Costume College 2019 Day 2
My Friday Night Soical/Showcase dress
Moira Shearer as Vicky Page in “The Red Shoes” (https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/g10214512/best-english-british-movies)
Friday!!!! The first full day of classes and wonderful learning experiences. Normally people dress “more casually” for classes but I didn’t and decided to wear my ballet tutu inspired by the 1948 movie “The Red Shoes”. I made the tutu from the instructions from “The Classical Tutu” by Claudia Folts (1) and I found it very straight forward, the bodice I “drafted” myself, the red shoes are red pointe shoes (2) which were interesting to walk around on all day but not impossible.
the fabric I used for my dress
Now to the exciting part, all the wonderful classes I took. There are classes happening in all the lobby floors in the hotel as well as all the business conference rooms upstairs. Classes at Costume College are either “limited” meaning you register for them in advance and often pay because limited classes often include the construction of an actual garment or “unlimited” meaning you can just walk right it and listen and are often lecture-based classes. The first class I attended was Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning which dealt with morning attire from 1800 to 1900. The next class I attended was Textiles on Film which was a very informative lecture on how to research and source fabric to recreate a costume you have gushed over from the big-screen. After that class, I attended Body Ideals & Corsetry: 1900-1930 which I personally found fascinating because during the class high fashion along with everyday portraits/photographs were analyzed and discussed to give everyone an overview of the era’s ideals versus their reality. After a long day, a class was the evening social event. Its theme was “Presented by the USO” and what used to be just a social event with finger foods, the Friday Night Social, turned into a stage with a variety of attendee formed groups doing skits to entertain the masses, Friday Night Showcase. I made a retro-inspired dress (3) and paired it with a vintage hat and a pair of Royal Vintage Peggy’s (4).