Jill Tracy: Belle of The Edwardian Ball

"I revel in this nightmare but I keep waking up too soon..." Haunted By the Thought of You

One of our favorite customers is musical evocateur and Belle of The Edwardian Ball, Jill Tracy.  Dubbed "the cult darling of the Underworld" by LA Weekly and "the femme fatale for the thinking man" by The San Francisco Chronicle, Jill's music evokes another time and place. A place that could be inside a beautiful dream or, more likely, a glamorous nightmare.  

Jill Tracy wears 'Viola' mini top hat in tiger-print melousine at  DNA Lounge (photo courtesy of Audrey Penven)

Jill's musical gifts are matched only by her fantastic sense of style and we are delighted she often wears a House of Nines original on stage when she performs.  We are very excited to announce that she will soon start carrying some House of Nines exclusive styles at her online retail shop!

 Photo by filmmaker Jeremy Carr from "Portrait of a Nightmare"

Jill has been performing at The Edwardian Ball since its inception 13 years ago and her name has become synonymous with this ever-growing event for lovers of Edward Gorey, ballroom dancers, the Steam Punk set, and Edwardian-bedecked revelers.  Jill's haunting songs and stories set the mood for this annual music and art festival.

Jill Tracy wearing a custom 'Wellington' mini top hat at The Edwardian Ball (photo by Samuel Coniglio)

Jill is the first musician in history to receive a grant from the famed Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. The medical history museum contains a collection of medical oddities and antique medical equipment and Jill's new project for 2013 will be based on their collection. 

Jill Tracy performs a Musical Seance with violinist Paul Mercer at The Conservatory of Flowers (photo courtesy of Audrey Penven)

 Recently, Jill has continued with her series of concerts at The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Working with San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, Jill Tracy has created an unusual after-dark series focusing on a variety of alluring subjects (poisoning, alchemy, ghosts and violins, perfumes) while allowing audiences to tour the wondrous Victorian Greenhouse at night. 

Jill Tracy photo by Michael Garlington

Jill Tracy is also returning to the studio with the legendary David J (Bauhaus), and her song "The Colour of the Flame" will be released as a 7" collector's vinyl shared with Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten/ Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) for Swedish publishers Malört Förlag.

Jill Tracy performs in a custom 'Postillion' mini hat at The Edwardian Ball. (Photo courtesy of Audrey Penven)

For more information visit her official website at www.jilltracy.com.  Please follow Jill on Facebook and Twitter.

We Love Fairyland

We had a great time at the Oakland Children's Fairyland's 17th annual gala and dinner.

Don't know about Fairyland? It's this incredible children's theme park nestled up next to Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA. It's been there since 1948, and it's rumored to have been a major inspiration for Walt Disney's theme parks. The rides and the art that went into creating its storybook themed environment are incredibly cute and inventive, and it's still going strong. Generations of San Francisco Bay Area kids have had good times there! Walking through, you can feel all the happy that's happened in this special place.

Normally, you can't enter Fairyland without a child in tow, and not having any, we were lucky to be able to get in for a rare look around once years ago when our good friends Dave and Simone rented it out for their wedding. It was a spectacular party in a magical atmosphere, and I've loved Fairyland ever since and have just been *waiting* for the chance to go back. Fairyland occasionally holds evening parties for adults, but they're so popular that tickets sell out instantly!

The gala was attended by over 500 guests, most in costume, and catered by dozens of incredible local restaurants. There was fantastic music, dancing, and we ran into a bunch of old friends, not all of whom had met before. They each have their own totally cool projects and interests, so we were excited to make introductions and I'm hoping many fruitful collaborations result. All around, a fantastic evening.

Here's a photo of John and I with our friends Steve and Gabrielle of The Crucible.  John & I are on the right. We were happy to have the chance to wear costumes again that we made for Venice Carnival 2012. I made the hats, of course! (Spectacular yellow linen 18th century-style corset by Dark Garden.)

Photo by Richard Haick

Want to see more photos of the gala? Click here.

Carnival in Venice 2011 Photos

I've just returned from an amazing trip to Carnival in Venice, Italy. It was part adventure with good friends, part pilgrimage (Venice has been a major center of masquerade activity for close to 1,000 years, and Carnival is the mother of all costume parties), part lifelong-dream-fulfillment, and part 10-year wedding anniversary celebration for myself and my husband John. Traveling with close friends who are also costumers, designers and artists made the experience even more special. We started working on our costumes last fall, and during the last few months before our departure for Italy in late February, making outfits was pretty much ALL we did beyond the bare minimum of eating, sleeping, and work. We had a magical, amazing, fantastical time in Venice, and started planning our trip back for Carnival 2012 before we even returned to San Francisco. Venice is truly beautiful and fascinating, and we met so many amazing new friends - it was like summer camp for adult costumers. I can't wait to go back!

Here are a few pictures from our trip. There were too many great shots taken to include them all (thanks to the fine photography of Daniel and Steph). Unless otherwise noted, costume pieces were made by the person wearing them in the photo (or someone else in our group), or pulled from one of our closets (John's heavily-braided jackets were borrowed from another friend). With very few exceptions, all hats pictured were made by House of Nines Design (i.e. me), and all corsets and corset-jackets were made by the geniuses at Dark Garden Corsetry. We had great luck finding fabrics and materials at Burnley and Trowbridge Co., Renaissance Fabrics, Britex Fabrics, and Lacis.

Our household mascot of late has been 18th century painter Joseph Ducreux. Here John strikes a pose that says "Disregard photographers, acquire prosecco."


John got a lot of mileage out of his huge new Kevenhuller tricorn. Over the 10 days of Carnival, I piled more and more stuff and feathers all over my hats. I wanted them to be bigger and crazier everyday.


John in front of Harry's Bar. He normally wouldn't wear such enormous feathers on a bowler, but we figured: why not? It's carnival. Plus, the extra height made him easy to spot as we moved through dense crowds in the streets.


We spent part of almost every afternoon at Florian, the famous cafe that's been sitting pretty on San Marco square since 1720. It has incredible ambiance and history, with mural-painted walls and gorgeous furniture, not to mention being the main hang-out of serious carnival costumers. Here's Daniel lounging amongst the art.


A few days later, I re-shaped the same hat from the last photo into a bicorn, and was very pleased with the foxy results.


When planning what to make for and bring on the trip, as a group we agreed on a set of themes and a basic color palette (red, black, white, yellow and gray) for most of our outfits, so our wardrobes would coordinate but not be identical. That way, we wouldn't be too matchy-matchy, but we could share accessories and use pieces in different combinations to make new outfits. Here's Autumn, rockin' our color palette in a gorgeous 18th century gown at the Hotel Danieli on the Grand Canal.


And Steph in an incredible mantua and fontange. Steph, Autumn and Daniel brought Baroque-style (late 17th century) outfits, but I was surprised that so few other people at carnival tried that period. Maybe we should do more with it next year. (Costume: Past Pleasures Ltd.)


Since it was the first trip to Venice for most of us, we had to take a gondola ride. I was disappointed to find that nobody seemed to be using gondolas for actual transportation very much, it was all just tourists being taken in a big circle like a theme park ride. But it was still pretty great seeing the city from a very different angle. Autumn looked like a beautiful cupcake that day in her pink and white shepherdess dress.


The gondolas are works of art, and pretty romantic despite all the corny tourists. I half-joked about how many lottery tickets I'd buy after we got home, to be able to afford our own private gondolier to transport us around the city next year in style.


Another fun afternoon at Florian. This was my first attempt at a Marchesa Casati outfit (my hero!). As she famously said, 'I want to be a living work of art.' I'll be doing more to channel her next year.


Why was (almost) all food so delicious in Italy? Especially anything dairy or baked. It was uncanny.


With all the Victorian-themed events we attend in San Francisco (Edwardian Ball, Dickens Fair, etc.), a Victorianesque team costume was easy to pull together.


Here are a few pieces of the circus themed team costume we brought, hopefully we'll develop it more for next year.


Another fun thing to do in the afternoons at carnival is to attend one of the many lavish 'chocolates' hosted at fancy hotels around Venice. They have all-you-can-drink hot chocolate (the consistency of thick pudding, and so delicious) with special cookies and pastries. This one was especially fun, the hostess had set up 18th century card games for everyone to play. Our friend Erin met us there in full Gypsy Warrior Princess regalia.


One of the highlights of the trip was a Japanese Manga / 18th century themed party. I love a mash-up, and this one was especially fun to play around with. This was party number two (of three) of the evening, with complete costume changes in between.




Afterward, I sat on our private roof deck and watched the sun come up. There were a lot of late nights!


Another fantastic party we went to had a Turkish theme. We took photos on the roof before going to the party, as the host had requested 'no photography' at the event. Here's Steph, looking picture-perfect as always. She re-purposed the yellow pantaloons from a Victorian-era 'Bloomers' outfit she made for Dickens Fair last year, and built the rest of the outfit around them in gorgeous vintage fabrics.


I was surprised at how comfortable the Turkish pantaloons were to wear. On another day, I changed out the accessories, threw on a marching band jacket, and went out as a Zouve, which was super exciting because I hadn't even realized I had that costume with me till I was putting it all on. Giant pants may be my new go-to piece for next year.


When we initially found out about the theme of this party, we wanted to make outfits similar to a Turkish/French mash-up style that was popular with avant-garde ladies in the late 18th century. It didn't work out for the rest of us, but Autumn carried it off beautifully. Maybe next year we'll have another crack at it.


It's hard to believe, but the guys each wrapped their own turbans in about 10 minutes with little-to-no practice, and only a little help from YouTube. They look *fantastic*.



Needless to say, we're all tired, broke, and happy. And dreaming every minute about more carnival fun in 2012.

Circus Costume Etc.

My circus costume is now almost completed. As usual, before I started, I said 'no problem! this won't take long'. But, sewing this crazy petticoat (red and white gingham taffeta with matching and red silk dupioni ruffles) took a week. So. Many. Ruffles.





The circle skirt to go over it also took a week. I made it in red silk satin with gobs of sequin trim and giant antique red glass sequins. It took almost the whole week just to sew on the trim.

Mid-way though on the skirt, before the rhinestones came on board:


Finished:


I'll be wearing these with this red satin corset. It's currently back at the shop (i.e. Dark Garden) for a tune-up: they're kindly adding shoulder straps for me, and making a matching stomacher that I'll bling out to match the trim on the skirt.



I need a feather headdress of some kind to go with it, but haven't had a minute to think much about that yet.

Thankfully, since finishing those pieces other things are moving along more quickly now. I've finished one linen 18th-century style shirt (originally intended for John, but it turned out too small, so now it's mine) and have cut out the pieces for three more. Also, I have three skirts and some giant red and white striped harem pants cut and ready to sew this weekend. Production line makes things go faster. Only 47 outfits and hats to go!

Venice Costume Update

The last few weeks have been crazy! I thought I would get a bit of a break after the new year to do my taxes, etc., but no dice. If anything January was even busier than December, mostly due to the ramp-up to the Edwardian Ball (making hats for other people, and getting my own self ready). Here is a photo of my husband John from the ball. The photos are slowly rolling in as everybody recovers from the weekend, so I'll post more soon.

John in his white tie tux best, on Saturday.


We've been spending more and more time on our costumes for Venice Carnavale over the last few months, but now that the Ball is over, it's going to be all Venice, all the time until we leave in late February. I'm trying not to freak out about the fact that there is only one month left. I still have to find time to finish my bookkeeping and taxes somehow, and to finish up some orders I have in process, but I'm breathing, eating, sleeping, dreaming, and living prep for Venice otherwise.

The breakdown of costumes we are trying to get through include:

--Venice dominos (the classic carnival look: a black cape and hat with a mask)
--1790s outfits (a striped jacket and skirt, and a yellow 2-piece dress for me, and a red cut-away tailcoat for John with a black shirt, waistcoat, and breeches)
--Some kind of Arabian Nights-themed get-ups
-- An 18th century outfit for me in plaid
-- Circus outfits
-- of course, hats for each outfit
-- Undergarments (shirts, shifts, etc.)

Written out that way, it doesn't seem so bad, but I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of project. We have a got more ideas, but these are the ones John & I are focusing on trying to get through right now.

We'll also be taking a lot of things we already have in our closets, heavy on the Dark Garden corsetry of course.

I haven't been taking many photos of costume prep along the way, because that would just slow me down, but will be posting a few as I finish things. Please excuse the not fantastic quality of some of the photos that follow. We'll have time for really great photos later, these are just documentary.

Here are some inspiration pictures for the Domino outfits. These were standard street wear on the streets of Venice during carnavale (which last 6 months out of the year, for a few hundred years until Napoleon conquered the city in 1797).



Our Venice Domino capes are done, done, done. I made them in a beautiful black wool broadcloth (surprisingly warm and dense for being so thin) from Burnley and Trowbridge, edged in black satin bias tape. Used a pattern (slightly modified) from Reconstructing History. We've decided to buy masks, if we want them, there, I hear Venice is crawling with mask shops and we can undoubtedly find nicer ones there than here. John is really close to being done with his waistcoat and breeches (which he'll wear in several different outfits), and his shirt will be starting shortly. I have plenty of black dresses to wear for this outfit, but am hoping to making a black kind of a riding outfit with jodhpurs to wear with the cape if there's time (for rainy days).




Everything else is either in process or will be started shortly. More updates to follow.

Venice Costume Update

Taking this week off of work on hats (mostly) to sew costumes for my upcoming trip to Venice for Carnavale, my husband John and I are going to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We met at a Halloween party, and married on Halloween in full costume, so it seems appropriate to go to the granddaddy of all dress-up for the occasion. Last May, we decided we were going to go to Carnavale in 2011, and started out with so many plans- a new totally complicated historical costume for every day! For two weeks! Plans which, over the last few months, have been whittled down to a smaller number of hopefully more attainable goals. If we could get one really good outfit completed for each of us, I would be thrilled, but hopefully we'll have two or three. We're making this outfit for my husband.



The only differences in the finished outfit will be the hat (he probably wants a bicorn instead), and that the jacket will be a cut-away rather than double-breasted. I've been struggling with the jacket for months and hope to finish it this week. I took a tailoring class this fall to brush up on the subject, and this was my class project, which unfortunately wasn't done by the end of term. It's coming together nicely but slow, slow, slow. John is working on the black waistcoat and breeches.

To take some of the pressure off, I've hired my friends at Dark Garden to make parts of my outfits, so I have more time to finish this red jacket and make lots of skirts. They are making the following two bodices, with integrated corsets, using the basic corset / bodice shape from their fantastic Dollymop line.

This is everybody's dream jacket from the Kyoto Costume Institute. It gets copied a lot, but I still love it. We're doing it with a smaller collar, and the grain lines will be a little bit different because of the way the corset is pieced together, but it will be otherwise pretty much the same.



I'm also making a matching skirt. I haven't decided yet whether to have the skirt meet in the center front, or have a cut-away front with a white underskirt showing. I bought a truckload of this fabric from Renaissance Fabrics a while back, so I might have enough for both. I might also wear it with a contrasting skirt, like black or ivory wool. We're bringing a lot of separates to mix and match.

Dark Garden is also making me a plaid corset with matching caged sleeves, modeled on the bodice in this portrait of Flora MacDonald.



It will be made in Wallace tartan.



18th century clothes looks insanely great in plaid. The skirt, the underlay in the sleeves, and the bows down the front will all be in a mustardy yellow silk taffeta that matches the yellow stripe in the plaid. I think I need a huge crazy wig with lots of flowers in it to go with it...

I think I also need this jacket (who doesn't?), in black, but I'm not sure where the time will come from, so it's on my 'maybe' list. We leave to go to Venice on February 23.



But, I do need a black outfit for this classic Carnavale 'domino' look, so I might have to squeeze that jacket into the schedule somehow. John's project for the week is to make us some black cloaks.




We have a few other ideas, including some upgrades to our circus outfits, and one of the parties we're attending has a Baroque Manga theme- a Japanese anime take on the 18th century. For that one, I'm thinking red tabbed corset and frilly white shirt, with a red sparkly panniers (borrowed from my friend Autumn) worn over bloomers. And a huge wig, of course. For a 'spring flowers' party we also might attend, I was thinking about shaking it up by going as screwed up drag queen flower children, like this.



This idea was also inspired by the silly dance club scene in one of my all-time favorite movies, Danger Diabolik.



Sorry I don't have great 'in process' photos of all our projects, but that would cut into sewing time, which we don't have enough of to begin with. Speaking of which, it's time to go back to work now. That jacket isn't going to sew itself (unfortunately). Lots of photos after the trip, though.

LA Success

Came back a few days ago from a successful trip to LA. The masquerade ball was grand- photos coming soon! Had a fun time with friends, and also got some good work done. Went to California Millinery for supplies- what a gold mine! Anybody crafty could spend days in there, peeking through all the shelves and boxes.

Also, met with the owner and one of the buyers for the Hollywood Hat Lounge. Had a chance to check out the Hollywood location, lots of fun straw hats etc. They also have a shop in Huntington Beach, and are planning to open two more soon, in Santa Monica and Las Vegas. They looked through my hat samples for Fall/Winter 2010-2011, and are putting together an order for some new styles...

Progress

The hat samples I've been working on to take to shops in LA are now done, packed, and in the car. Whew! All women's hats for now, I'm still waiting on my men's blocks to arrive from the UK. If the samples sell while I'm in LA, I'll have to make up a new batch to photograph, there's no time to photo before leaving. But, I'm super excited about how the styles are turning out and the way the collection is coming together as a whole. I've got a lot of 'beaver' felt coming up!

While in LA, I'm attending the Labyrinth of Jareth Ball, a very silly masquerade party, with my husband John, and our friends Autumn (of Dark Garden Corsetry) and Daniel. It'll be the preview for one of my outfits for Venice Carnival 2011. I'll be wearing a red and black 'beaver' felt bicorn with big ostrich feathers...

Hat Day at Bouquets to Art, April 23

I'm super excited about going to Hat Day at Bouquets to Art!

Every year they do an amazing event at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, where floral designers create displays inspired by pieces of art in the museum, and they're shown together. People also wear all kinds of crazy flower-related fashions, and fashions made of flowers. And they have a hat day with a hat contest. This year's hat day is on Friday April 23. I hope to see you there!

You can look a photos of past Bouquets to Art here and here.

Jill Tracy in HON at Edwardian Ball 2010

I was honored to have the incomparable Jill Tracy wear my hats at each evening of this year's Edwardian Ball. Here are some great photos, see more photos from the ball in my flickr gallery.

The photos below by nightshade
theblight.net
nightshade's Flickr page




The photos below by Dave Golden
http://dave-golden.com
Dave Golden's Flickr page