Costume College, here I come!

Well, we've made it safely to Los Angeles, with all costumes here in their entirety and very little finishing left to be done.  Curls and ribbons still need to be attached to his & hers 18th century court-appropriate wigs , as well as a generous second helping of hairspray and gentle fingers to get them Gala-ready.

A pair of almost ready wigs.  While the base wigs are fully styled, any of the attachable pieces of curls and such were rolled up and packed in a separate box.  This avoided a significant amount of squish during travel.

Honey's court suit coat still needs buttons, and the trim could use a bit of a touch up with a hot iron.

And a sneak peak at Honey's court suit.  Despite being a "last minute" project, I'm still just tickled at how it turned out.

Pretty much everything needs a good ironing, but other than that, everything was finished on time!  Thanks in no small part to our summer house guest and sewing buddy, Bethany, who stepped in when life frazzles made personally finishing everything an unattainable goal for me.  She took my mock up for the coat for the court suit, cut and assembled all the layers (including those persnickety cuffs) and had it ready for me to hem/trim/top-stitch and throw into a suitcase.  PLUS, she styled a wig up for Honey to wear with said court suit, so that now we can be a pair of poncy ash blondes together.  Plus plus, having another costumer hanging about all summer was infinitely handy for all of those little conundrums like "How should I shape this?" or "Do you think this goes like this or like that?"  Seriously sped up the process to have a constant source of "no, that's fine; keep going," on hand.

It feels weird to be going to a con "alone" for the first time in, well, perhaps ever.  I often travel or meet up with some assortment of my 'usual crowd', whether it's Costume Con, Dragon*Con, Arisia, or any number of smaller cons we've hit up along the years.  It really hit me when our plane landed at LAX and, other than the sister-in-law who so graciously volunteered to pick us up at the airport, we had no one to notify of our arrival.  There was no coordinating of dinner plans or making last minute supply runs.  While my Honey is accompanying me to the Gala, he's not attending the con itself and it hit me that I don't ACTUALLY know anyone else here.  Despite knowing that I'm approaching a long weekend at a hotel filled with people who geek out about costumes just as much as (if not possibly more than) me, I'm finding myself feeling just a tad bit lonely.  I am terribly non-assertive when it comes to interacting with new people, so if you see me standing about, please come say hello.

This costumer's closet.  Wow.  I'v been working my arse off since January.
It feels like it should have taken up more space than that.

From left to right we have:

Thursday Pool Party (purses and parasols): hibiscus kimono w/ crane parasol

Friday Night Social (club "ice"): Mr Freeze's 1920s smoking jacket (let's hope I don't regret wearing velvet)

Saturday Gala (If the Shoe Fits): His & Hers 18th c Court Ensembles
Sunday breakfast (Underdressed): 18th c short gown w/ cotton petticoat & white work apron
Sunday Tea (Ladies' Day at the Ascot): 1780s Chemise a la Reine w/ hedgehog wig and bergère hat

That's one ethnic, one cosplay (that doubles as 1920s), and three plus one from the 18th century (and a narrow few decades of it at that).  It was odd to be packing and have no corsets, hoops skirts or bustles in the pile.  I kept feeling like I was missing something.  For some reason, it doesn't seem like a lot, even though that's five costumes for me, plus one for my date to the Gala.  I feel kind of lost, not having any plans for hall costumes, beyond probably wearing the short gown around on Sunday before changing for the tea.  I get that this seems to be less of a wearing stuff during the day sort of event, but still.  I had to plan "normal" clothes and that's just plain weird.  Maybe I'll wear around the haori jacket from the kimono and the smoking jacket if the classrooms get cold.  ;)

Oh.  Might want to find time to reassemble the panniers before Saturday night.  *adds that to the list*

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Edited to Add:  We crossed paths with a rowdy pair in the parking garage today who are also first time attendees.  Great big scary world just got the teeniest bit smaller.  :)