Your Fantasy Costume

The venetian masks always cause a double impact. The first time I saw the movie “Into the labyrinth” I was fascinated by the Masquerade Ball scene where Jareth (see previous article about Labyrinth’s goblin king)  and Sarah dances. It all had a magical,  elegant yet slightly decadent  look. There’s something in the venetian masks that fascinates us and also can awake a slight sense of horror too.

The Carnival of Venice  o Carnevale di Venezia ( read wikipedia article for in detail historic information) will take place next February in Venice (Italy) but throughout the year the masks and its symbolism have become part of every masquerade ball and fantasy party and meetings.

Masks  (traditionally made of leather or papier-mache) have always been a central feature of the venetian carnival; traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano ( December 26) at the start of the carnival season and midnight of Mardi Grass (Tuesday). They have always been around Venice. As masks were also allowed  during Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large proportion of the year in disguise. Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society.

Portale di venezia This is another website that offers information and historic background about the Carnival of Venice and the masquerades.

Venetian Masks Shop offer a wide range of superior Venetian Carnival Masks to wear and suit your individual requirements at sensible prices. Their  Venetian maskmakers (Italian: mascareri) are all based in Venice and provide us with the highest quality handmade Venetian masks. Many of which follow a long history of excellence and skilled craftsmanship that has been passed on from generation to generation. This websites features one of the most extensive collection of models I’ve found on the net and you can complete your search with some accessories like three horned hats, capes and hooded cloaks.The website also includes a section telling about the history of the maks.

For people based in UK I recommend  masks of venice where  you can find also the typical cloaks, gold and silver sticks and some models inspired in movies like the phantom of the opera

If you happen to be in Italy and want to opt for renting an accurate replica of a masquerade garment, from wig and mask to shoes, you can have a look to this site called Marega. To look for more garments in this XVIII style please have a look to our previous article about Marie Antoinette and rococo

Another recommended website is maskitalia.

In Ebay  you can find a wealth of affordable models too,  but also  some one of a kind items as well Have a look to Venetian masks on ebay

In particular in ebay  I’d recommend and highlight  the store Venice Buy, it has masks that are very expensive, but they’re certainly unique, some even with oil paintings with Venice scenes. This shop really has a collection of very unusual venetian masks like the ones below.

As there are so many resources about them, we’ll update this article very soon in an organic way.  So bookmark it to know when it expands.

Falconrose is a delightful collection of leather hand crafted masks, the site and the style of the masks themselves reminds us of ancient times and mediaeval tapestries…  The site is not only worth because of the wonderful masks they make, but also becuase of the throrough description of the creatures that makes it interesting enough even if just only for reading about the myths and legends that inspired them.

The Otherworld collection, featuring the Mythical creatures (unicorns, fauns and dragons) and Gods and Goddesses collection (some of which have references to greek, mediaeval and even

The Woods collection (feature feathered, furred and  the Green beings collection). Here we can find wolves, raven and corvids, some stunning owl masks  and all sort of dryad and green man masks, some of which are really amazing.

(up: Raven mask from “The Woods” collection)

The Court, it divides as well in two mini collections, The Unseelie court  featuring a darker side  of magical creatures not friendly for human eings like  goblins, the wood witch, or an absolutely gorgeous Medusa mask (see below), and other more faeric called The Seelie court featuring some beautiful butterfly inspired design as well.

(above: Medusa mask from the Court Unseelie collection)

Yes, yes… Halloween approaching… hmm to take out some creepy creatures from the closet.. sounds exciting huh?

and well, you know, dressing like a witch, ghost or demon like everyone else at the end can be a little bit boring… Streets will be plagued with cheap  witches and monsters latex masks, so if you pick a demon as your choice for next Halloween, PLEASE, do it in a classy way …. and pick some well known elegant creature (blink) like the MIGHTY CTHULHU createad by the insane genius of H. P. Lovecraft (read Lovecraft’s biography in wikipedia) or Cthulhu´s description.

If you find this name unpronunceable is because you haven’t read the rest of the “Great old ones” mentioned in Lovecraft works… Cthulhu is one of the most well known creatures in his mythology and certainly any cosmic and/or pulp horror freak will recognize you and say,  yes, that person reads… (which I highly recommend you), so if you didn’t know anything about this you can start reading this book “The call of Cthulhuu and other weird stories”... and join the cult! (and don’t forget… it’s all… errr… fiction, Lovecraft tends to unconsciously drive the reader into his delightfully mad brain). Hmm humongous and better than Godzilla for sure! And yes, it has octopus tentacles in the head but this is not a character from Pirates of Caribbean, the lattest was a direct inspiration based upon previous existing cthulhu image.

The easiest way is to purchase a mask in a halloween store, now that you know who IT is, you might  recognize it everywhere in halloween stores, still you can check this link for one with a reasonable price of 150$ in polyfoam shown in the picture below.

Of course if you’re wealthy you can look ebay from time to time to look for absolutely stunning custom made works… or ask to crafters to make a custom work for you… like the bizarre design in leather by artist Bob Basset, i’d say it’s inspired in Cthulu, and may be not my favourite, but still seems to be very popular and certainly unique ( yet quite expensive option though starting 350$ and up).

I found this by chance and it was amazing… I have no idea how much it would be but below is one example and link to a custom made cthulhu mask. Click on the picture to visit the artist’s blog. I think he did great with it.

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another alternative is this curious mask make in leather by Maks by jen, this “inspired by Cthulu” mask sells for and it’s pretty elegant.

If you’re stil looking for excuses (like money) I admit I almost burst in laughters where I found this blog, there they offer a free Cthulu mask PDF you can print in DINA3 size (297 × 420 mm) piece of paper to make your own cthulu mask at home…! Very clever! You can click here to see Cthulhu mask in jpg or in PDF.

Of course it cannot be less complicated but if still you want to opt for grabbing this cutie (a plush toy with the shape of cthulu) and pretend you’re a mad lovecraft, though you have to have his crazy gaze and strange facial features if so… Still i’m sure some of you are freak enough to put this over your bed…