We may have been a bit short on Echoes, but that didn’t stop us from shopping our hearts out at the Edwardian Ball’s grand bazaar. The ‘neath of the Regency Ballroom was nearly overflowing with dark delights …
We attended the bazaar the afternoon prior to our first ball which allowed it to be a fine preview of the evening ahead. Over 6000 square feet of hand-manifested brilliance insured that there was something worth coveting in whichever direction you might look.
Equally admirable to the scintillating hats, masks, gloves, spats, shoes, boots, coats, myriad curios, baubles, bustles, corsets, and ingenious ensembles for sale were the engaging merchants peddling their wares in costume and in character. Many of them seemed exceptionally pleased just to be basking in the radiance of adoring consumers’ praise of their creations and it was a sincere pleasure to converse with thems what create these wonders.
While there was a small historical (read: steampunk) contingent shopping the bazaar, I would say the majority of it’s merchants and denizens were decidedly burners, and stylish ones at that. It’s doubtable that another group could run the Edwardian fashion-plate into the punk’d end-zone and score such a radical mutation of the paradigm.
One work in particular that quite fascinated us was this gown (see photo at right) made of woven copper wire that had been patina’d to various corroded shades of green. In our opinion, fashion art such as this is worthy of the museum and the fact that it along with a number of other pieces incorporating this woven wire in various visually striking ways indicates the near transcendental level of artistry that could be purchased for a competitive price at this bazaar.
There was a fantastic vibe which permeated the bazaar. Smiles could be seen and laughter heard throughout the large open rooms. The charming and animated hatter though, was perhaps our favorite interaction at the bazaar. In addition to having on a delightful outfit, she educated us in the proper use of her many springed head sizing device as well as said device’s phrenological applications! The device (pictured below on my companion’s head) allows a plot of one’s brow line to be punched into an index card via pins located atop the device.
Want to see more of what the bazaar had to offer? Visit this gallery at our Facebook page. In the next article, we’ll be talking about the outfits we made for this year’s ball.
