Sunday, July 10, 2011

CorpGoth Cross-Dresses in the 18th Century

Leonard by TrystBat
Leonard, a photo by TrystBat on Flickr.
As I mentioned a while back, I've been designing & sewing a new costume to portray Leonard Autie, the hairdresser to Marie Antoinette. This was for an event by the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild called "An Evening at the Petit Trianon."

Well, the event was last night, & here's a picture of me in 18th-century drag! I made everything I'm wearing except the shirt & the stock (which is a white pleated band around the neck). Well, and the shoes & stockings, cane, & jewelry -- didn't make those.

But I did style the wig, make the tiny tricorn, sewed the suit, covered all 40+ buttons, and sewed & machine-embroidered the silk waistcoat. Took about two months.

The outfit was great fun to wear, & event was a really good time too. I'll be wearing this costume again at the gala ball at Costume College, an annual conference I attend & teach at in Los Angeles, later this month.

More of my photos from last night are on Flickr, plus here's a fun video another attendee took of us dancing to "I Want Candy," where you can see me in the foreground. And if you're curious, my dress diary of this costume tells all kinds of detail about how I made it, including historical research.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, what a beautiful piece of work. I am especially fond of the waistcoat, but the whole costume is beautiful.

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  2. Hi Trystan -- we don't know each other yet, but you've been a huge inspiration to me. I wanted to let you know that I love your creative, boho-goth-corp style. And let me tell you, this costume is FAN-TASTIC!!! Being a 19th century Art historian, this whole outfit makes me SWOON!!! What a delicious piece of history!

    (PS: you and VictorianKitty have inspired me to keep an "academic goth" fashion blog. THANK YOU for being such a wonderful human being!!!)

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  3. Sabayon - Thanks! This was my first time using my mom's embroidery machine. I must do so again.

    Mary Zawadzki - Aww, you're too kind :-) And do blog, I'd love to read it!

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