Fascination: Costuming

source: http://www.bellaumbrellablog.com

 
Hello everyone! =)

Today I was thinking about which topic I should blog and millions of ideas popped into my mind. I was thinking about fabric suggestions, more musical stuff, costumes for children, etc. but in the end I decided on a rather simple, but 'close' topic.

What is so damn fascinating about costuming?

To be honest: I actually don't know. I could speculate about possible reasons. Some may say escape from reality (which I think is nonsense), others might say it is more like kind of a game. But these are all very vague explanations. When I think about costuming the first think I remember is warmth. Or rather: being loved by my parents. Both my mum and dad put so much effort in creating a nicer world for me, when I was a child. Sounds magical? Well, for me, it was. When I was little, my dad always asked friends of his to disguise themselves as Saint Nicholas and Knecht Ruprecht. And everytime I was enjoying this special day, the sixth of December. Knecht Ruprecht was really scary, dressed in a black robe with his old and dusty rod. Nicholas was always kind-hearted. He reminded me a lot of my grandpa. Thinking back I imagine it was quite a procedure to organise this day every year again and again. But this indicates that they cared for me.
When I was old enough to attend the kindergarten my mum began to sew costumes for me. I could be just everything or everybody I wanted to be: a lion (oh, how I loved Simba the Lion King back then!), a fair princess or an evil witch. She spent weeks working on my costumes, but I treasured them. Watching old photos of those dresses and costumes still makes me feel nostalgic. I think that gives a pretty good impression why 'warmth' is the first thing for me when it comes to costuming.

Nowadays I grew too old for this stuff. Today I can make my own costumes for German carnival, Halloween and other festivities. It is a great opportunity to work creative. Sewing is something else than just drawing a design. When you draw something it is caught on paper - but when you sew a dress or a costume, it really bursts into life. You have the power to create something new with your very own hands. For me that is the most fascinating part.

I know that there are millions of other reasons to start costuming, sewing or crafting, since there are millions of different people carrying millions of different emotions. So please tell me, why did you start?

Love,
J.

Everyone has danced with Death

... but no one like Elisabeth.

source: musical-in.de

This time I want to tell you about a huge passion of mine: musicals. I just love the singing and the gorgeous dresses and costumes. Until now I have only seen three different musicals, which were Elisabeth, Wicked and Dance of the Vampires. Not that many, but I think next year Tarzan and The Lion King will follow, if my pouch allows it. Just to make things clear: I prefer the German versions. It's just a matter of personal taste. In my opinion the lyrics and intonation sound way better than in English - so I will link German versions and talk about the German actors/singers. But -just as I said - it's a matter of personal taste ;)

I have seen at the beginning of this year, so my memory is a bit blurry but I'll try to give you a nice overview on the Elisabeth musical, which is about Elisabeth (also known as Sissi), the wife of Franz Josef II. The musical focuses mainly on an imagined lifelong flirtation with Death himself (in disguise of a handsome young man called "Der Tod"- German for "death") and Elisabeth's constant need for independence, often at the cost of her loving husband and her hypersensitive son Rudolf, who commits suicide later on. It is narrated from beyond the grave by Luigi Lucheni, the Italian anarchist who assassinated her in 1898.

The thing I like the most in this musical are the costumes. Every time you can see Sissi she is wearing another dress. At the beginning they are rather plain, but become more and more luxurious and detailed when Elisabeth too becomes more powerful. Another small detail that caught my audience was that Elisabeth ages visibly (due to make-up) during the musical. At the beginning she looks pretty and young and in the end there are acutally wrinkles in her face and she looks worn out.

Elisabeth dancing with her husband Franz Joesf.
source:dermuenchenblog.de

If became curious and you want to check out the musical, you should pay YouTube a visit. You can watch the entire musical there - even in different languages. But I recommend to watch it live. Musicals develope some kind of magic and strength when you experience them in person. You just can't compare it to a video. Anyways, here is the prologue for a first peep:

Fun fact: There is even a Japanese version of the musical, did you know that?
Have anyone of you seen Elisabeth? How do you like it? What do you think about musicals in general? Don't hesitate to tell me! :)

Love,
J.

The eleventh of eleventh

Soon the 'fifth season' will start in Germany. In many towns - the most popular are Dusseldorf and Cologne I bet - the commencement is about to begin at 11.11, the eleventh of November. This time is called 'Fastnachtsbeginn' and will initiate the carnival festivities troughout Germany. From this point carnival parades start and continue until the actual festive days in February next year. There is a short winter break around Christmas but after that parades and parties will take place again. The biggest parties are on 'Weiberfastnacht' (07. 02) and 'Rosenmontag' (11.02).

To be honest: I'm not that much of a carnival nerd and don't know anything about the historical backgrounds and very little about some customs. In my hometown parades are almost not celebrated at all and the festive events become less and lesser every year. The only constant are the 'Kamelle' - candy so to say - that are distributed among the festival goers. I bet they use the remaining candy every year... because that is how they taste like: old and rock-hard. Sadly there is not the slightest atmosphere and spirit of carnival.
Until now I was in Cologne once or twice with a friend to celebrate carninal and it was an entirely different world. The people but so much effort into their costumes - really! There are almost no people in improvised costumes or clothing. The entire outfit was carefully planned in detail. They even bring more than just one costume for the parties. It's the same like in the real life: you can't wear the same outfit over and over again when going out. You simply have to bring something new with you. Trust me: when you wear your normal clothes among costumed party people you feel like an outcast. You feel like you don't belong there. You feel dull and grey. So at least put on striking make up to stand out a little and become one with the party group.
Surrounded by all those great costumes you instantly catch fire and become infected by the carnival celebration virus. It is a great feeling standing in the midst of a group of Ghostbusters while being invited to a drink by Jack Sparrow. If you have the opportunity you should celebrate carnival in one of Germany's strongholds: it's definitely worth a trip.

carnival in Cologne - source of image: deutsch-heute.blogspot.de

Pumpkin, pumpkin

Hello everyone!

It's been a couple of days since Halloween and I'm awfully sorry for not posting earlier. But I guess you all know the procedure after a good Halloween party: cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. And then sleeping. Like forever.

To sum up Halloween was really great! Tob, a dear friend of mine, made his famous and super tasty nacho salad. It's not that kind of salad you could call super-healthy - but in my opinion this is the perfect salad for a party. Sure there is plenty of iceberg lettuce in it and corn, too, but also some more lusty stuff like minced meat, kidney beans and of course nachos. It's super delicious! You can also add onions, cheese, sour creams or ingredients like that. You should try it! Click this link for a recipe in English.

world's best nacho salad!

All in all we had so much food to eat. I made a noodle plate, Melle made Wan Tan (Oh- I have to ask her for the recipe. They were sooooo good!), Rieke and Randi made a huge bowl with pineapple and lots of alcohol in it and some nice finger foods.

Finger food... I think this gives it an entirely new meaning.

Bibi made this gorgeous cake. The 'earth' are crumbled oreo cakes! Great, isn't it?

And when you think all we did was eating, then you are so damn right! I can't remember how much I ate but... I can remember my full and aching stomach in the morning. And a bit of the rest alcohol *cough*

To be honest we did a bit more except for the drinking and eating stuff. Randi and Tob showed us some very creepy and 'disturbing' horror games. 'Disturbing' only counts for Typing of the Dead, the worst zombie/apocalypse/whatever game ever developed. You shoot zombies with a keyboard while writing words and sentences that are displayed on the screen. Sounds strange? It really is... And I bet if we were more drunk this game would have been even more disturbing. The next games we played were Slender, Paranormal and SCP. And guys - if you honestly think that you are brave: play those games. You will shit bricks. Not kidding. We girls were so frightened. And screaming almost nonstop due to those f****** shock effects. Slender only lasts 20 or 30 minutes, so playing it won't take that long ;3 Here's a short trailer. Okay, I have to admit that the trailer is not that scary. But the game definitely is.

Last but not least I made a small collage to show you some more impressions and to prevent the hell of a picture spam.Unfortunately there are no goods pictures of me, because I totally messed up my make-up. I only had fifteen minutes to dress up and get my clothes packed... I was in totaly stress and well... it ended up no good. Maybe there is some free time next week to make up for the missing photo of me :)

Ah, I almost forgot! Since this is my very first time blogging, I feel the constant fear that Iwill run out of ideas or my blog entries are boring - so tell me please what do you think about this blog? What do you want to see? The next blog entry will deal with the upcoming carnival season in Germany.

Love, J.