Part 2 of Costume College photos!
I’ll start with the photos from the Costume Exhibit Room. The last few years, Judy and I have entered something to be displayed, but this year, we totally forgot. I will endeavor to remember to submit something next year!
Saturday was another full day of panels. My first panel was my friend’s panel, “The English Military Archer During the Agincourt Campaign of 1415”. I thought it would be really boring (the title sounds like a dissertation!), but it was one of my favorite panels from the entire weekend. There was just so much fascinating information about medieval warfare that I did not know about like how the archers of this battle are often credited with “ending” the era of chivalry. I did tell Heath afterwards that he needed to make the title sound less dry though. =D
Then I had “Fabric & Fiber Identification” which is a very useful skill to have if you shop in places like the L.A. fabric district where nothing is labeled. I don’t have any ‘formal’ training in this topic, just some iffy instincts built up over a lot of years of sewing. We spent most of the class dunking fabric swatches in water and setting them on fire, trying to guess what they were. I’m still not great at identifying the different types of ashes you get from burn tests, but I’m getting pretty good at identifying silk which is good.
If you wanna have a go at setting fire to fabrics, here’s one of the burn chart handouts we got. (Don’t set your house on fire!l)
A few more panels (“The Future of Making Things” and “English Dress in the 1940s”), and then it was back to the room to get ready for the Gala.
The Gala is the huge Saturday night costume event and people like to go all out for it. I wasn’t feeling the historical bug this year, so I decided instead to pick a costume that has been on my wish list for years: Reni Milchstrasse’s Hoshigumi battle uniform from Sakura Taisen. It’s not really the standard choice for Costume College, but I can’t get anything done these days without a due date, so I borrowed the Gala as my enforced deadline for getting this costume finally made.
Some photos of my group…
More photos from the Gala!
It was a great night full of costumes and friends and fun. What more can one ask for? =D
