Let me warn you, this article will be completely unfair. Why? Because it is a selection of my favourite people met at the biggest costuming event in the world called Costume College. It’s based on my personal experience, my own line of judgement and mostly chance that made me come across certain people and miss others. For those who were at Costume College 2018, If I failed to mention someone worthy of extra attention, feel free to say so (nicely) in the comments. For all the others, enjoy this free session of #costumeporn…
As those of you following me on Instagram know, I attended a couple of months ago one of the most famous costuming event, Costume College 2018 taking place in Los Angeles every year in July. When I chose to settle down in San Francisco, little did I know how many costume people were living in the US and especially around the Bay and the Los Angeles area… And this special event was the best way to meet all of them in person and marvel without limit.
As the list was growing too big, I divided it in two separate articles.
So let’s see who we have on this (rather long) best of list. I put their Instagram name on there so you can find and follow them more easily.
Most Fun (and yet accurate) : MoyerDestroyer
Lauren started all this crazy entreprise by offering to share the drive down from San Francisco to LA with me. Since “afraid to go alone” was my main bad excuse for not attending last year, I very happy she came to my rescue and got me on the move. She is far more advanced in the craft and had tons of different costumes (and vintage clothes) to wear during this 4 days event.
Her Française dress was incredible…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnCrZa5F-u8/?hl=en&taken-by=moyerdestroyer
And directly inspired by a naughty painting of the same time…
Most Entrepreneur : American Duchess
Abby and Lauren have started their business in historical shoe making for a few years now. I can only imagine how many comments like “but it is so niche, it will never take off” or “you never created shoes before, how are you going to do it?” they had to ignore to create the business. But that didn’t stop them. The PR person in me says bravo to their many mentions in great publications like this video by Racked.
After the success of the first book, they are soon to launch another one about hairstyles.
And the original model…
Most original dress represented : Frolicking_frocks
Natalie dared to venture a 1830ies look and to wear it well (that hair style doesn’t flatter everyone…) BUT she also was the only one who created one of my favorite 18th style, the robe volante.
Most “down to the little details” creations : Before the Automobile
Merja has such patience. She hand sews everything. And I mean EVERYTHING, from beads and sequins to the long seams of the many layers of this gown.
Plus she documents everything on her blog so that other people can get inspired too. She was one of the first costuming blog I read about 5 years ago and she was the one to push me to start costuming. I was very glad to meet her in person!
Most crazy sleeves : a tie between By Strings Attached and Peachassassi
Look at all this beautiful volume… it’s not easy to make it work with different body frames and to appear accurate yet proportionate.
And that yellow dress has always been on my to do list …
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl–e9YF_lF/?taken-by=peachassassin
Most Hand Sewing Dedication : Wax Sealed Costumes
Adrienne used every last minutes at Costume college to keep to her idea of hand sewing every stitch of her gown…. And she did! Every step of her journey are in her instagram stories by the way.
The result is stunning!
Most Outstanding Couple Dynamic : Dressed in time
I have watched on Instagram every sequin of that dress get sewn on the fabric. And I was very excited to see the final result. I love it when you get to touch and feel all the hard work that goes into making such a dress.
Starting a new costume is also envisioning the time it will take, the references you will use, the hardships that will come with it… You don’t really have that when you create modern day clothing and I believe that’s why I get a bigger kick out of doing costuming.
It really WAS a Worth gown to the very details! And with Caroline’s husband looking like the Tsar himself the illusion was perfect.
Most Fabric Design effort : Redthreaded
Another incredible Worth gown reproduction was this one. All the black you see on it are ribbons sewed to mimick the original patterns on the fabric.
Most Decolleté Mastering : Threadedthistle
In my humble opinion, a lot of the appeal of creating dresses from another era is the way it shapes your body contours (in a nice way).Yes you can wear a modern form fitting dress but believe me it will never feel as good as that big dress making your waste this tiny cute little thing and your boobs popup indecently, despite your body being covered in yards and yards of fabric. And I think Marlee was the embodiment of that.
And what about you?
Which costume would you recreate out of this list?
Let me know in the comment or on Instagram !
More costumes you say? Have a look at my Robe à l’anglaise here
La bise
Alicia
I’m glad you enjoyed our convention this year, and make it back again. It was truly a wonderful year of great costumes.
Val -Dean, Costume College 2018
Oh wow! I just saw this scrolling through facebook. I didn’t dream we’d be on it. I’m so honored to be included!! Meeting you was great! And I’m still laughing about Moyer Destroyer’s bordalou! ?
Cheers!
Caroline (dressed in time)
Hey Caroline, I was very glad to meet you too! I had a whole instagram posting campaign in mind and just.. didn’t have time to do it yet lol. But your comment motivated me I am going to get back on it ;-).
la bise
Alicia