I was invited to the Fire Ball Masquerade at rather short notice last week - and had barely 2.5 days to come up with a costume for the event. And in that time I had two 8-hour work shifts and 2 nights of sleep! And unlike Hoja, my friend and colleague in things creative, I do not have a stash of costumes. (Just some wigs and accessories.)
One thing I do have, however, is lots of miscellaneous fabric. So I opened the closet and fabric bins to see what would impress itself upon me. What I noticed is that I have an awful lot of RED stuff at the moment. So I let the color marinate in my imagination while I went to work and to sleep. Halfway through, Hoja texted me to say that the theme of the Fire Ball this year was Gods and Monsters. Images and themes began to burble up.
The Masque of the Red Death
Used by permission of pareeerica
The Making
The pieces immediately to hand were:
A reversible cotton artist's robe.
A brocade dress jacket from which I'd removed the sleeves some time ago.
Two sets of brocade window valences.
A bell-shaped lamp shade (mine had beads on lower edge).
Red brocade drape that matched one of the valence sets.
A bright red, shiny dinner napkin.
Then I went to a local party supply store and bought a mask, a black feather boa, a black fabric rose, a pair of black lace fingerless gloves, and white greasepaint and black lipstick.
The Cogitating
The Assembling
The Reveal
Unfortunately, only a single picture was taken of the final costume.
(The event venue was so crowded that there was no space to take photos.)
