This girl was a trooper the whole roadtrip and is settling into Boulder like a champ. She my cuddle bug and my best girl as we embark on this new adventure! Also, look how cute her face is.
“There is no rush of fire like woman so untamed. She calmly goes her way where even panthers would be shamed.” -Aristophanes, Lysistrata
After the success of last year’s costume for the Make a Major Impact Fair at CU Boulder, I thought I’d revise my look for this year’s! It’s definitely a nicer quality than last year’s, with a few more anachronistic touches. Thanks as always to @clearancecreedwatersurvival for design help and pictures.
Much like last year, this costume is based on what an Athenian matron would have worn in about the 4th c. BCE. This woman is perhaps more upper class than last year’s design, though the pure white chiton is less beautifully “woven” than 2018′s.
I’m including another break-down of the outfit under the cut:
For my bottom layer, I’m wearing a peplos (also called a doric chiton). This one is made out of a simple white queen-sized sheet. The peplos was in fashion for hundreds of years with very little change, as it is very simple to create and put on. Although this year’s is fairly simple, most peplos would have been beautifully dyed and woven. As always, thanks to Take Back Halloween for the original concept and tutorial, which I have included below. It’s tied with an obi belt I got from a vacation in Japan years ago, looped around the waist and then knotted in the front. The fibulae (pins on my shoulders) are the same as last year, possibly from this shop.
Over my peplos, I am wearing a himaton, which is a shawl/wrap/cloak worn by every gender. This year’s is repurposed from last year’s peplos, and is pinned with an old cat pin of my mother’s (definitely anachronistic!). Unfortunately, I was a little too lazy to hem the himaton like @bisexual-flareon suggested last year, but hopefully this fabric is more acceptable as a himaton than as the main peplos :)
I am still barefoot, which is historically accurate but mostly because I still don’t have any convincing shoes.
My jewelry is rather... off. The earrings are replicas of Mycenaean earrings, but those were from the 8th c. BCE and a completely different city state. They were a gift, but I believe they came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They definitely don’t have them anymore, but these two sets are pretty good dupes, from a fairly accurate time period. The necklace is a modern necklace from here, but it worked so well that I couldn’t resist. I am wearing a replica of a Roman bracelet, which was also a gift.
My hair is the same as last year’s, from this tutorial. Athenian matrons wore their hair up exclusively, though unmarried women could wear their hair down. There are a few inaccuracies that you can see in the close up of my hair style, much like last year: the bobby pins would not have been present, and the ribbon would have been wool, not leather.
I also used last year’s tutorial for the makeup, again done with accurate techniques if not accurate products (thankfully, no lead!). I used a Nyx concealer for my face, a Pixi Endless Silky Eye Pen for the eyeliner, Too Faced’s Better Than Sex mascara for my mascara, and a very blotted version of a Kiko Milano lipstick for the lip and the cheek. Of course, I yet again skipped the sexy, sexy unibrow that was popular for women at the time, as I didn’t want to scare the firsties.
As with last year, I wore Black Phoenix Alchemy’s Hetairae perfume. Hetairae were high-class prostitutes--not quite the proper Athenian matron I was dressed as, but it is a lovely scent that echoes perfumes of the time. It’s also quite a lovely scent that I plan to wear more often.
