KWCS trip

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004
8:10 AM

I've been trying to find the time to write my account of KWCS since I got back but I've had no time this week. See Gen's entry for more details.

We had a great road trip - long enough to really be an adventure but not so long that we were too crispy at the end. Who knew that PA charges you money to leave their state and Ohio charges you a cover to come in? Many jokes about ladies' night and whether there was a good band on the main stage.

There were certainly things I would have changed about the event itself, even though I am no autocrat either. We made a ton of notes on things that could be done differently, with thoughts lurking about possibly hosting this event some time down the road. The most frustrating part was the fact that the online class schedule had some discrepancies in two different versions, and the final schedule on site was different still. But we did get it figured out eventually.

I really enjoyed the German gown class - really cool German Laurel lady teaching and fun examples to check out. German is so different from pretty much everything else (well OK, so is Spanish) so it's really interesting. The class on presenting research was really good and gave me some thoughts on my proto-CA on Florence. I took a class on 16th century Florentine dresses, which was interesting but not anything terribly new to me. I got some ideas on doing gathered sleeves so I think I know what I'm doing for Twelfth Night (not Japanese, sorry). Unfortunately there were some disruptive people in that class, and once the instructor got to the hands-on fitting portion, I deemed it safe to leave (Gen and Violante had already fled).

Gen and I were in a different hotel than the event, so we headed back there after classes, grabbed dinner, chilled a bit and changed clothes. Then we went back for the fashion show. As Gen said, most of the entries were pretty good (some amazingly good), with only a couple of unfortunate ones. After the "official" fashion show, they started dragging random people up to talk about their garb. Somebody wanted to know about mine - I blame the shiny green and gold silk damask giornea I made last week. Scary but over quickly, thankfully.

Stayed up way too late checking out the symposium proceedings and the cool books we got. Sunday morning saw yummy breakfast at Denny's and then more classes. I took one on Venetian dresses and then the following one on chopines. If you got the recent CA on Venetian stuff, this is the same lady. She has obviously done tons of research and her dress was done very well - the chopines were really cool but covered in screaming orange velvet. I'm talking Philly Flyers orange here, Rich would have loved it. She could have gone hunting in the woods in those chopines and been perfectly safe. Aside from the dubious color choice, they were really neat and I might have to make a pair just so I can be taller.

The last class was on 12th/13th century headwear but mostly focusing on a method for making a fabric fillet. Neat idea and should work great. There is a pattern in the handout so if anyone wants a copy, let me know. That was the last class we took so we got changed and then headed home.

Naturally we did some shopping - I got a copy of the Medieval Health Handbook (14th century Italian!!) and a book on Venetian women in convents. I also got a new Laurel medallion from von Roessler Jewels, oooh pretty. I restrained myself from buying fabric, but got a business card from the merchant.

So part of our conversation on the way home had to do with narrow woven trim around the neckline of gamurre in portraits - we have at least three examples so it's not a fluke kind of thing. I saw a portrait in one class that I hadn't seen before, and that's saying something for me. The dress had neat little chevron patterned trim right around the neckline. Sadly I'm afraid I may have to take up weaving now. =)

In spite of the snafus and disappointments (I paid ten bucks for that??), I had a really good time at KWCS. I don't know that I'll get to next years, which is going to be in Kansas City, but whenever it's within reasonable distance I'll try to make it. Heck, hosting it would be a blast. Most importantly, I got really inspired to work on a whole bunch of stuff. Lots of ideas and creative energy. That's the best thing I got out of the whole symposium. Well, that and a ton of fun with Gen.

I gotta get ready to go to work now - not looking forward to that since Bosslady was getting on my last nerve yesterday. I will try really hard not to beat her with her own crutches today. Sigh.

Post script: I meant to include this little rant earlier but I was running late for work so I skipped it. Anyway, RANT WARNING! Some may think me snobby for this, but in that case, I refer you to Kevin's favorite quote from Isobel. OK, Dangerous Beauty is a fine movie. Fun, visually yummy, romantic, all that. However comma, it is not all that accurate. Parts of it are, parts of it aren't, Hollywood, etc., let's leave it at that. I am getting heartily sick of all the people out there who have decided they want courtesan personae. There were far more women in Venice during the Renaissance who weren't courtesans than those who were. How come nobody ever says, "I want a nice artisan's wife persona"? Or even a respectable upper-class matron persona? You still get to wear cool clothes and be rich. Why must they all be courtesans? WHY?? Not to mention that many of them don't really know the difference between a courtesan and a common prostitute, AND on top of that always refer to the two women on the balcony in Carpaccio's painting as courtesans when I think pretty clearly they are not. (Hello? Dog as symbol of fidelity?)I will now take the sting out of my rant by adding, I'm just sayin'. Baby. Rant finis.