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.

Next weekend people dwelling in England will have the pleasure to be able to attend the Avalon Faery Ball and Avalon Faery Fayre. Taking place in Glastonbury town Hall, Somerset. With music by the Dolmen, it’s your chance to dress and show with your best garments. There will be also a fair with sellers during the day, so you can also look among a wealth of crafters.  For more information please visit the faery balls website.

On another part of the globe, USA next early November we’ll be able to experience the Faeriecon.

Faeriecon will be celebrating in Baltimore (USA East coast) next 6-8th of November. Array yourself in your most beautiful faerie finery, don your wings, gather your friends and family and cross the threshold! You will find the largest gathering of faerie artists and authors in the world who look forward to meeting you, amazing, magical apparel, beautiful jewelry, mysterious masks, handmade crafts, fashion shows, performers, musicians, storytellers, exhibitions, panel and workshops.

And at night, the gates of Faerie open once more at the Good Faerie and Bad Faerie Masquerade Balls, acclaimed the last two years as the astounding highlight of FaerieCon. This year featured performing bands are:
-Good Faery  Ball: Telesma, SJ Tucker and Woodland
-Bad Faery Ball: Priscilla Hernandez (Spain) (yay, that’s myself by the way!) and Faun (Germany)

Look deep into your heart: are you a Good Faerie or are you a Bad Faerie? Make your choice, create your costume, and dance the night away in the Magical Realm.

Above: Dragon mask

Mythical masks is a website that features a large collection of handmade  leather masks inspired in fantasy perfect for masquerade balls, ren faires and fantasy festivals. Masks come in different categories and collections from birds (raven, owls, peacock and more), animals, dragons (western or oriental) to elementals,  mermaid and ocean inspired, green men and fairy inspired masks.  If not enough it includes also  the possibility of making a custom order following your specifications. I particularly  love the butterfly and moths ones as they show a great delicacy when trying to mimic certain species painting the color patterns of the wings as in these:

Above: moth mask

To complete your search we recommend you to have a look back to our articles about “Masks by Morgan” and “Falcon rose” maks to find more in this style.

There is just SO MUCH about this period and style that this is the first of quite a few articles around this topic… Still we had to start some point and here we are. Recently, Sophia Coppola’s aproachment to this character (performed in the movie by Kirsten Dunst) in  Marie Antoinette drew new attention to it and

The Rococo period (late 18th century) rendered really the most flamboyant, colorful and beautiful dresses in fashion history. A tight bodice right with a front stomacher to enhance women’s sihouettes and ahem!… generous sexy generous breasts, along with a wide skirt with the proper side panniers and petticoat. Hats, artificial flowers, ribbons… More and more ornaments almost sinfully.

If you want a custom made  “Marie Antoinette” corset  you can order it in Bibian Blue’s shop. Based in Barcelona, we previously covered this designer in an article, aside of the collection that you can find on her website, she can also make a custom order for you. I have a rococo black corset for my performances that I certainly love (pics coming soong

Painting a dark spot with a eyeliner in a sensual place on the cheek or over the lips… adding some fake eyelashes (we previously covered an article about “feather eyelashes“) but i’d go to some conventional full fake eyelashes. Over your foundation, as clear as possible, add some traslucent rice powder, to try to get as much place as possible. A huge amount of pink blush and reddish lips will do the rest. As always I recommend MAC make up for this. They have all the elements you need and you won’t deal with allergy and scratching your face after the quite a huge amount of make up you may need for this.
Below you can see a video that works precisely with MAC make up and will provide you tips for becoming a lady of this period.

I would suggest you read thoroughly this very complete and useful article about Marie Antoinete style: Marie Antoinette Style – iCiNG – galadarling.com
It’s indeed an awesome article that will provide you the basic guidelines to put yourself into the role, from the parfum you  might use to other tiny details you might be missing.

Ok, time for the ball and to get dressed….!

If you are good at sewing (lucky you) there’s a wealth of patterns available that you can use as base of inspiration.

An affordable option is this one, the seller offers it in different colours at around 300$

You can make a matching neck choker with a ribbon or velvet yourself… so easy!

Don’t forget your underwear…! LOL You can find several tutorials about how to make “panniers” for your underskirts… , if not you can purchase them around 50$.  Soon we’ll make an extensive  article about period undergarments. Click on the picture to read a page tutorial about how to make them yourself.

If you’re blond and have long hair you can try to uplift it to mimic the hairdo just like the video shown up there and whitish it with a nice  amount of powder. If not, you’ll need to opt for a wig, and well that’s sort of difficult task, there are some affordable options out there but I honestly haven’t found the “real thing”, so it depends of what kind of gown you’ll be wearing, but it could be quite a spoiler point.

Adding this lovely custom-made tricorn hat, that you can order in several soft tones you’re almost there!

Romantic Threads is a shop that offers one-of-a-king gowns, for less than 1000$ you can get an accurate and wonderful replica of  Marie

or this other in ivory that could be the perfect wedding dress

You might want to add some details like this rococo fan

You pretended to run away without your shows Cinderella?

And this only has been the beginning. Being a period of so much ornament it’s just impossible to cover it all in one article but we hope you had fun and stay tuned for more information.