Tiger Lily's Threads

Last year at Baltimore Comic Con, a friend of mine asked me if I was interested in joining her and a few friends in possibly doing a federal period variant of the Marvel Avengers. Excited, I immediately knew who I could cosplay as: Black Widow.  Background:  To give you a broad idea of customs in the 18th and 19th century, when a loved one died, the people closest to the deceased would go into a period of mourning. While we still traditionally will wear black at funerals, we'd only wear the outfit for that one day. In the time of our ancestors, they'd wear black, gray, or purple for months-sometimes years. Case in point, when Queen Victoria's husband passed away, she wore her mourning clothing all the way up until her own death. Mourning clothing was also very expensive; having all of your clothing either overdyed black or had to buy a new wardrobe of mourning clothing was very financially taxing (especially for those who were in the lower class).  Full Mournin

Looking back at my internship last month at Margaret Hunter's Millinery Shop in Colonial Williamsburg, I recall seeing a lot of beautiful silk and decorated straw hats and bonnets. There was even this peculiar-looking bonnet called a Calash Bonnet which was modeled after a french 18th century convertible carriage with the same name. The Convertible Carriage This Summer, I decided to give one of my straw hats a makeover. I removed the red ribbon from my straw hat and replaced it by adding trim with some white tape and green bows made from fabric. I also added some paper flowers that I got from the Francaise Ball the year prior. I really love how this hat turned out. With using just fabric instead of ribbon, it gave the hat a new personality and I can wear it with most of my outfits rather than just one or two jackets.