In my wine loving household, maenads, the drunken followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, were always a sort of mascot. I found this gorgeous representation of a maenad on Pinterest, specifically on a tarot card by Tarot of Delphi. The art used on the tarot card is Autumn Vintage Festival (1877) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema…and I used it as an inspiration for a costume to wear to the Texas Renaissance Festival this past fall.
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Those who know me well know that no curtain is safe in my house. I change out curtains about as often as my underwear (okay, maybe not that often, but still ridiculously frequent). I made this costume from one retired curtain panel, some gorgeous gold laurel leaf trim found on Amazon (Gold Leaf Ribbon, 10yd), and a yard of faux cheetah/leopard fabric found on Etsy.
The first thing I made for the costume was the cheetah/leopard stole similar to the one in the artwork. I have a coyote hide that I purchased years ago for my Catelyn Stark costume, so I used it as a pattern. I also had leftover thin microfiber from my barbarian costume, and I used it as a backing for the faux fur. This piece was no-sew, I simply hot glued the microfiber to the fur backing.
The toga/chiton was a simple construction, made similarly to my husband’s senator costume from 300, and my ancient Wonder Woman costume. Basically a rectangle made into a tube with arm slits. I zigzag stitched the gold trim to the hem of the curtain/chiton and closed up the shoulders with leather cording and eyelets. I also made a very very very (maybe 12 ft?) long belt strap to wrap the chiton tightly to my chest (see this pin on Pinterest). And for my flower crown, I used one I made for myself and my mother when my Outlander inspired druid lanterns were featured in Faerie Magazine.
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What better setting for drunken frivolity in my maenad costume than the Texas Renaissance Festival? Seven out of nine weekends are usually hot and muggy, so on one such occasion I wore my costume with careless pride.
So side-by-side, do you think it’s close…..enough?
Cheers!