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.
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!
