Masks and Ballgowns

Do you mask?
On Halloween? Go to Carnival balls? Mask on Mardi Gras? At a masquerade party?

I love to mask. I love to go out in the streets on Mardi Gras and see if I can find my friends, especially if they are masked.

I try to really disguise myself and not speak. Voice gives you away. I like to be a butterfly on the wall and watch people watch me without knowing who I am.

I love ballgowns too. I would wear one everyday if I could.

So get your mask on!
And ballgowns too...

Some of you have asked about the purple dress in the last post.
It's my ballgown that I wore for the first time in the early 1990's to a fancy dress ball. It was The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Ball. My dear friend Daniel Pearl took me to this party for several years.

The photo above has suffered moisture damage, but I still keep it. I'm in Daniel's apartment where we were having cocktails before we headed to the party. The dog in my arms is the Cav I got him for his birthday. Her name is Winnie, and when Danny passed away she became mine. She lived until she was sixteen, and was our dog before Cholo.


The dress stayed packed away for ten years, until Sabina got us invitations to The Purple Party on Lundi Gras here in New Orleans.


It's a Victor Costa dress that I got on the sale rack at Bergdorf Goodman. Big ballgowns were in vogue then, as were jewel tone colors. I just loved the color! There was only one dress, and it fit me, and I think it only cost $100. marked down from several hundred.


Alberto and I have made our own traditions, and we mask and costume on Mardi Gras, wearing only purple. So I get to wear this fantastic dress twice in Carnival season.


So Happy Saturday! We're off to see another parade this afternoon, and go to a party at the home of a fellow New Orleans blogger.