Today was a big costume day. Chris and I took our niece to the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, all of us in full costume. Chris and I had worn these costumes two years ago when we took Isabella’s brother to the Faire, but I made Isabella’s costume just this year. These are some of my favorite costumes. Viking wear is easy to make, easy to fit, comfortable, and I fucking love the bling. The ladies get *all* the bling *and* some weapons to boot.
The thing I think about most when I’m in costume is the next costume. At the Faire, I’m scoping the other Ren costumes looking for ideas, and shopping at the vendors to improve what I’ve already got. This year I picked up a new little hand-woven cotton hoodie slash scarf that goes beautifully with this costume. But I’ve got future costumes in mind as well.
Witches in particular have been heavy in my head. Since we visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter last year, we’ve been tossing around the idea of doing a couple of full sesh #classyasfuck witch costumes. Chris has a pretty good Cornelius Fudge costume (That lime green bowler that I knit and felted is pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself.), and we’ve got a handful of Harry Potter themed accessories, but we’ve wanted to kick the HP theme up a notch. We want to do general, everyday, high end witches. And I just haven’t found the inspiration. Often a single piece of a costume will set off inspiration for the rest of the garb. With the Viking costumes this was the crazy awesome beaded jewelry. With Cornelius Fudge it was that lime green hat. I thought the Slytherin’s locket horcrux necklace would do it for me for these high end witch costumes. Its beautiful greens and golds made me think of flowy gypsy skirts and long, painted fingernails. Very nice, but not exactly what I want to do for the costume.
So while at the faire this weekend I shopped for witch hats a bit. I had previously found a great Etsy seller that makes hand felted, not-quite-everyday, but not exotic either, hats. Such beautiful work. I couldn’t decide between two or three styles, though, and now I know why. Because that wasn’t the hat. THIS is the hat. I feel that I wear hats pretty well, and this one is no exception. The sales people at the booth were very much sales people, encouraging me to try it on, telling me how fabulous the hat looks on me. Even though they were selling hard, they weren’t exactly wrong. It’s a pretty damn fetching hat, and I think I can work it. And it fits. It fits spectacularly. Not too big, not too small. It’s the hat. The hat that will inspire an entire costume. And when you pick up the perfect boots at the thrift store for five bucks, you can splurge on the perfect hat. I just hope I will be able to wear the hat instead of the hat wearing me. ::crosses fingers::
So show me *your* inspiration! What was the piece that totally made your last costume?!