A masquerade dress and a truly scary mask

I'm currently awfully busy trying to make my ambitiously planned Costume College wardrobe happen and when the accomplished people of Tampere announced that they were going to be hosting an 18th century masquerade, I knew I couldn't even think about making anything new to wear. Or even re-trim an old one. But I didn't want to pass an opportunity to do some period dancing. And, more importantly, to see friends who are scattered so far all around Finland that they might as well be living abroad. 

So the dress had to come from my existing wardrobe. I chose the black round gown because the severity of the color makes it one of my most unusual 18th century gowns and so, perhaps, most masquerade-like. 

I also struggled with coming up with an idea for a mask. A thought of a fancy, flirty and decorative mask didn't sound tempting at all to me this time. So I turned to 18th century portraits for inspiration and I chose a simple black moretta mask. I bought a cheap leather version and cut it a little smaller and the eye holes larger to look more like the ones seen in the portraits. Then I tried it on and it looked so freaky and scary that I almost chickened out of wearing it. But with no plan B, it had to do. 

And here it is, 18th century minimalism with a touch of spookiness. 

And now, brace yourselves.

Luckily the other guests had had more time to get ready and make costumes and there were many detailed, cute, exotic, alluring and funny ones for us to admire. And I did get to dance. And met friends. Heard all kinds of wonderful things. And got to talk all the piled up costume things with Sanna (Rococo Atelier, you all know her for sure) whom I hadn't seen in ages. And the food was excellent. 

I tried taking a few pictures, but low lighting and dancing people made them too blurry.

Big thanks to everyone who made the event happen. And apologies for not "concealing my identity" for the entire evening. The mask was a bit impractical for eating, drinking and socializing. 

This was the first wearing for my new rump and now I have pictures to demonstrate how it looks on me. I'm wearing it with one linen petticoat under the gown in the pictures above. And here it is with just the petticoat.