Clown Around City Point

Clown Around City Point

Carl, Aerial, Jax, Barbara, and Danielle at the Shelter Area

One of the meetings I planned for my fashion community in October 2025 was a meeting I refer to as "Clown Around City Point". The goal was to dress as a cirque persona while walking a gentle nature trail located in the City Point neighborhood of New Haven, CT. I didn't know exactly who would come out to this, as I wasn't sure how popular clown looks would be with my local community. I also didn't know who would be up for doing so on a gentle nature trail abutting a salt marsh. All I knew was that it was going to be an awesome photoshoot, so I asked my friend Alan Kendzior if he would like to accompany us on our adventure and take photos, a role of which he immediately accepted months in advance. 

The official name of the trail we were on is the Long Wharf Nature Preserve, and it stretches from the Sound School parking lot all the way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is a short, gentle walk that literally goes under Interstate 95 in one part as well as meeting with the edge of the salt marsh in another. Except for the brief moment where you actually go under I-95 and the highway noise is a little intense, the rest of the trail is calming and restorative. I used to walk on it in normal clothes when one of my college friends lived down that way. Peak Connecticut autumn in mid-October was definitely going to be the perfect time to do this meeting. 

We had to step to the side of the trail to let some bikers through. Alan noticed the lighting was perfect and asked us to pose.

When I told folks what to wear for the meeting, I initially envisioned cirque performers from 19th century French and Italian circus advertisement posters. I encouraged the use of stripes, polka dots, and diamonds in the attire, and encouraged everyone to craft a persona and bring a prop. And to wear sturdy shoes!! I didn't want ANY accidents on the trail, so if the shoes didn't quite fit the outfit, that was okay because safety was my #1 priority. 

Aerial wore a popcorn themed outfit complete with popcorn skirt and matching bag! She also did her makeup to look like a sweet and friendly clown!  And her prop was a giant bubble wand---so fun!! Her partner Carl went with green and blue as his main colors and a matching striped top hat and bow tie. 

Jax made their own striped skirt complete with dangling gold star trim on the hem and paired it with black and white diamond socks, a black blouse, and a carousel purse. They also did their own clown makeup, something that I learned that they were somewhat of an expert in, as they practiced many different styles in the past. 

Barbara was kind of a cross between lion tamer and ring leader, with her gorgeous vintage purple with blue stars dress with lions jumping through hoops in the design, matching contrasting neck ruff, a black waist cincher belt, a purple adjustable petticoat that she decided to wear on top of the skirt, black and white striped socks and top hat, and white boots with hand painted cheetah print motifs on it. Her prop was a cane with a lion's head. 

I was basically the goth clown that scares away anyone normal from harassing the group. I decided to go for an ouji style look for this meeting, and while it took me about five minutes to put my entire outfit on, the makeup took by itself took over an hour. The props that I brought included a hula hoop and a black cat hand puppet (which looks convincingly real, almost like Salem in Sabrina the Teenage Witch). 

Like seriously look at this close up of the makeup and me interacting with this puppet!

My full coordinate

I had the perfect dress and everything for this event, but then there was the nature trail aspect and necessity of wearing sturdy shoes and layers to prevent from insects as well as poisonous plants (like poison ivy), so I switched to a simple black and white diamond centered ouji outfit. It's almost like the black version of my White Rabbit coordinate from the Alice Tea back in April 2025, but with a simpler outer coat and much more functional boots that I would not worry about getting mud or dirt on. The outer coat and shoes are from Killstar (a British online gothic clothing and lifestyle store), the blouse with the giant bow is from Lady Sloth (a Polish indie brand), the pants are from Putamayo (Japanese brand), the socks are from Dandy Puppeteer (a local vendor specializing in whimsical accessories and socks that fit most leg sizes), and the hat is from Fox Cherry, which is a Chinese indie brand. You might be wondering why I added red as my makeup accent color if there is no red anywhere else in my outfit, but you would be missing out on my purse. 

See! Now the red accents with black mixed in make perfect sense!

We really had a lot of fun clowning around in our personas. Here are more pictures from the event!

Aerial using the bubble wand!

Barbara and Jax clowning around

I led the trail walk

Jax is clearly a professional in both makeup application and gesture

Barbara in her welcome pose

Aerial, the popcorn clown

Alan took one for the team and stood in the mud to take this group photo on the bridge

We had such a blast clowning around and since there were only five of us, we all fit in one car to stop by the food trucks located on nearby Long Wharf drive. If you can imagine a one way street lined with about 15 food trucks on each side, that's it! It is mostly Mexican style cuisine with other Latin American foods. Barbara and Jax knew their way around the trucks as they both worked nearby, and Aerial gave good suggestions on what I should order, as I was unfamiliar with a lot of the foods offered. We ate our food together on a picnic blanket Jax had in their car facing the ocean.  I am so glad there were other folks who wanted to clown around and also that Alan was there to capture all the special moments.