historical costume and first ever Costume-Con group presentation. I had an amazing time working with everyone and I loved all the support and suggestions we could give each other over the course of this project. Easter in St. Petersburg, inspired by a Russian Faberge egg. Photo: Ken Warren. Above: Detail of scroll work of carved foam on wing edges. Right: Finished and bare scrollwork for bodice. -23-

13 Evening on the Nile Rae Bradbury-Enslin My outfit was based on the Victorian love of all things Egyptian. People of the time watched the newspapers daily for news of the treasures being discovered in Egypt by archeologists. Fashion, advertising, jewelry and cosmetics took inspiration from Egyptian artifacts. My costume was a variety of small details that made up the whole. Undergarments were made of black cotton, but I reworked the neckline slightly to make a Vshape, more in keeping with ancient Egyptian garments. I used trims that had the proper Egyptian look, rather than Victorian lace. Instead of a long chemise, I added a wrap skirt to mimic skirt designs from Egyptian drawings. To make my corset, I designed an embroidery pattern based on the scale pattern that is sometimes seen on clothing in hieroglyphs. I embroidered this pattern onto my fabric and then cut the panel pieces from that. Each scale had a tiny scarab bead attached in the center. I wore a series of period-looking necklaces, one atop the next, to represent an Egyptian-style collar necklace. I finished this off with a Victorian brass cameo of Cleopatra that I was lucky enough to find. Anywhere I could manage it, I used a piece of reproduction VictorianEgyptian era jewelry as trim or as an accent. I even had tiny ankhs hanging from my shoelaces. (right) I didn t do the same type of elaborate wings that some of our group did. I decided to achieve a more Egyptian look by emulating Isis wings that were hand held, rather than a suspended wing structure on my back. These were made from gold on gold striped fabric with appliquéd feathers in the colors from my costume. My favorite part of my costume was the tiara. It was based on a queen s vulture headdress, and was additionally inspired by a photo of American heiress Lady Paget as Cleopatra in 1897 (right). I loved the idea of a sparkly tiara based on an ancient headdress, and I couldn t resist making one. I don t have metalworking skills, so used a base of Worbla (far right), then covered it in gold fabric. I used a tiny peacock Christmas ornament to make the bird head on the front. Then I covered the entire thing in rhinestones for extreme sparkle Hand-embellished shoes had ankhs hanging from the shoelaces. Worbla base was starting point for queen's vulture headdress. Bird head on the front was made from a peacock Christmas ornament..

14 Completed headdress painted gold with many jewels. Evening on the Nile, inspired by photo of Lady Paget as Cleopatra in Photo: Ken Warren. For me, the idea of that ridiculous, overwrought, rhinestoned vulture tiara, perched high atop a Gibson hairdo is what most epitomized the entire Victorian Secret concept: a historical theme as imagined by a designer of another time, imposing their own esthetic, to create a lovely, but also somewhat comical result. In my case, Egyptian clothing as imagined by someone in the Victorian era, complete with current hairstyle and fashions. I think that s what made this whole project interesting for me. I had to ask myself what a Victorian era lady would think was beautiful about Egyptian fashion, and how she would portray it, while still keeping within the fashion of her own time period Embroidered Horus pectoral on front of corset.

15 Bloom of Illumination Reagan McHugh My costume is inspired by the glasswork of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany was already a well-established creator of beautiful jewelry by the 1880 s. First known for his stained glass windows, Louis Comfort Tiffany remains unsurpassed by any other decorative artist of the Victorian period. No other artist of the times created light fixtures that were greeted with the same public adulation that and would also come to symbolize the Gilded Age. The majority of the lamp bases were constructed of bronze and sculpted to emulate the natural vines that supported the flowers and habitats of the dragonflies and other elements. I used a combination of bronze crushed taffeta and bronze beadwork to emulate the look of the base on my costume. I also built an 1887 short hoop bustle to hold another set of hand-painted panels. Tiffany created lamps as a natural outcropping of the interior design department of the Tiffany Company. He began designing and creating floor and table lamps that were lighted with the new electric bulbs that were made commercially viable by Thomas Edison in I chose the Trumpet Creeper shade of all the lamp styles Tiffany designed for my parasol and bustle because of its color and variant of the highly popular Wisteria design. (right) The Trumpet lamp was renowned for its larger glass pieces, which I felt would be more visible on stage. Louis Comfort Tiffany lamp. Bloom of Illumination, inspired by Louis Comfort Tiffany Trumpet Creeper lamp. Photos: Ken Warren. -26-

16 Language of Flowers Karen Schnaubelt Rae initially invited to be in the group in I really loved the concept. It reminded me of the Girls of the Policeman s Gazette number from the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland. I had not competed in nine years due to life events, and really wanted to get back on the horse and participate. Unfortunately, I was extremely busy with my job, and was not sure I would be attending Costume-Con 33. I did not want to promise to make a costume I could not eventually deliver, and also couldn t come up with what sort of theme I wanted to do, so I dropped out of the group after a few months. Then, in May of 2014, on my way home from Balticon, I stopped at a large JoAnn Fabric store in Frederick, MD. They were having a sale on 6 foot floral garlands, including white and lavender wisteria. All of a sudden, a design idea popped into my head with the wisteria on a bustle, and instead of wings, I would have some kind of trellis mounted on my back. I could have a Victorian Language of Flowers theme! I ed Rae the moment I got home to ask if I could drop back into the group, and explained my idea. She said she wanted me back, but that other people had now decided their themes, and Reagan was basing her costume on a wisteria-themed Tiffany lamp. We talked it through as a group, and decided that, since Reagan and I had very different color schemes and construction techniques, my use of wisteria would probably not be an issue. My costume was a combination of stash and newly purchased fabric. The chemise, bloomers, and corset were new fabric while the bustle was from green edgeembroidered fabric (probably a tablecloth) that had come out of a thrift store. I piled everything on my living room floor with my pearls, jewelry, and flower garlands, and rapidly realized that the hot pink I was going to use as an accent color All costume components laid out to see if they work together (cone thread is the hot with the original pastel I am not a pink I decided not to use, as it clashed) color mix was not pastel, lace, and working with the new ruffles kind of person, but I colors. I went with lavender as my intended to push myself to do a more secondary color and a vibrant spring green girly costume than usual: a pastel as my accent color. I ended up not doing color scheme, floral-based jewelry, bows or pink at all (which was probably just and a lot of pearls. I was as well, as Lisa Ashton had chosen a pink immediately foiled by my color scheme with bows all over). footwear. I specifically wanted strappy white Victorian bordello boots. The exact boot style was available online, but only in very strong colors: black, red, and purple. Purple was the only color with any possibility of harmonizing with my existing color scheme, but it meant using purple in other places on the costume to make it cohesive. I decided to make my corset out of purple velvet to match the boots. Bye-bye all pastel color scheme! -27- Fortunately, I had stock patterns that I had made before for almost all the garments. I made significant alterations to the chemise pattern, as I had used it last in 1995 and had gained weight since then. I made the bustle pattern by measuring an existing purchased bustle and transferring them to an old sheet with felt marker. When I cut the pieces out of the re-purposed tablecloth, I made sure to use the edge

17 embroidery to best advantage: as a ruffle around the bottom of the bustle, and on the two flaps that wrap around the hips. I pintucked the hell out of the chemise and bloomers, and applied several layers of lace to the edges. (below) The effect was not as fluffy and girly as I wanted, but definitely a sufficient level of obsessive detail. Pintucking and lace on the bloomers. The toughest piece was the trellis that would take up the space that wings occupy on the other costumes. I looked at buying a real trellis, but they were either too small or too large. Rae suggested a hula hoop, and we found one online that conveniently disassembled into multiple pieces for travel. I also had no idea how to attach the trellis to me, and whether it would stay upright. Luckily, the open ends of the hula hoop fit snugly into plastic brackets for house flags that I found in my junk room. Each bracket had four screw holes, so I chalk marked the positions onto the hips of my corset and added grommets so the brackets could be laced on and unlaced for packing and travel. The whole rig had a frightening amount of sway in initial tests, and I thought that I would need to use clear monofilament to tether the top of the hoop to my shoulders, or keep a hand on the hoop at all times to stabilize it. Fortunately, once the brackets were attached using paracord instead of shoelaces, and the corset was snugly laced onto me, the hoop was rock steady, and I could have my hands free! Whew! I sprayed the brackets with white Krylon Fusion paint to prime the plastic, and then sprayed them metallic silver to match my jewelry. I made a bias tube of the same green fabric as the bustle to sleeve onto the hoop, and whipstitched the garland to both the sleeve and to the bustle. While other people in the group were working on their costumes for months, I had less than a month to pull mine together due to my work schedule. I definitely was saved by having stock patterns and four decades of sewing experience. I was still hand-finishing the last bits of my costume at Costume-Con, but I got it done and was very pleased with how it turned out, and how it was received by the audience and judges. This was a fun presentation, a great group of people to work with. I hope I get a chance to do it again. Language of Flowers. Photos: Ken Warren -28-

18 Royal Grace and Beauty Abigail Weiner I was part of the original Victorian Secret presentation, so I was pretty thrilled when Rae suggested we do it right. My costume inspiration was Queen Victoria, specifically her coronation robes. The only group rules for the costumes were that they include a chemise, drawers, and a corset, and an additional large item, like the iconic wings. I had two other restrictions for myself: I costume primarily for burlesque performing these days, so most of the elements would have to be reusable for that purpose. I knew I would be flying to Costume-Con and didn t want to try to deal with packing or shipping wings, so I d need something else impressive that would fit in my suitcase. A contemporary report of the young queen s coronation describe a dress rich white satin of gold brocade. That gave me my color palate. I made a white brocade corset and picked out the swirling design in rhinestones in 5 shades of gold. I will certainly reuse this piece in an upcoming burlesque costume. For the drawers and chemise, there are existing undergarments that belonged to the queen, but I chose not to replicate them. I was constantly reminding myself that this wasn t a recreation, so I didn t have to slavishly copy the historical pieces. Also, this was supposed to be as though a Victorian lingerie designer was creating the item. Rejecting the originals as plain and baggy, I made slimmer fitting, but still historically accurate, drawers and chemise and decorated them with pintucks, like some of the extant royal drawers, and lace. After making the undergarments out of fine cotton, I realized that it was pretty sheer. That wasn t an issue where there were two layers of the fabric, like the neck facing or where the chemise and drawers overlapped. However, just above the corset, I was revealing more than intended. It probably wouldn t be noticeable from stage, but I made a pair of pasties and covered them with a mix of the same gold rhinestones on the corset. Just to be safe. For the ridiculously large element, the Imperial Mantle served as inspiration. The actual mantle is a full circle of cloth-of gold brocade, lined with red silk, trimmed in long gold fringe, and fastened across the chest. This was another place that I had to remind myself to deliberately diverge from the extant original. I pleated a double-width of gold brocade to a shoulder yoke to give the garment a majestic sweep without a lot of bulk at the neck. The lining is an embossed fabric studded with sequins and the entire border was trimmed with gold fringe. I eliminated the chest band that secured the original because with it, the mantle wanted to stay closed and the band obscured the top of my chemise. I wanted the audience to see my underwear. To keep it on while providing a great view, I added shoulder straps on the inside. Drawers and chemise made of fine cotton. -29-

19 Brocade satin corset covered in gold rhinestones. Crown created from heavy paper, painted silver, and covered in Swarovski rhinestones. The crown was modeled after Queen Victoria s Small Diamond crown, her iconic headgear. Rae created the frame out of heavy paper and I spray painted it silver and covered it in Swarovski rhinestones. The real challenge was keeping it on my head. For the Costume-Con 33 historical masquerade presentation, I jury-rigged an elastic strap, but for future burlesque use, I ll need another solution, so it can be smoothly removed if necessary. Royal Grace and Beauty. Inspired by the coronation clothing of Queen Victoria. Photo: Ken Warren. Shoes worn with Royal Grace and Beauty costume. -30-