Thursday, October 06, 2005

The Eternal Question: "What To Wear?"

Put your thinking caps on. I have two costume parties to go to, only a week apart. (Ideally I would be able to wear the same costume to both, but unfortunately that isn't going to be possible.) I know what I'll be wearing to the first party, but I'm a bit short on ideas for the second one.

Sewing is no problem for me. I have done a lot of costuming over the years, including having done some freelance costuming for drag queens no less, and am a trained milliner, so I know my way around the Janome. Time is going to be a huge factor though, because the first party is on the 21st of October and the second party is for Halloween a week later.

The first party I'm going to is a Trafalgar dinner, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Some friends of mine are mad keen naval history fans and big fans of Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series, and so decided to celebrate the event with a dinner. Everyone will be in costume and the food and drink are all going to authentic early 19th C recipes.

I've already started a costume for this, and it's a huge amount of work. I'm making an early 19th C naval Lieutenant's uniform; white shirt with jabot, white waistcoat, navy coloured tailcoat with white piping and cream breeches. Well, I have started it I should say... I have half a shirt so far!

What I'm a bit stumped on is the Halloween costume. I've scored an invite to a certain well known Sydney blogger's Halloween party, my first ever Halloween Party. What does one wear to a party where a) you haven't ever actually 'met' anybody, including the hosts (so it's hard to know what to expect) and b) the 'hip and funny' standard is bound to be high.

Ideas, people!

14 comments:

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

sweetie! c'mon! you've got a rack of stunning costumes. take one and give it a ghostly/ghoulish/bloody twist, like a groovy Nearly-Headless Nick or something.

The Other Andrew said...

You might just have cottoned on to the germ of an idea I had. I was thinking of something like a 'Nearly 'Nearly-Headless Nick''...

Will said...

Getting your head to hinge would be rather spectacular wouldn't it?

Wizards are quite in nowadays, I guess. And you wouldn't have to search for a 16th century costume like NHN's.

Michael said...

"..and am a trained milliner, so I know my way around the Janome."

Dirty!

"....white shirt with jabot, white waistcoat, navy coloured tailcoat with white piping and cream breeches."

I have no idea what half those words mean. You're a dandy, aren't you?

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

hardly a dandy! there'd be a lot more delicious poncy borcade in that there description.

you're going for the hard military man look, aren't you my dear?

grrrr, gimme a jabot and tri- or bicorn any day. woof!

I think I'd better go and watch Master and Commander again.

sigh.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

...that's bROcade.

anyway... go the nearly-nearly headless Nick. easy, stylish and amusing!

The Other Andrew said...

Sometimes I'm a dandy Andy, it's true!

Speedy, I won't have time to make a bi or tri-corn I don't think, but yes it's the Master & Commander look I'm going for (sort of).

I think Nearly Nearly-Headless Nick is what I'll go for. Given the cossies that are hanging in my closet, it's the easiest thing!

Anonymous said...

Wear the naval costume! It sounds awesome! If you look on my Photos page, you can see pictures from the previous two years and maybe get some ideas from what people wore then. The main Halloween misconception I've found over here is that people think you have to dress as something "scary." Nope. You can be anything on Halloween. Once I won a contest dressed as the concept of "largeness." :)

The Other Andrew said...

You're right, that we do always think here that Halloween = Scary. I guess because we don't really have a tradition of Halloween as such. My ideas about Halloween all come from US tv shows... :-)

I was originally aiming for something more conceptual in the costume stakes. (I love your 'largeness' by the way... I could probably do 'smallness' myself!) One early (discarded) idea was the Wicked Witch Of The West(ern Suburbs) - complete with flanny and other bogon attire.

Michael said...

flanny? bogon?

School me, baby.

The Other Andrew said...

Flanny = flanelette (sp?) checked shirt, much loved by the (ahem) particular socio-economic stereotype of Sydney's outer western suburbs. Bogon = I guess the closest we would come to the US 'trailer trash' stereotype. Think mullett, flanny shirt etc

Mindy said...

Go as Brodie from dancing with the stars, in lycra tiger pants. You know you want to :)

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

I always thought it was BogAn?

you pass through the town of Bogan Gate to get to Aveline's mum's town. it's way out west and there's real gates, too.

lycra tiger pants.

there's a challenge!

nice one Min.

The Other Andrew said...

Ack. Trust me Mindy, nobody needs to see that.

...although I could go as his 'Before' shot.