Steampunk and Lace: Masquerade 2012

This costume retrospective takes us back to the companion piece to Peter's Masquerade jacket. Portland's annual Masquerade Ball (thrown by Peter's band, Just People) is just about as much fun as a group of pals can have. Photo booths? Stilt walkers? Hula hoopers? Fantastic live music? Everybody dressed up to the nines with masks, facepaint and body art? Check, check and check.

The inspiration for this particular costume stemmed largely from Peter's jacket. I wanted us to definitely look like a "pair", but didn't want it to be too matchy. So I scoured the internet. Here are some of the pictures of my inspiration:

 

I fell in love with Natalia Vodianova's Met Ball mask (pictured above) and really wanted to do a flouncy can-can skirt with a tough corset. I found a corset I really liked on Corset Story, with steampunk details and buckle details that emulated those I planned for Peter's jacket:

I proceeded to do the overall design (and briefly toyed with the idea of some sort of armor):

I then found a lovely yellow satin at JoAnn's (originally I was going to use the silver purple I ultimately wound up using for my New Year's dress) and constructed the dress. It had a draped front panel that connected at the back with elastic. On top of that I affixed a tiered half-skirt made up of gathered ruffles with black tulle inserts and lace hem. At the top of the skirt I made a little tulle rose to add some drama and a bit of flair.

The mask I made is pictured above affixed to the dressform. I bought two black hair clips and superglued gold pendants (also bought from JoAnn's) on top of them for ornamentation. I then cut out two layers of tulle in a mask shape and glued them at the sides to a strip of leather for added support. I then went a little crazy and superglued swirly black sequin patterns all over them--close up there was a bit more dried glue visible than I would have liked but overall the effect was quite wonderful.

Finally, there was hair and makeup inspiration:

I found a local Austin henna artist (Henna Kim) who did a lovely job on a design for my arm: 

The design got much darker after a day or two!

Masquerade turned out to be only two hours after my plane landed back in Portland--the airline (of course) lost my bag, but due to a fantastic amount of foresight I had packed my whole costume on my carryon so all was not lost! Hair and makeup were a bit rushed but the night was so wonderful that I hardly even noticed. Can't wait until next year!

Lots of kisses!

First kiss after two months apart!