Last weekend some friends and I took an adventure to NYC to perform at the Dances of Vice Grand Corset Ball, which was quite a spectacle and quite a lot of fun!
We decided to wear 1860s fancy dress, so in true period fashion everyone scrounged to create something fabulous on top of dresses we already had. I ended up not getting my act together to do anything truly creative, so I popped a tiara on with my dark blue shot silk and called it "the night sky." Everyone else did an excellent job, though, and we were pretty fabulous as a unit!
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| fancy dress for the Queen of Clubs, 1860 |
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| a much better night sky, 1863 |
I did get myself organized enough to bring my camera, and I took the opportunity to play with my Petzval lens. It's still difficult to get crisp shots (no autofocus plus a super-heavy lens is a recipe for shaky arms), but I understand why this design was popular for so much of the 19th century--when it works, it's really awesome.
So here are some photos from the Grand Corset Ball!
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| Julia in fabulous duct tape deer antlers |
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| Reading--her headpiece is made of quill pens and an inkbottle! |
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| an armored corset on display at the event |
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| one of the rooms had a variety of old and new books, so we peaked through a few |
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| these pictures are totally separate, but in this sequence I like to think this lady is witnessing the angel on the stairs! |
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| a flower basket holding her own handels |
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| her rhinestone skull and butterfly headdress was very cool! |
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| I could not get a good shot of this dude from the front, so we must be satisfied with his fabulous hat |
I also got a couple of good shots of one of the other performers, who did a medieval-themed burlesque number, but they are pretty NSFW--see them after the jump if you'd like!
