Back Row: Juan, Danielle, Leo, Jax, Kaitlyn, Rosie; Front Row: Mina, Aerial, Pixie

Back around mid October, my friend Rosie set up a fashion club meeting at the Railroad Museum of New England located in Thomaston, CT. If you thought I already covered all the historical transportation museums in my blog over the last year, you were wrong. I hadn't been to this one yet!

Thomaston Station is a beautiful example of Victorian architecture that was used regularly for passenger rail between 1881-1958. The original line connected  the north west town of Winsted in Litchfield County all the way to the city of Bridgeport in Fairfield County following along the Naugatuck River.  Unfortunately, the Thomaston station (which is located about halfway between those two towns) fell into disrepair and later fell victim to a fire set by vandals in 1993. Operations on the NEW (as in it changed hands on a legal level) Naugatuck Railroad commenced in 1996, and volunteers have cleaned and stabilized the structure in preparation for a full restoration. This historical line currently operates between Torrington and Waterbury. 

Every weekend in October, the Railroad Museum of New England offered a pumpkin patch excursion 3x a day. This involved riding the train between Thomaston and Waterville (a neighborhood that is part of Waterbury, CT) and being let off at a small patch of grass with some trees and plenty of hay bales, decorations, and small pumpkins. Tickets weren't too expensive...something around $26 for the round trip. It also included fresh local apple cider (or bottled water), and access to a gallery of photos provided by a professional photographer who partnered with the museum for this purpose. I was expecting to take home a pumpkin (which apparently was just for children >_>;) but the beverage and the hi res professional photos were some nice surprises. 

Even if some people managed to get pumpkins while most of us didn't, we all brought it with our outfits that day. Rosie suggested that we wear Autumn Colors or Halloween themed coordinates and mentioned something about "overseas purple", which is a reference to Japanese brand Atelier Pierrot saying that their purple offerings are very enthusiastically purchased by customers living outside of Japan.  

I love how Juan and Rosie perfectly complement one another with cream, caramel, and warm brown colors for autumn. I also appreciate the little dashes of red that Juan included with their head bow, scarf, and shoes. It was my idea to have the two of them pose together near the tree, but Pixie is the one who captured all the details!

This was apparently Kaitlyn's first time dressing up in the fashion. She wore a completely kuro coordinate. Kuro in Japanese means "black" and is associated with elegance and solemnity. Black is also a great color for the Halloween theme. Aerial wore a royal blue celestial coordinate that she acquired during a visit to Japan this year. It was really neat to see the matching beret and dress details all together. This type of blue is generally good for autumn and winter styles.  It just naturally worked out that Rosie and Juan stood between them so that you could kind of see a visual pattern.  

In this grouping, we kind of took the idea of purple or gurple (grayish purple) to heart. Leo is wearing a black and lavender version of the dress "Magical Milk Cats" by Japanese brand Angelic Pretty. They even had the matching socks and other accessories for this dress. The witch hat and lavender shoes totally take the cake!  Mina made their outfit from scratch! I love how they designed the skirt pattern to alternate the coffin pattern with solid black. It is very striking! Jax is wearing the purple colorway of the dress "Magical Artefact" by Japanese brand Metamorphose. They also paired it with a black blouse and accessories. I am wearing the Witchville Halloween Gothic Set from Chinese indie brand YingLuoFu.  This time I decided to keep the black overskirt at home, as I wanted the purple and navy aspects of the skirt to be really obvious. 

In fact, if you take a closer look at the details in our coordinates, Leo, Jax, and I are not only wearing black and purple, but all of our dresses also have cats on them. The cats on Leo's skirt are gray and white and seem to be surrounded by books, potions, and a crystal ball. The imagery is similar in Jax's dress, but the cats are distinctively black and the illustration over all is more realistic looking. The cats on mine are wearing Victorian style clothing while walking around outside of a sleepy windmill town with a giant crescent moon. Also in the streets are what look like disrobed cartoon zombies and there are also faintly menacing eyes in the sky. Is it supposed to be the Witching Hour? I'd say so with these Halloween themed pieces!

Pixie made this black and silver Halloween spider web themed jsk and paired it with a victorian style black shirt and black and silver spider accessories. The way that she added the black panel in the front breaks up the design nicely and the bow at the bottom is visually interesting. I'm sure that bow could be used a lot of different ways--in the hair, up further towards the waist, etc. I love how ultra creative she is when designing her outfits to match the meeting theme!

Overall this was a really fun time. I kind of wish we had had more time to hang out in the pumpkin patch taking photos or what have you, but the weather had turned cold and rainy (the umbrella is not simply a conveniently matching prop) and we also didn't want to keep the children or the parents who also took this journey with us waiting too long either.

I am happy I got to wear this coordinate for the second time and enjoyed accessorizing it differently. I am also very glad that I had half a mind to bring that velvet capelet with me, because I truly needed it to stay warm when the rain came. (This meeting was just one week after the extremely hot meeting at the fairy exhibit). One thing that is always true living in New England is if you don't like the weather, wait a minute, because it can and will drastically change, especially in the transitional months in the spring and autumn. 

Sarah, Sarah, Jax, Danielle, Jeannette, and Ren

One of the exhibitions that I always wanted to see was the Wee Faery Village Exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT. This is a special exhibition that happens every autumn and is comprised of over 30 fairy style homes that are created by local artists as well as families and classrooms throughout the region. They are placed all along the outside trails and paths of the Florence Griswold Museum. It is a special event and museum admission is twice as much as usual for the event.

I had it in my head that I wanted to go with a group of friends way back in August. So, naturally I hosted a fashion club meeting for it. Jax gave me the idea to do a double meeting--why don't we go to the Old Lyme Inn's Autumn Tea first and then catch the exhibit at the museum (literally 500 ft across the street) afterwards?  We both really enjoyed the Wizard of Oz Tea in the summer, so why not try their autumn offerings too?

This photograph was taken right outside the front of the Old Lyme Inn. This was essentially part one of our meeting, but for some attendees it was the only part. I made attending both parts of the meeting optional, as it could be a potentially all day affair, and I know not everyone has time for that.

As far as the fashion choices for the meeting, I asked attendees to really hone in on the autumn or fairy theme with colors, prints, or styles evocative of autumn. As usual, everyone brought it in their own way.

Jeannette wore a sweet style yellow dress from the brand The Angelic Forest (which is a Pacific Northwest Indie brand) with a pastel purple, blue, and pink print of mushrooms with a pink blouse and accessories.

Jax wore a black dress with flames on it that they got from The Black Ribbon, which is a US based Indie brand. Jax made themselves look more fae like with elf ears and colored contacts that looked more animal than human. 

Sarah R evoked the spirit of the Amanita/ fly agaric mushroom in her Angelic Pretty red dress with white polka dots. She even wore leg warmers that have a similar visual texture that echo part of the amanita mushroom's stem.

Sarah H was autumn personified while wearing their Metamorphose Gobelin tapestry style print dress, rich with wine red, sage green and other autumn colored flowers with its matching bonnet.

I was going for dark autumn fairy, so I incorporated autumn colors of ivory, black, and wine red with a print of dark roses and butterflies. The dress, blouse, and "apron" is a Classic style dress set you can purchase from the Chinese Indie Brand Sweet Date. 

Ally has an adorable orange Country style outfit from the Chinese Indie brand Strawberry Fantasy. It is the perfect color for autumn and I love how it ties in orange and white gingham accents in the apron, bows, shoulder straps and triangle head scarf in the set. 

Addy is wearing a medium pink and black outfit that has different textures incorporated in it. The whole coordinate is dedicated to a sweet yet slightly edgy look which can be seen in the pink chain of the heart bag, as well as the criss cross straps on the skirt and some of the metal details on her shoes. 

Ren is wearing a black dress with a perfectly dark chartreuse blouse and gold heeled booties. They are also wearing the Black Conjuror's Bow from American indie brand Dandy Puppeteer. 

The Autumn tea at the Old Lyme Inn was perfectly decorated and of course the menu changed significantly from our last visit in the summer. This time we were able to taste seasonal flavors like root vegetables, cranberry and apple, cinnamon and pumpkin in both savory and sweet delights. I was absolutely unprepared for the amount of horseradish in the ham and cheese sandwiches. It's almost a month later when I am writing this blog post, and I can still not forget how strong it was! Jax made a comment that this is the kind of sandwich their granddad would prefer!

We had a slightly larger party than last time, and the inn's staff was gracious enough to seat us in a room that was a little more private. I could actually have a conversation with everyone in my group (as the tables do tend to get a little loud in the larger room after awhile). We all took turns taking these photographs in front of the fire place before we left for part two of the meeting. This is my demure headdress--so I hope you're paying attention to an important outfit change!

One wonderful thing that I didn't know about the Wee Fairy Village Exhibit back in August when I planned the meeting, was about this immersive Enchanted Environment that Adrien Broom was tasked with creating inside the museum space as part of the exhibition this year. In Adrien Broom's "Mystical Murmurs: An Enchanted Environment", audiences were invited to "experience the mystical world of the forest and imagine themselves at faerie-scale. Drawing on medieval European folk beliefs and superstitions, faerie-friends are enticed to step inside the colossal mushroom ring, which triggers entrancing songs that infiltrate the circle and seduce guests to dance beyond time."

Honestly, when I saw the darker autumn colors of these larger than life size mushrooms, that's when I decided to wear this outfit as opposed to a mauve and ivory dress that I also own with a fairy print. And then I decided, you know what, I want to wear my duo-horned headdress too to evoke the kind of faery that is mentioned in those medieval European beliefs---trust me they are not all sunshine and roses and can be quite dangerous and deceptive if you don't adhere to certain "rituals of engagement" with them. 

After exiting the Mystical Murmers portion of the exhibition, we proceeded to the Wee Fairy Village. I will highlight some of my favorite houses from this years exhibit below. This is such a great exhibition for children as well, as every house comes with a little rhyme about something you should try to find in it. I enjoyed Sarah and Jax taking turns reading the guide and finding the items with them. 

Overall we had such a fun time! I did not expect the weather to be so warm, so my outfit was a little hot for me and I was very excited when Jax found a snack shack with cold beverages halfway through the fairy house exhibit!  I would definitely go back to this special exhibit again, especially knowing that it changes every year and that I can get lots of walking in around the museum! I will be sure to plan my outfit around the weather the day I decide to go next time too.