2009 – Winner – Marco Polo’s journeys
About This Project
My third winning costume!!!! Ye-ha! I was so happy to win with a group costume since I had done it with single costumes twice before.
About two years ago I visited another costume maker that I got to know 2005 on the steps of the Fenice opera house in Venice during Carnevale. We went to a little outlet store of a very good fabric company in their hometown. And we fell in love with the same fabric within a few minutes. We were lucky: two rolls of fabric and just 1 Euro per meter!!!! What a deal! We immediately bubbled over with ideas what to do with it. Also we had been talking about doing a costume group together one year. So we came up with totally different designs but agreed that we liked the Asian basic pattern of the fabric and that our group should reflect the Asian theme. We couldn’t agree on one Asian style so we took them all in and called the group “Marco Polo’s journeys”… which matches also great with the Venetian Carnival (the name was the idea of a photographer we always meet in Venice, thanks Thomas!!!).
Oh, production notes: The wig was built of wire and artificial hair from the African shop. The Geisha on my husbands tricorno smiled at me on a flea market about a year ago. I couldn’t get her out of my head so I put her on Tobi’s head. The golden deco pieces are also a flea market treasure. I needed more of the golden dragon crests so I asked my sisters partner Walter – my copy wizzard – to copy and print it on fabric for me. In various sizes so I could use them for different things. The dragon on Tobi’s walking stick was on a frame and drew my attention… guess what on the flea market. Tobi this time had a nice idea for his jacket: the tails up! I love it.
The top of my dress is a real short kimono made of silk… another bargain from… yes, found in an old factory hall in Hamburg on a very early Saturday morning when my daughter was still sleeping and I had “happy hour”.
That the kimono is a bit empty (other people might like to put more things on their costumes) is by intention. I think a perfect group needs a centerpiece, something that draws the eye and also gives it a place to rest for a moment. And I think the brickred kimono was perfect for it. Bright, but caressing the sight with it’s warm colour.