melannen | (no subject)

Things I am not posting about this week:

1. Brexit
2. Guardian fandom, slash as an abstract concept, and the difference between queercoding, queerbaiting, representation and tokenism, and how that has played out across media and cultures in the last twenty-five years
3. The difficulty inherent in switching constantly between Guardian liveblogs and Guardian episode recaps ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
4. How it looks like I'm going to end up having to dig out my old Mike Gravel for President merch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
5. The difference between historical fashion and historical clothing and why it gets my goat when people erase the difference
6. My current project, inspired by the search tips post, of going through my entire 600 pages of logged-in AO3 history to bookmark and tag stuff I want to hang on to

I am not writing posts about them, but feel free to ask me anyway, the rants are on tap.

I did, however, post to

fictional_fans about what types of fanfic are good for readers who don't know the canon, so you should go there to talk about that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

until my grandmother used it for cosplay in the 1930s

OMG wait what, your grandma?

I have photos of her wearing that exact dress to her hometown's bicentennial History Days in 1932! With a group of friends in very eclectic historical costumes, at least one of which I swear is dressed as a steampunk mad scientist (although it might just be a twenty-year-old motoring costume.)

Presumably that's why that particular dress was still in her closet seventy years later when it came to me. Just in case she needed it for more dress-up, and then before long it was too old to just toss. (I have some of my mother's outfits that were about thirty years old when I first borrowed them for costume parties, too. Still in my closet just in case!)

....I love your Nana.

I would love to see those photos! (Or any photos of the dress.)

You are in luck! I have them up in an old post from way ages ago!

Apparently I misremembered the dates on the cosplay but that just makes it better. :P

Ooh, thanks for linking these; how wonderful to have provenance of past cosplay use!