I’ve got a Juki 3-thread serger with a roll-hem that someone can have. It needs a new needle, because I broke it, but otherwise it was working just fine. I also have a metric fuckton of fabric if anyone wants it. Lots of different types. There are several yards of a really cool gunmetal metallic vinyl, and a bunch of a high quality black poly rayon. (It’s the same fabric I used for R Dorothy and for Shimako from Marimite. It’s good stuff. But I bought 10 yards a couple years ago, adn at this point I don’t want to store it.)

I also have a ton of amnga and toys and plushies. I’m not sure what yet. Does anyone need any books? I have all of the Dresden Files and the Sookie Stackhouse novels if anyone wants them. Drop me an email. You’ll need to come get them, but if you do, they’re yours. Also Harry Potter.

And there’s So. Much. Manga. We’ve been selling it at a serious loss on ebay, but now I can’t find my camera and can’t get it up there. So if anyone wants anything, please drop me a line. Some stuff we’re keeping, but a lot of stuff we’re getting rid of.

Oh yeah, I have a red queen-sized pull-out couch by La-Z-Boy that is really comfortable. Also a chair-and-a-half that pulls out into a twin bed. (The chair has been scratched up by the cat. I mean to patch it, but might not get into it before we leave.) If you can come get either of them, they’re yours.

Phew! My Haute Couture Embellishments class is over. I’m glad. It was great fun, but for three days I’ve just been looking forward to today. “No matter what happens today, by this time tomorrow I’ll have champagne and Glee.”

Homework is done and turned in. For now, I’m just hanging out. Tomorrow I have to start sorting the fabric stash into keep and throw-away piles and putting a bunch of stuff up on ebay.

Oh, right! I’m moving to China! I got a job offer that’s very exciting, and I’m moving out in 2 weeks. Phew! Lots of stuff to do.

Does anyone have any ideas about that thing? I’m complete fail at google search. Do I buy one? Do I make one? And what, specifically, does the damn thing look like? x_x

First, a question: Does anyone know where/how I can get my hands on a copy of volume 32 of Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society of America? I want to check out Lynne Sorge’s article on stays (w/pattern, of course) but it’s not available online, JStor doesn’t have it, and it’s non-circulating at the Columbia library. (Worst case scenario, I wait till Ten Suns gets back to NY and make him photocopy it for me.)

And on to other stuff:
Hangzhou was beautiful. We went to West Lake and the Silk Museum. We were there till Monday, and now we’re in Beijing. We stopped by several very good bars and restaurants, scoured China’s largest bookstore for fashion books, visited some cosplay stores, and went to the Forbidden City. (I’m seriously in love with the Empress Dowager’s parlor, especially the Venetian glass chandeliers.)

Yesterday we went by Twilight, a Japanese bar in Chaoyang. Beijing’s high-end cocktail scene appears to be dominated by the Japanese.

Back at Hangzhou, CICAF was cool. I’ve never been to a con that big in my whole life, and cosplay is very, very different in China.

Like, people belong to cosplay clubs. The smallest clubs are 20 or 30 people, and the biggest are 5 or 600. If there is a character you really want to cosplay, you have to petition your club president to be allowed to do that character. Then the executive board will vote on whether or not they think you’d be good enough at it, and if they decide you’d be OK, then you’re responsible for acquiring the costume yourself.

They also have a ton of rehearsals. Apparently, the president of one of the Beijing clubs is known for being very strict, and the choreographer directs rehearsals with one of the sticks, “Like they use to beat you with in primary school.” And if you miss more than 3 rehearsals, you’re out of the club.

The end result of this process is that the performances are *amazing.* There are 20-40 people on stage all dancing in unison. You’ve got whole armies doing kung fu, and everyone is really, really beautiful and can dance or do kung fu or gymnastics. The skits are very long, like 15 minutes, so the masquerade lasted for 3 days. I performed a Macross skit with a robot and a Ranka, and it was only 2 minutes. Nick says that when we finished, the people in the audience were like, “WTF? Are they coming back out? Is there more?”

Since not everyone gets to perform on stage, those cosplayers really do have “fans.” A lot of people were collecting autographs. We were part of the judging panel with a bunch of the famous guys, and they gave us a bunch of their products, like personal photobooks and stuff. The photography aesthetic definitely involves a lot of photoshop, but they just consider that part of the overall effect of the photo. It’s about creating an impression. (I didn’t recognize anyone I met from their pictures, though.)

One of the more famous cosplayers we met was a guy who goes by Huangshan. He and his brother own a BJD company called Ringdoll, and Huangshan does all the designs for the dolls and their outfits. (http://www.ringdoll.com)

This is Huangshan: