2011 – Queen of Jeans

The Queen of Jeans was originally made for 2010. But it got stuck on the Munich airport due to a snowstorm – and arrived in Venice after the carnival was over 😉

It is made of old jeans pants that I cut into pieces and some denim fabric I bought on a fleamarket. I made two wigs for it, a Tricorno in Jeans (with the zipper in front;-)) and a reversed pair of jeans that has the legs standing up (as you can see on the fitting foto with Ting Ting). The dress has a pretty strictly 18th century pattern but is just made of jeans and some old dark blue lace I was given by my friend Valerie’s mother. The dress weighs ten (10!) kilos.
I made it for me and Daniela (she is about 15 cm taller than I am) so the bottom is adjustable. That was good cause this year I wore it and also Ting Ting, the Chinese wife of our photographer friend Thomas. She is even five centimetres shorter than me so it was really a challenge to scale it. But she had great fun with the costume and also went to the show and to the final selection.
And she told me that next year she wants to make her own costume!!! Go, girl!

When I wore it I had one of the most lovely moments of this carnival: an about 80 y.o. Venetian man saw me and was stunned. The expression on his face was worth a million dollars. We spoke and he told me that he loves the costume (and that from a Venetian, who ususally hate carnival people) but also ME 😉 He asked if I had a husband and I told him that I am happily married and have a little daughter. He after a while asked again if it would be possible to meet me without my husband…I neglected but smiled. He asked then if I would do him a favour and just take off my mask for a second. I did and gave him a radiant smile. And he said: you look so lovely and beautiful as I thought… That was sooooo sweet. We both took a bow and then went our ways. For those encounters full of respect and admiration I love the carnival of Venice!!!
On that familyday Sophia also wore her Princess of Jeans costume. She loved it, played with her fan, sat in Caffe Florian with us and flirted with the audience. After three hours (she even insisted to go to S. Giorgio in the afternoon where all the masks and photographers meet) we went home and the next day she said she wanted to put on her jeans dress again. The only thing she did not like this year where the masks. Not even the cat mask I bought for was on longer than an hour. But that is absolutely ok. I want her to have fun, not stress. In kindergarden at home she proudly presented a little album with fotos.