Gangster Time

A little late in posting this up, last weekend I attended the Gangsters Ball with a couple of my fellow costume friends on Saturday night. It is held at the Tivoli, which is an old theatre that has been done up in a very beautiful Art Deco style. The show was amazing with high ribbon twirls, a big band and singers, burlesque and circus and comedic acts. My favourite of all the acts were the two men who were both in vintage boy leg stripe swimwear, and doing gymnastic lifts as a competition. They had on the typically historic mustaches. They also ran a swing dance-off and a rock 'n' roll dance-off. All in all it was a wonderful night. The men looked fabulous and we were surrounded by many a set of suspenders and fedoras. We spotted a vintage sailor in the crowd too. The women's costumes on the other hand were a little bit of a let down. There were some amazingly beautiful ladies there in flapper dresses and poodle skirts, and one particular woman with a very impressive beehive. But there were a lot of women who seem to think it appropriate that they show off as much of their body as possible. We are talking costumes from adult shops, corsets with fishnets and not much else.

We on the other hand, had all made vintage dresses. Donna in a beautiful green late 1930s dress, Cat in her 1940s ensemble with fur collar and my gown from the early 1950s. We all got together earlier in the afternoon to do vintage hair and makeup and head on in together. I was so proud of myself with this costume, I ummed and ahhed over which dress to make, but finally settled on the pattern that I already had instead of drafting a new one. It turned out that drafting my own pattern would most likely have been a lot quicker as this gown really wasn't what you would call simply to whip up. But I got it made and completely out of fabric from my stash. My only purchase was the invisible zip in the side seam (I wanted a matching one instead of just using a black or white one that I already had). I was actually really glad to use up the fabric, I bought it for another costume, but didn't have enough so ended up using something else. And low and behold, this one ends up sitting in one of my boxes of fabric. Now, it can hang in my closet until I find another appropriate occasion to wear it.