Angel of Death

2005-06-30 - 5:46 a.m.

Mid-evil? No, totally evil.

There are some innocent souls out there who seem to be under the impression that I sprang, fully formed and clothed, from the Laurel half-shell of costume. I have been told on more than one occasion that a lot of people definitely think I got my Laurel for clothing.

Heh.

Thanks to Celynen, you now have an opportunity to see the first ever outfit I made actually for the SCA (as opposed to a vaguely medieval outfit made for a Sci-Fi convention):

That's a pink actetate underskirt with a purple corduroy overskirt and bodice (all attached), purple curtain-velvet sleeves with purple corduroy cuffs and nylon lace gathered into something approximating wrist ruffs, a neck ruff that isn't actually technically attached to anything, and no, I'm not wearing any sort of chemise.

Yes, those are bunny ears on my head. The event was called something like "King's Hunt, Queen's Feast", and I had snaffled a pair of bunny ears from someone.

It owes a lot more to the "Disney Princess" school of costume than any actual historical research.

(There's another photo of me with the bunny ears down my bodice, but I hope that one's been burned. If not, send the ransom note to me c/o Legs and Crusher, The Men With No Necks, and we'll see how far you get.)

I thought I was the Bee's Knees (English technical term) in that outfit, but not as much as I thought I was in this one, a year later:

This one I am not responsible for making, but I did do all the beading (over 1,000 pearls, like that means anything; I'm already 500+ hours into my current project, and it's not even half done), and I wore it happily. This precious little number is made entirely of baby-blue polyester and ribbons, with a gold polyester chemise. It's the only outfit of mine that I donated to the Barony's loaner closet that never got stolen.

(If anyone's curious, I've donated many, many outfits over the years, and all of them have been stolen, mostly by one particular chatelaine who outfitted herself with all my donated clothes and then disappeared. This is why I will lend specific outfits to friends if asked - and I browbeat my apprentice into wearing, because she won't ask [love you, sweetie!] - but I will never again donate anything to the loaner closet.)

I need to fill in some of the missing years - I know I've got more photos somewhere, and maybe there's more in the Baronial photo albums. I'd love to do a retrospective display (with full descriptions of materials and such) - "you, too, can start out completely clueless and still be nicely outfitted by the end!". I'm rather into the idea that seeing people's early efforts is reassuring.

At the very least, you can get a good laugh out of it, right?

Dorsal - Ventral

Funnier than me: James Lileks

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