Q2 Newsletter — Costumers of Color (CoCo)

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Ciao and welcome to summer!

This is the kind of season where the work catches up with itself. Symposium plans, travel logistics, scholarship applications, our first Nordic-style LARP, three different international costuming packing lists. If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens between one CoCo event and the next, this issue pulls back the curtain a little.

Scotland is almost here

Three travelers, passports stamped, itineraries locked. In a week or so we’ll be walking the Close at Mary King’s, attempting to spot Nessie near Inverness, and standing at Stirling’s Castle thinking about everyone who stood there before us in clothes nothing like ours and everything like ours. I’ll be sharing photos and field notes as we go, so if you want the real-time version, follow along on Instagram.

Mark your calendar: October is loaded

Two things are happening back to back this fall, and both deserve a place on your calendar sooner rather than later.

The 18th Century Symposium and Rococo Salon lands at the Women’s University Club in Seattle on October 3rd. During the day we have the talk-and-tea version of CoCo: research presentations, conversation, and a room full of people who care about getting the history right. That evening we slide into full court glam and enjoy historical dancing, games, and socializing in our best 18th-century gowns.

On October 16th through 18th, the Magna Carta LARP takes over Camlann Medieval Village. If you’ve never done a Nordic-style LARP before, this is a gentle, well-organized entry point. If you have, you already know to register early.

What inclusive costuming work actually looks like behind the scenes

A lot of what makes CoCo run isn’t visible from the outside, and that’s by design. This spring I built out an updated full operating manual for the organization, a project dashboard to track every program and payment, and a library of the emails that keep travelers and participants informed without me reinventing the wheel every time. None of that is glamorous. All of it is what makes it possible for a one-person nonprofit to successfully organize international trips, symposiums, and a Salon gala in the same calendar year without anything falling through.

I’m telling you this not to brag about spreadsheets, but because I think transparency about the infrastructure of small nonprofits matters. If you run something similar, or want to, I’m happy to talk shop.

A research thread worth following

This summer I’m a presenting a paper on Langobard dress at IMC Leeds, looking at fibulae and bead assemblages from the San Mauro necropolis as markers of identity and status. It’s a reminder that what people wore has always been doing more work than just covering the body. That’s the throughline for everything CoCo does, whether we’re at an event in Seattle, a Renaissance palazzo in Venice, or a medieval village in the UK.

Help us grow

If this newsletter gave you something useful, forward it to one person who’d care. That’s genuinely the best way new participants and supporters to find us. For more info on our impact, read our annual report here.

See you in Scotland, in spirit or in person!

Love & Beignets,

Gigi