Last year I discovered a lovely event near us called the Jane Austen Evening - you dress up in Regency period clothing, drink tea, and dance the historical dances. This particular event has been happening for almost 20 years now, and is stronger than ever from what I hear. I signed up for it, and my wonderful husband was willing to join me. (I made sure they had plenty of cookies - I can usually get him to go places that have cookies.)
In the weeks prior, we attended dance lessons and I made a "gown" to wear. Since it was our first time attending, we didn't want to spend money on clothes for him until we knew if we wanted to continue, so he wore a vintage 1930's tux.
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| Jane Austen Evening, Pasadena, 2010 |
We loved the event - lots of dressup goodness for me, and lots of cookies for him. So we're going back next year, and the year after that, and after that, and so now he needs a tailcoat. And breeches. And a cravat. We have none of these things, and I sew very slowly, so it's a good thing we have many years for this project!
I'm going to use this blog to document putting his costume together. My new year's resolution this year was to learn tailoring, so after procrastinating all year I'm throwing myself into this huge project. I doubt it will be finished in time for the 2011 Ball, but I'm hoping that this blog will help keep me focused on making progress.
And hopefully soon the awkwardness of this first post will be happily buried under many weeks of posting. :)
Excellent! A blog about men's Regency fashion.
ReplyDeleteI, too, have had a go at making a costume for my husband for the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England. Boy, what a steep learning curve that was! Especially as the pattern was very awkward and needed serious alteration.
Your costume looks lovely...have you been to many 'Regency' events?
Thanks for finding me! I'd love to hear about the costume you made for your husband, and what patterns you used. I want to try a few different men's patterns after his first suit of clothes is finished.
ReplyDeleteThis month will only be our second Regency event, but I'm looking forward to doing more. We mostly do 1930's & 40's reenactment & dancing, but we're having fun dabbling with the earlier periods.
My costume blog is actually on WordPress http://roundgownsandribbons.wordpress.com/ but I do have a Blogger blog too...but don't use it much, as I haven't got used to it yet.
ReplyDeleteAfter discovering the Jane Austen's Regency World magazine, I found that there was a Jane Austen Festival in Bath every September, which we managed to get to in 2007. In 2009, I was able to join in in costume, and last September Robert joined me (we had to seriously cheat to get him there in costume, as his was a major learning curve for me, and it wasn't finished properly!)
Loving the stories about your husband's costume! Thanks for sharing your blog.
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