This Renaissance party thing is starting to get out of hand. I spent a weekend in Hämeenlinna with Otter and T, and in addition to visiting the local theatre to look at available dresses and tunics (for those who aren’t willing to spent their month’s salary on period clothes), cooking some ‘authentic’ renaissance milk jelly, planning a web page for our very own Stereotypical History Society and just generally planning stuff to do with the party, Otter and I also spent ridiculous amounts of money on ‘authentic’ Renaissance dresses and jewellery.
At least you can’t blame us for feeding the economic depression.
I don’t know what it is about period dress that fascinates so many women, myself included. It may be the fact that in this day and age, dressing up in fabulously ‘feminine’ but completely impractical clothes is not an option for many of us; a heavy full-length skirt and a tight corset may look fabulous on you, but imagine going through your day unable to go to the toilet. Occasions like our little Renaissance party give us a taste of what it was like to wear ridiculous clothes - and then go back to wearing jeans and T-shirts for the rest of the year.
Another reason I can think of off the top of my head for this frock fetish is that I don’t expect to get married - and thus am not entitled to a day of meringue fabulousness, surrounded by fussing friends and members of my family. Thus I have to make up my own fun - which in fact should be even more fun than a wedding, since as a member of the Stereotypical History Society, I can indulge in my period dress fetish every year; furthermore I don’t get riddled with a husband and five toasters.
In case you’re interested, the 16th century milk jelly cubes turned out pretty well. Their taste can be best described as ‘interesting’ - but that’s only inevitable since these wobbly cubes are made up of boiled milk, sugar, gelatine and rosewater. They taste faintly of milk and rose, and then sort of disappear in your mouth. And, because they are such a strange and unexpected dessert, Otter and I decided they’d make a perfect snack accompanied by fruit and wine.
I’m pretty excited about my dress, by the way; however, because I ordered it via the Intertubes, there are many things that can go wrong with it. Therefore I’m not saying anything more about it at this point. After the Renaissance party there’ll be pictures.
In addition to the dresses, food, websites and general planning, I’ve also promised to contribute to the cultural content of the party. So far, I’ve listened to some Renaissance music (I particularly like John Dowland’s lute songs), looked at some Renaissance dancing on Youtube, and read a depressing book about Renaissance women (apparently they were nowhere near as versatile as Renaissance men - most likely because Renaissance men didn’t want any competition). I’ve also dug out my tarot cards and am trying to relearn the basics so that when I’m in a merry mood after a few goblets of wine, I can tell people their approximate fortunes.
Still, there’s a lot of stuff that needs organising. We don’t know how many people are going to turn up, what the venue is really like - and most importantly, how we’re going to get there. Luckily we’ve started our planning in time; many things can change between now and late June.
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