Costume Colloquium.. quick rundown..
We are home and recovering...
The Colloquium was fantastic and tiring at the same time.
The most significant things:
- Meeting people in person: Roberta Orsi Landini (Mode a Firenze), Maria Hayward (Dress at the Court of Henry VIII), conservators and hearing lectures from them..
- meeting several of my LJ contadcts (am trying to put the faces to names ... again...like I said I have a horrible memory for names)..., Drea Leed and exchanging contacts with a lot of them!
- getting to chat to the conservator at Prato museum (unfortunately the camicia and shirts were not on display at the time) and exchanging info and contacts for more info.
- Seeing the two extant 16th C dresses at Pisa (and the early 17thC one) and taking pics. seeing the underside... I have read about them a few years back and have been dying to get more info!! getting the conservators contact details!!!! (squee!)
- Seeing Eleanora's actual burial dress, Cosimo's outfit and Don Garcia's dutch cloak (though the lighting was poor and we had only a few minutes... worst note: some people had spent over an hour in the room, leaving very little time for the second group to go through... will not voice certain opinions on that one!!!)
- remember that episode of "The mummy detective" where they reopened Eleanora and Cosimo's tombs (amongst others)... we got to see the crypt and the new one that was found, still being worked on... there was a book...
- getting a whole heap of reference books I cannot get here. (Michelle may be quicker but I am cunning and went back and managed to get a copy of the book mentioned above.)
- the lecture on the 'new' findings of the outfits found in the 'new' tombs found (above) and seeing the pics!!!
- shopping!
- visiting "behind' the walls at the Vechhio (through a secret panel in the Map room)... and having an exclusive look at the reproduction outfits worn by the 're-enactors' at the Vecchio. We also had a special 'ask info' from the re-enactor who 'plays' Eleanora d'Toledo..
- learning some new and interesting titbits .. (well, lots actually)
- seeing a whole heap of paintings 'in the flesh' that I have seen in books!!!!
- finding out that not all professional costumers think that SCA costumers are all flakes...
to name just a few things off the top of my head!!
:)