Auris Lothol Historical costuming, Japanese Lolita fashion and Cosplay.

Hello lovelies,

what can I say, I finally managed to go to the Zeitentanzball Vienna, a historical ball in Vienna, and it was amazing.

It all started back in 2025 when I got the message from an acquaintance that the registration for this Vienna historical dance event had just started and if I'm interested, I should register now. When I saw the message I immediately registered. I was so excited because I also like the theme of this year as it was “Fairytales”, which is perfect for a historical costume ball.

The text from their website

So my goal for a few months was think about a fairy tale and turn it historical. I played with some ideas (Princess and the frog, Frau Holle, Goldmarie, etc) until I landed at Sleeping Beauty or Dornröschen, in German. My concept was easy: mash something from the 18th century together with lots and lots of roses and boom, that's my sleeping beauty costume.

I remembered that I made a robe á la francaise back in 2018 and I didn't like the outcome as it was so boring. Here is the dress from 2018 and here it is worn. Look how boring it is.

And here a picture from 2018:

So, where to begin with the transformation of the dress? My first step was ordering roses and some twigs. And shoes. I wanted pink matching shoes that would fit both this outfit and also my historical fashion-inspired wardrobe and other Japanese fashion outfits.

Then I started to pick open the seams of the ribbons and the decoration of the whole dress and the stomacher and set them aside.

Initially I had the idea of making my own lace for the stomacher. A great idea if I had more time. This time my project was not time sensitive but there was still no time to make my own lace. Just for this I made my own pattern. It is based on lace from a stomacher I found on Pinterest.

As you can see, the top part was a bit of a mistake but the bottom part already looks really nice. I could not figure out what stitch was used for the middle part so I just went for a honey comb ground. The idea that I could make my own 18th century lace was so thrilling for me, I was one step closer to full-fill my dream of making my own lace for the dresses.

As the stomacher was the most elaborate part of the dress, I also wanted it to look fantastic. For this, I found some amazing white lace in my stash. I added it to the stomacher and decided, there was still not enough bling. So I added beads, and afterwards, smaller rocailles beads and then I finished it off with shiny rectangular beads.

Once I was happy with the blingness, I added bows and roses. And the stomacher was officially done.

The dress was now void of any flounces and decoration. It looked empty and sad, but when I finished adding the roses, it looked like a completely new historical ball gown.

Who is she and what did she do to the other dress? I felt so satisfied with the transformation. It really looked like an enchanted forest where Dornröschen sleeps in the castle. It was not difficult sewing the roses onto the dress. I took a thicker thread and just want around the leaves. It was much trickier trying to sew the harder branches onto the dress.

My shoes arrived in time and while they didn't look like the picture, they were marvelous - and a bit too big for my tiny feet.

And now the only thing left was dressing up and enjoying the evening.

The arrived with an uber as I didn't want to take the public transportation in this look. We were very early and had to wait almost 45min for the doors to open.

When the doors opened the dance master Pia led us in a circle into the room until it was filled with people. The historical dance room was an amazing room that was a bit unexpected to find as the outer exterior was quite ugly.

Our obligatory mirror selfie.

We danced and danced and I was happy we went to the dance-preparation two nights before. After a few hours of dancing there was a food break. There was a lot of meat and cheese, greaves, and greaves with potato. Definitely nothing my partner could eat so he ate one Bretzl. Poor him.

And here is the room, waiting for the midnight event to start. Look at those amazing costumes! I recognized Frau Holle, Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot, Frog Prince, and so much more. Other's were not as elaborately dressed as we also had a woman dressed as a cat in leggings. What I found more interesting was that there were a lot of older people (60+) and people my age but only a few people younger than us. We actually expected to see a lot of people our age, no idea why.

And now, mesdames et messieurs, the moment you have probably waited for. My outfit! It was a successful all in pink look.

I love how perfectly the shoes match the underskirt. I had an amazing evening and I hope to go to more balls and historical dance events in Vienna, now that I know they do exist! (Although mostly organized on Facebook where I deleted my account. Dang.)

And here is a short reel I made of the event:

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Thank you so much!

All the best,

Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

sorry for the videos back on back but I didn't know what to write about and then time flew by and suddenly, the first days of February were upon me and I hadn't posted all January.

This video is short and sweet and I present the clothing in the Marie-Antoinette exhibition.

Please watch to the end as my watch time is horrible!

And if you are interested in a shorter versions, here is the shorts:

Thank you so much!

All the best,

Auris Lothol

Hello lovelies,

there is currently a Marie-Antoinette exhibition at Bratislava castle. It ends in April 2026, therefore, you still have some time if you are interested. The castle is only an hour away from Vienna and instead of taking the public transport, we took an Uber from the train station to the castle and paid 4,5€, an absolutely steal!

The entry fee is 10€ for the exhibition only but you can also get the ticket including one for the permanent exhibition which was a tad more expensive. And now we had the tickets and were ready for the exhibition...but didn't find it. We followed the arrows into the basement but it was not there. Confused we went to the other exhibition and asked and the security said, it was the second door. There was no information, no arrow pointing to the door, no marker, no sticker. That was weird.

We entered and showed our ticket and we stood in a room that exhibited portraits of various Habsburgs and pictures of Bratislava castle 300 years ago. Then, it was called Pressburg in German and belonged to the Hungarian empire.

A portrait of Marie Theresia, the mother of Marie-Antoinette. Austrian fashion during that time still looked a bit more baroque than the rest of Europe.

Portrait of Franz Stephan I, Husband to Maria-Theresia and father of Marie-Antoinette. I remember that the KHM in Vienna also has a portrait from him.

A portrait of the later emperor Joseph II of Austria. He is Marie-Antoinette's brother and ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire for only 10 years after the death of his mother. He was a pretty interesting character as he was so progressive, too progressive for the time. Most of his reforms were taken back with the next emperor.

This lovely painting was made by Martin van Meytens and depicts Marie-Elisabeth, a sister to Marie-Antoinette. She was the beautiful one in the family until she contracted small-pox and was left horribly disfigured at age 24 and all marriage prospects were ruined. She became an abbess in Innsbruck.

And finally, a picture of the young future queen herself, Marie-Antoinette in a beautiful blue dress rich which lace.

This portrait was of Marie-Christine, another sister of Marie-Antoinette. She was her mother's favourite daughter and the only one who was allowed to Marie for love. She lived with her husband in Pressburg/Bratislava.

I'm not sure if these insignias were original or a replica but probably the latter.

I'm not sure who those two are as I did not take a picture of the information card and google was not helpful, sorry!

Then, we rounded the corner and stood in the room we came for. It was full of beautiful dresses but looking at them closely I realized that some were replicas, and not very good one. At least the originals were fantastic. I especially like the embroidered men's clothing, I wish they would war clothes like these again.

This stunning robe de cour is fashioned after a famous portrait of Marie-Antoinette. It looks absolutely beautiful but didn't feel real and old and I was correct when I studied the information. This and all other replicas were made by Atelier Caraco in Paris.

This robe a l'anglaise looks great from afar but a close-up revealed a bit of a slopy work and glued on rhinestones. But the fabric the tailors used was really nice.

At least the next to items are pieces from the 18th century. You have this stunning orange polish-style cape and a black frock with embroidery. The orange cape has the florals painted on them. I'm not sure how waterproof the colour was as it was a bold choice for an outer garment.

The three piece frock with breath-taking embroidery was one of my favourite piece of clothing on display. The craftmanship is simply impressive. I wish I were on this level.

This white frock was hidden behind a mirror but at least you could see both sides.

Sneek peak! I am really the one taking the pictures lol. this is another replica and the worst of them, in my opinion. It looks bland and the lace cheap. I know you can't get hand made lace anymore (unless you are learning it like I am doing) but maybe a bit more expensive lace would have looked better.

There is no backview of this wig, which is a shame. It looked well made.

This is another dress from the 18th century. Marie Antoinette popularised English dresses like this one. It's made from Spitalfields-silk and illustrates the expertise of their weavers.

This open dress features a wonderfully pleated back. It feels like the stomacher is missing though? But it also looks great with the buttons, I have never seen a dress like that.

This chemise a la reine/robe chemise was one of my favourite dresses, even though it was a replica too. But I have a soft spot for long, airy, white dresses. It is fashioned after a 1783 painting by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

This Robe de Bergère is also made by Atelier Caraco and fashioned after a La Galerie des Modes Magazine which was published around 1778. It features a green overdress, a striped skirt and a pink top? I'm not sure about this one as it looks more 17th century than 18th century.

This reddish/brown frock with, what I thought looked like Zwirnknöpfe (Buttons wrapped in thread).

Not sure if this dress is also from Atelier Caraco but this is another replica. It's a dress that Marie-Antoinette could have worn in prison.

They also showed a painting of the beheading of Marie-Antoinette. Just a bit morbid.

This is an English dress from the 18th century. It has wonderful pleats on the skirt part and a striped and floral pattern.

Look at the embroidery on this blue frock and the ecru . I love the embroidery on mens' clothing during this era.

Another wig recreation, women didn't really wear wigs but funny enough, Marie-Antoinette did as her hair was thinning.

This black frock was so hard to photograph with my low quality camera. Sorry for that. But I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.

And that's it!

Thank you so much!

All the best,

Auris Lothol

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Auris Lothol

Historical costuming,
Japanese Lolita fashion,
travel adventures,
and Lace making.

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Auris Lothol

Historical costuming, Japanese Lolita fashion, travel adventures, and Lace making.

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Historical costuming,
Japanese Lolita fashion,
travel adventures,
and Lace making.