Rochester Dickens Festival - 2014 Christmas
The annual Christmas Dickens Festival is held every year in the beautiful city of Rochester with loads and loads of costumed people, mulled wine, antique and vintage shops, and characters straight out of Dicken's books - packsof fun you bet!
For the event I unfortunately ended up by myself, but my boyfriend was the hero of the day as he offered himself to escort me on this very weird, vivid and attention-drawing event with a huge crowd – not his piece of cake, but he still came with me and I was so happy about it! He ended up being the cameraman and luggage carrier all day long <3
The city before the flood of costumed people. Peaceful tourists shopping around with a few signs of historical outfits
As for my dress, unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to make a new dress as this was a bit of an ad-hoc decision to attend this event. So I ended up with my most used (I’m starting to get sick of it, wore it so many times) ballgown’s skirt, which I paired witha white blouse, a champaign coloured brocade vest (found in a second hand modern store...boooo, I know I know) and paired with a little bow which I love:
There's always time to make fun of yourself
Preparation in progress
Putting on the so-called bonnet - the Man constantly suggested that we put a little handle in it and see if it lights up...
As for the outerwear - folks, never estimate a sunny day to be a mild day. EVER.
I have fallen into the huge pit of mistake when you think it's sunny outside in wintertime then it should be ok. to wear a few layers. NOPE
I have underlayers of chemises, long sleeve knitted tops, and my brown jacket which I've converted from a modern coat and decorated with Hungarian trimmings: guess what: I was never so cold in my life.
It was still worth it and I also got to show off my last-minute bonnet I made. I was going for a less less cone-shaped one but I had very little time and no experience at all. Welp, remaking the whole thing now I guess!
My bonnet was made based on this tutorial from card paper, brown satin (bleh) and light blue taffeta - I jsut love this fabric! The inside is decorated with a ruched layer of off-white linen net, and with a gorgeous cluster of blackberries, which I got from the lovely Max.
It is proper millinery fruit - and guess what did he say about his researches? Turns out Hungarians seem to have been millinery fruit overlords! At least many of them are from here as well. Good to know! I will make a post of te bonnet soon, even though it needs serious rethinking!
Let the party begin!!
If I'll ever have a child I'll make sure he/she has one of these
The crowd is getting crowdier as we appear on the middle lane of the street while non-costumed people are watching from the sides
Artificial but still beautiful snow in the already darkened area. You'd almost believe it's real!
And my gown again indoors. from front and back view. Not my best shot, but I still had a lot of fun and made new friends.
A special thanks goes to the lovely lady called Caroline who recently joined the Rochester Dickens fellowship, and unbelievably sweet, she saw me shivering in the cold (had been smart enough to forget to bring my modern but warm gloves) and has given me her own muff what she made. I was so grateful, thank you Caroline!
I'll stick a pic of it soon.
