My husband Thomas and I love a good couple’s costume. There’s something about wearing complementary costumes that makes that much more of an impact. This year we went to our fourth Airlift Ball at Music Box Village. The theme was Sirens of Salvage so we brought out these raincloud costumes that we wore on Mardi Gras Day several years ago. I made the enormous hats, which are fun to look at but not fun to wear because they are so damn cumbersome. They definitely got attention, which made them worth pulling out of the closet.
Almost all of the original black felt raindrops were missing, so I made new ones and attached them to embroidery floss. Unfortunately the second we got out of the car the wind whipped those strings around causing all of my handiwork to become one giant, tangled knot. #$%@!
The next night we went to Choke Hole, a drag queen wrestling event. It’s campy and over the top and lots of audience members dress up. Since it was Valentine’s Day we decided to dress the theme. I decorated the hats from materials I found at Michael’s. My pillbox hat was made from scratch; I took a buckram hat form and added foam to it for additional height.
Vaude’D Gras
On the Sunday before Mardi Gras we went to Thoth and skipped Bacchus to go to Vaude D’Gras, a vaudevillian Baroque circus act performance. Costumes were encouraged, so we put together these fun looks from items we already owned. We did buy the red and white striped pieces to coordinate. I found the skirt on ThredUp.
The grand daddy of carnival season was, of course, Fat Tuesday. Can you believe we both found these costumes at Buffalo Exchange? I broke a rule this year; I never repeat a costume on Mardi Gras Day but this year I did. I wore this gown back in 2009. When Thomas found his costume I knew that my dress needed to make a reappearance since it was the perfect complement to his costume. We got stopped for pictures countless times and had a lot of fun wearing them.