A little Easter Walk Around Downtown BranfordMarch 2024 quickly flew by for me...not because I was going to events left and right, but because I finally caught COVID (after four years of evading it). I spent most of March after the Bridgerton Brunch laid up in bed with a very bad headache for about a week. Then I spent a lot of time coughing and even cracked a rib from coughing! It was not a good scene and it took approximately 3.5 weeks to start feeling better enough to start going out and dressing up again. This outfit I had planned to wear to a special hooked rugs exhibit with a fairy tale theme the weekend I was super sick. Luckily, Easter Sunday was on March 31 this year, so I got a chance to wear one more March outfit before April. You might be wondering what is open on Easter Sunday in CT, and I can tell you---not all that much. Churches of many Christian denominations are open for church service, but most restaurants and other businesses, including grocery stores are closed. Easter is an interesting holiday because if you're not a Christian...it just turns into another Sunday or a paid day off if you normally work on Sundays. For me, I don't celebrate Easter in the Christian sense, (I'm more about the spring aspects of rebirth and renewal, Eostre if you will) and now that I'm dating someone who never celebrated it before (because they were raised in a religion that doesn't celebrate it), it opens a lot of interpretations of how to celebrate Easter. The plan was to walk around downtown Branford and take some photographs, and get food somewhere if we were lucky. We got lucky because an Indian restaurant was open and serving a delicious lunch buffet!! Here I am modeling an essentially Sweet style EGL outfit. The pieces are from all different parts of my wardrobe that I noticed work together (even though I did not purchase them at the same time). The JSK is from the Chinese Indie Brand Yilia and is called Dream Elf ~Chiffon Lolita Dress. I liked this dress from the first time I saw it, and it comes in many colorways for your unique needs and choices, but I fell in love with the mauve pink. (But please don't be fooled by the Plus Size description tag in the listing if you're a western sized person...I could wear the 2XL or if I wanted a slightly more room, the 3XL, nothing less). The blouse is the Sakurada Fawn Short Sleeve Cotton Blouse in Navy. This shirt IS actually plus size and could fit a variety of people. It's a lightweight cotton and the navy is opaque. It was pretty roomy for me, but I found it kind of short in length. It was fine under a JSK, but it would be too short for a regular skirt. The cardigan is from Little Dipper and it is in the shade light pea green. If this looks oddly familiar it's because I own this cardigan in 5 colors. It's the best cotton cardigan and helps get the right shape with many JSK looks. The flowers with pearls on the cardigan is actually an elaborate fake collar from Infanta. Lastly, the bonnet is from Miss Point, the Rose Silhouette Elegant Lolita Flat Hat in dark cyan. I have the matching OP for this bonnet, but I haven't worn it yet. Every time Miss Point comes out with a coordinate I like, I try to buy the matching head piece(s), so that I can make my outfit look as cohesive as possible, but also to wear the headpieces with completely different dresses as well. The over the knee socks are off-brand and the shoes were one of my very first buys...off of AMAZON. I don't recommend buying shoes off of Amazon, but these aren't terrible...but when they wear out I will upgrade to a different brand with more support in the insole for sure!! The bag is a white heart bag from Loris. They are very large and affordable bags and come in many sweet colors. I purchased white x white because it goes with everything when I'm at a loss for the right bag. I'm still looking for a classic style crossbody or strap bag like this in beige or off-white with some flower and or pearl accents. It seems difficult to find classic style bags outside of something that looks like a picnic basket, and that's not quite the vibe I am generally looking for.
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Bridgerton Brunch in March 2024Back in March, I saw an event on Facebook for a modest brunch with a Bridgerton theme at a restaurant in the middle of a golf course in Middlefield, CT. It was something like $35 a person for the brunch, and they encouraged you to come in costume. Sign me up! The location was weird, but the event sounded promising. If you have Netflix, and don't live under a rock, Bridgerton is a fantasy romance drama about the Bridgerton family, set roughly in the Regency Period. It has completed two seasons, with a third on the way. The whole show is actually based on a series of 8 historical fiction novels by author Julia Quinn. Now, Pahl and I had neither read nor actually SEEN Bridgerton yet, but we knew from many stills and memes, and talking to people at the Jane Austen Festival, that it was definitely based on Regency fashion. So... it was a great opportunity to bring out our official historical Regency Period outfits. And it was the right weather to boot. Early March? It's cold--perfect for layers of wool, satin, and lace. Since this was my second time wearing this gown, I was able to quickly put on my makeup and even put a nice braid bun in my hair; so I did actually take off my bonnet in public this time. As a result, you can actually see my choker, the Rose of Sharon London Afternoon Tea Daily Choker. Chokers were pretty common in Regency Fashion. This one is a quality costume piece, that I originally purchased to wear with a completely different classic EGL style dress, but it works. So it's always good to have accessories that you can use on multiple occasions. Always think outside the box! You never know what you can put together! Pahl's outfit is nearly exactly the same, except that he chose a green based waist coat that he "hadn't worn in awhile". The green is just as nice of a complement to my deep red dress as the original red and black waistcoat was. You can always compare what we wore in my original post here. The whole event was very classy. Whoever planned it was a huge Bridgerton fan and had nicely decorated the tables with Lady Whistledown's papers, flowers and folded cloth napkins, while official classical music from the show was playing in the background. Some of the menu was a nod to delicacies eaten in the show and even the waitresses were instructed to wear empire waist dresses. The attention to detail in the way it was all executed was superb! I really enjoyed getting dressed up for this little event. It was fun to wear my Regency outfit again and have a low-key brunch morning with other people quietly dining nearby either really into the show, and or really into costuming.
Since the event, I've managed to watch the first two episodes of Season 1, and I recognized the music played at the brunch and the nod to Lady Whistledown (who's kind of like the town crier in the show. Her opinions make or break people's lives, even though no one knows who she actually is). I realized that my outfit was definitely not as fantastical as the womens elaborate dresses in the show. They tend to have these elaborate empire waist pieces that are always short sleeve that they pair with super long gloves. Pahl's outfit I'm not sure. When we watched the episodes, we noticed they mixed mens fashion from different time periods...some earlier and some later than Regency period. But you'd have to really know about the height of top hats, appropriate shirt collars and the way people tied their cravats, to really be able to notice that. The whole show is a fantasy Regency period. It's beautiful and engaging and I look forward to seeing more episodes! |
DanielleI love EGL and alternative fashion and modeling. I am taking two of my favorite hobbies and making them into a story for you to read about. Archives
May 2024
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