The days leading up to departure:
Holy moly. In years past I've observed the CoCo craziness and the late night last minute sewing frenzy. I promised myself this would NOT be me. I was going to carefully plan out deadlines and have my dresses done so that I could relax before I left. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. In the days leading up to CoCo I got very little sleep. I was up late sewing, and then up early for work, and then spent my evenings feverishly sewing into the wee hours of the morning. Rinse. Repeat.
Thursday:
Proof that nothing planned ever goes the way you want it to. I had planned on leaving around 8 AM because I have a roughly 4 hour drive to the airport. Well, I left later than I wanted to (by 40 minutes) and then got pulled over on my way to the airport. Why did I get pulled over? For driving in the left lane. Something I only do to pass and yell at other drivers for staying in too long. The problem was that a woman in the right lane kept slowing down when I would get behind her, when I'd get over to pass she'd speed up so that I couldn't. It was this constant game and I was irritated. I like to set my cruise control and just go. So, tired of playing the game I got into the left lane to pass her and she sped up and I just stayed there. Cue Mr. State Patrol coming up from behind and deciding I was in the wrong. I calmly explained the situation to him and he let me go with a warning. Then, when i finally arrived in Denver I was 15 miles from the airport when I hit deadlock traffic and sat forever. By the time I reached the parking lot I had an hour until my flight left. I quickly parked and ran to the shuttle bus. I picked the one super nice shuttle bus driver who kindly waited for everyone, I felt like it took forever to get to the airport. By the time I ran up to the check in counter I had 30 minutes until departure and they wouldn't let me on. I could check in and try to get through security sans checked baggage, or I could find another flight. Since all of my CoCo dresses that I had worked so hard on were in my checked bag I couldn't leave it behind. The ticket agent told me the next available flight wasn't until later that night at 7:55. While I didn't want to miss the pool party I did want to eventually get to LA so I wasn't going to be picky and accepted the later flight. They wouldn't let me check in for another 2 hours so I went and found a seat to catch my breath from running and cool down. About 15 minutes later I received a notification on my phone from the airline letting know my flight had been cancelled. So I went back to the check in counter and they begrudgingly told me they had no more flights that day leaving for LAX. However, given that they were a major airline they could book me on another major airline for no additional cost. There was a 10:55 pm flight on another airline that I was booked on. I was advised to go check in with a ticket agent at that airline and see if they could put me on standby for an earlier flight. Lucky for me they had a flight leaving in an hour and put me on standby for that. I ran to security, and then ran from security to the gate and made it in time. I've never flown standby before so I inquired about the process and they informed me that I would have to wait and they'd be calling standby passengers to check in if seats were available. I was getting nervous as there were a few airline employees trying to get on the flight as well and they were talking loudly to each other that there weren't any seats. Five minutes later they call my name and hand me my ticket. The agent told me hesitantly that all they had available was a middle seat in the back of the plane. I nearly screamed, "I'LL TAKE IT!" but I maintained my frazzled composure and explained that at this point I just wanted on a plane, so I would not be picky. Then I thanked him profusely and finally boarded a plane. Lucky for me I was only an hour behind my original schedule...SCORE!
Two hours later we landed in a very hot and muggy Los Angeles, and I took a shuttle to the hotel. I checked in with the very lovely Marriott staff and as I was walking to the elevator I ran into my long lost friend, Rachel. I say long lost because we knew each other way back when we were gangly awkward teenagers in middle school. Then some middle school girl drama happened and we stopped hanging out. I lost touch with her after that and even though we went to the same school we started hanging out in different groups, then I moved away. Since then we've both graduated, had kids, gotten married, moved to different states. It wasn't until a few years ago we reconnected on Facebook and I saw that she was in the middle of sewing some historical clothing. As it happened I was just getting into the costuming world and we connected over a similar interest. The rest is kind of history. It's crazy to think that you can meet someone in person for the first time in 15 years and it's like no time has passed. Form there I quickly went up to my room, got settled in and dressed for the pool party.
I didn't really know what to expect from Costume College or the pool party. First thing, the pool really isn't involved. It's more a pool adjacent party. But there were so many people dressed in fabulous costumes I can see why the water was avoided. A lot of the groups were people meeting up with friends they haven't seen since the last Costume College, or in a while, or ever. Rachel met up with another online friend that she's never met in person before, Kat. Rachel, Kat, and I know each other from an online Titanic role playing game we play every year. Rachel and Kat played together years ago, and then Rachel got me to join up in 2017. It was kind of mind blowing to see everyone together for once. I'm mildly socially awkward so I wasn't actively seeking out people to meet at the pool party, but there were many outgoing attendees who introduced themselves. I tried to remember names, but I usually have to see someone a few times before it sticks, that became a problem later when everyone looked different in/out of costumes and were changing costumes several times per day. With the variations of dresses, hairstyles, and hair pieces, it was hard to remember faces and successfully attach them to names.
Also, it was hot and balmy that night. So we stuck around outside for a little bit before heading into the air conditioned lobby and spending the rest of the evening there.
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| Rachel and I dressed in our 50s best |
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| Some day I'll post a picture of my Aunt from the 60s, it's crazy how much we look alike |
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| Goofing off |
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| Trying on Kat's fabulous tiara |
Friday:
Friday was Day 1 of Costume College. The first official day of classes and what-have-yous. The plan was to get up, have breakfast, and attend Freshman Orientation. But when I knocked on Rachel and Amanda's door at 7:30 they were still asleep! I waited for them to drag themselves out of bed and then we went down to breakfast. Needless to say, we missed orientation. Oh well! Breakfast was tasty at least. I went to a few classes, attended a limited class on Ribbon Shoe Cockades, and then met Amanda down at the pool for lunch while Rachel was in her limited class. I brought my Gala dress to sew on while we sat on the patio because I desperately needed to finish some things on it before Saturday night. It needed hemmed, buttons added to the cuffs, and trim added. I managed to get it hemmed completely that afternoon before I had to go upstairs and get dressed for the Friday Night Social. Amanda and I had a great time getting to know one another while we had lunch, and she promised to help sew my buttons on my cuffs because sewing buttons is her favorite. I wasn't going to turn down the help!
Rachel and I had pre-planned out outfits for the events and coordinated with Titanic era dresses for Friday. Rachel chose to re-create a dress from movie Titanic (1997) and I made an original design. There was a whole group making movie repros and original Titanic era dresses, so we were a part of a large group!
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| Titanic movie dress group photo! |
Later, Rachel, Kat, and I went outside and Amanda kindly took some group photos of us.
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| So fancy! (From left: Kat, Rachel, me) |
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| Wonder Woman pose is NOT historically accurate, or flattering, apparently... |
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| Call me, Lady Megan |
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| RBF |
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| Lady Stelzer and Lady Edson |
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| Do try to be serious, ladies |
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| Nope. |
Saturday:
GALA DAY. I was in full panic mode upon waking up. My dressed was hemmed, but still not trimmed. It needed trim to be finished. Rachel and I went to a class in the morning on 18th century hair, which proved to be immensely useful!! Then we got to work trimming my dress. Rachel, Amanda, and I hunkered down in my room and got shit done. Amanda sewed buttons while Rachel and I cut, pinked, and ruffled strips of silk for the trim. At that point I had to leave for another limited class, but I took my dress and trimmings with me, intent on finishing it come hell or high water. I didn't get much sewing done in class, but I did finish my class project (a Downton Abbey inspired necklace and earrings). I blazed through making it it though and left class an hour and a half early so I could sew my trim. I was feverishly sewing clear through the red carpet, and right up until 7:30. They were getting ready to serve dinner as I finally finished my trim, and got dressed. I was surprised that I managed a decent 18th century hairstyle and getting dressed in less than 30 minutes. I made it downstairs in time for the salad course. I honestly never would have gotten it done if it wasn't for the help I received from Rachel and Amanda, they rock!
The dinner was just ok, but the cheesecake they served for dessert was phenomenal. I spent a lot of the meal though watching the servers like a hawk. Every single time a server leaned over to place/remove something from the table my heart was in my throat worried for my silk dress. I think everyone felt that way. My roommate kept having to dance away from a server with strawberry jam on her sleeve who kept getting too close. One server dropped a whole plate of food behind a table of women who all looked too scared to look behind them and see if their trains/skirts were ruined (thankfully I think it missed). I heard a rumor later that night that one server did spill something on someone's dress and there was a whole to-do about it. When you put that much time, energy, and expense into something like that it's easy to see why we get over protective. After dinner they started off the dancing by doing the Time Warp. It was amazing! I had to try and explain to my German roommate what the Time Warp was, but I don't think it's self explanatory, she'll just have to watch the movie.
WE DANCED SO MUCH. I am going to have to give my a dress a good spray down with vodka to keep it from getting funky because there was much dancing, and that room was pretty warm. But it was a blast!
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| 3 beautiful ladies all dolled up for the Gala |
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| Not bad for 30 minutes |
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| This cheesecake was to DIE for |
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| Decent mirror shot |
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| I was so happy with my silk flower bow with feathers I made. It covered the crappy parts of my hairstyle. And thumbs up for $14 earrings from Amazon |
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| Oh no! Marie Antoinette got put in the stocks! |
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| Add caption |
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| Those trains though! |
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| Kat selfie! |
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| Gala aftermath in my room. |
Sunday:
Waking up after Gala night was...rough. I wanted to make it to the Royal Breakfast though, and I was the only one. Rachel had a raging headache and Amanda had a class, so I went alone. I got lots of compliments on my 1930s house robe that I wore, but didn't get a picture in. Oh well! I felt like I could relax a lot more on Sunday because I wasn't rushing to finish anything. Most of the day was spent hanging out in the lobby just chatting with people. Over the course of the weekend I met a lot of awesome people and it was nice to just chat and figure out what we had in common. I attended my last limited class on Soutache trim, and then met up with Rachel and Amanda for dinner and our last hurrah. We got lost a bit trying to find the Maggianos that was hidden on the back side of an empty mall, but we found it and stuffed our faces. When we came back to the hotel we had drinks in the bar and were invited to sit with a group of ladies. We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and just got to enjoy each others company. I had way too many glasses of champagne that night, and woke up feeling like shit, but hey it was our last night. NO RAGERTS!
Monday:
While many CoCo attendees checked out and left on Sunday afternoon/evening we chose to stay an extra day. We decided to get up early and check out the fashion district downtown before heading to the airport. I think I would have enjoyed it more had the weather not been so miserable, and had I not had a hangover. I didn't buy anything, unfortunately, and we ended up leaving early because we were hot, hungry, and miserable. Rachel and I got to the airport a solid 3 hours before our flights so we checked in, got through security and found a place to eat. It was kind of nice just to relax, have a bite, and wait. We were exhausted. A long weekend of late nights and early mornings, and a lot of go-go-go. The last 30 minutes or so we hardly talked, mainly because we were both too tired. Rachel sat with me at my gate since my plane was leaving first, and then when my plane started to board she made her way to her own gate. It was sad saying goodbye. I had a really great weekend hanging out with her, Amanda, and all the other wonderful people I met. And it was a little bit a fairytale getting to dress up in fancy dresses, drink champagne, and have parties, so the prospect of coming back to the real world was sobering. The rest is pretty uneventful travel back home, with the exception of the medical emergency on the plane on the way home that (thankfully) did not result in an emergency landing. The guy ended up walking off the plane.
Moral of the story: Don't deep sea dive and then get on a plane.
Overall thoughts:
Would I go back? Maybe. Someday? I don't think I'll be in a big hurry to attend again. While the parties are fun, I didn't feel like I got a whole lot out of the classes (limited classes excluded). And a trip like that is pretty costly, so probably not something that will happen yearly. We'll see though, I'm not totally opposed to going again.
However, I did meet a lot of amazing people. Yes, there were some not so amazing people there too, but the good outshone the bad. I have a whole host of new friend requests sent and received from the weekend and I feel like I found my tribe. That's important when you have a niched hobby like historical costuming. I think that CoCo overall proved to me that I am good enough to display my work, and wear it proudly. There's a lot of self doubt that happens going into attending CoCo, but when someone wearing an absolutely amazing gown they've sewn themselves tells you how beautiful and well made your gown is, it's a confidence booster.
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