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

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. 

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: 

If you enjoy this blog and want to support it, consider leaving a small donation via PayPal. Every bit helps keep things running and lets me keep creating more content just for you. You can donate by clicking the link below:

Thank you so much! 

All the best, 

Auris Lothol

 

Hello lovelies,

 the Kochkulturmuseum (Food culture museum? 1:1 translation, no idea if it makes sense) announced a new Victorian Tea-time event. And Pi, Hias and I decided to even though it was somewhere in lower Austria. Usually for events like this we stick to Vienna but we wanted to borrow my parent's car which would make the travel cheaper. In the end, we had to borrow a sixt car for five hours and had to pay 122€ plus gas. Ugh. We started travelling around 1.3pm as it took an hour and the event started at 3pm.

It was foggy af, actually it has been foggy since in the beginning of December. We arrived and still had an hour left so we fled into the nearest warm shop, which was a bakery and bought bread and christmas cookies. The doors were opened on time and we had took the lift to the second floor. There, we entered a super cute room which was decorated with the red plates I knew. 

We immediately got this tower of sandwiches at our table, cucumber sandwiches and relish with cheddar. Latter was definitely my favourite. 

Continuing with the food, we also got artichoke and mushroom pies which were really good. I am not a fan of artichoke but I liked it. The pie was moist and tasty, but definitely nothing I would want to do at home.

And here is the cucumber sandwich. We also got three different kinds of teas - one white and two black but since I am also not a fan of white tea, I really enjoyed the other two.

 After stuffing my face with sandwiches, I went over to the sweet treats. The scones had no clotted cream but raisins in the dough so this was the only one I ate. Definitely not a fan of raisins.

 We also had a plate of gingerbead and buttery shortcake, and then plum pudding, which was lit on fire with enough alcohol to probably set the whole room aflame. Afterwards, we got a mug of wassail, a hot mulled punch. My sister and I were more fond of the non-alcohol version of it.

And, of course, a picture with a wonderful filter giving the room it's pastel colours back. I am wearing my baby the stars shine bright dress called Flower Garrett Juliet Onepiece, long version.

 I have been to two different Tea parties now and have to say that the ambience was great at both places, as was the food but the quantity of food was much greater at this party. What I liked more last time was that they set your Christmas pudding aflame on your table, that didn't happen this time. They set it aflame on another table and dimmed the lights. It would have been even better if they did this at every table.

All in all though it was a wonderful afternoon with plentiful of good food. Hias was so amazed that he asked that we go to the next event too. That was great as he had showed no interest in 2023 when I asked him to join us for the first Victorian tea party. 

If you enjoy this blog and want to support it, consider leaving a small donation via PayPal. Every bit helps keep things running and lets me keep creating more content just for you. You can donate by clicking the link below:

Thank you so much! 

All the best, 

Auris Lothol

 

Hello lovelies, 

another medieval festival is over and it was icy and rainy. I remember 2023 was so hot and we were a puddle of sweat and this time we were ice-blocks. 

This year was a bit different because we snatched one of the rare rooms in a hotel for the weekend. At first we just wanted to stay from Saturday to Sunday but the hotel informed us that due to the medieval festival, rooms are only rented out from Friday to Sunday. A cash grab in my eyes but sure. And it was not cheap either for what we got, it was about 400€ for two nights including breakfast. Which, for that location was pretty steep. 

But nevertheless, we arrived on Friday, had a quick dinner at the restaurant and then watched schlefaz in the room. The pumpkin soup with the toasted bread was really delicious, my garlic spaghetti were not. It was so bland and I did not taste any garlic. That was such a shame because I love garlic. 

While watching one of the worse Schlefaz I sewed on the rhinestones to the dress. 

Saturday

We woke up around 8:15 and got ready. Here is my outfit I wore for that day. It's an older one I made and wore back in 2019 (see here)

 After a breakfast, only tea for me, we managed to be on time for the parade an 10am. 

The admission in 2025 was €10 for one day or €15 for both days, making it one of the more affordable festivals in Austria. 

Compared to other locations like Český Krumlov, both the town and the festival in Eggenburg are much smaller and thus the parade was probably only 1/8th of what the Krumlov parade was, but it was fun nevertheless. 

 

 

 

 

It's not even an 1/8th of what the Krumlov parade was but it was fun nevertheless. The women from the Lace club recognized me and wanted us to join them but we declined. My favourite were the Italian flag-throwing group Sbandieratori di Arezzo. They performed a short set to close the parade, but later in the day they also give a full show. Founded in 1960, they’ve become cultural ambassadors of their region, performing everywhere from Seoul and New York to Versailles and even the Vatican. Their acrobatics, synchronized flag swings, and the sound of drums and trumpets create an unforgettable atmosphere. Plus, their good looks and costumes had many heads turning.

Because of this, the streets and market areas can get very crowded during peak hours. In 2025 it wasn’t too bad, since the weather was less favourable, but on a sunny day, you can expect the festival to be packed. 

We went up to the church, took some pictures and then had cake in the gardens of the parish. The prices for water and cake was affordable, and we did not have to pay the usual 7€ deposit for the mugs. 

Then we wandered down and had a look around at the boots. We also found my favourite artists Orniello and Wellenkind, who were located near the other church and general area of other artists.  

 

 

You could buy everything your medieval heart desires from from jewelry and hats to pottery, felted bags and hats, gemstones, fabric, ocarina, bird whistles, baskets, incense, jams, syrup, mead, leather items, clothing, ropes, soap, books, bags, and blacksmith wares. 

 

 

 

We ate lunch, I had medieval potato latkes, just kidding...of course there were no potatoes during that time, and meat in a bun with mustard and sauerkraut. My partner got Flammkuchen without cream and it was just a tortilla with vegetables for 10€? Absolutely not worth it. 

Afterwards he got Baumkuchen, which at least has a history dating back to the late Middle Ages. The earliest known recipes appear in an Italian cookbook from 1426, and one of the first German-language recipes can be found in Marx Rumpolt’s 1581 cookbook, where it is referred to as Spießkuchen/Spit cake.

The weather was not great and we decided to head back to the hotel around 2pm, we napped for an hour and then I changed into a casual wear and we were off to the festival again. 

We watched another show of the Sbandieratori di Arezzo. Too bad we got a bad spot and didn't really say much apart from their heads and the flags that were thrown into the air. Plus, children were running around and some grabbed my hip and pushed me to get infront of me. I was so livid with them and their parents but latter where no where to be found. 

 

I drank a grape juice which was amazing, and we rested at a bench and watched the people. 

 

We also found some of Hias' friends and talked to them and then later met up at another location where I had a bread with raclette. There was no price and I naively thought it would not be that expensive because it's just bread with cheese but I was wrong and paid 8,5€ for this. Eight euros and fifty cents. Absolutely not worth it.

 

We went back to the hotel at 6pm and stayed there. We were too tired to do anything else and went to bed. 

Sunday

It had rained and stormed during the night and everything was still wet.  I was glad I didn't bring the white dresses I intended to wear as I would have had dirt on my seams up to my knee. Instead I brought the blue dress I made and wore the year before (remember?). This time I wore it with a green woolen cape. 

 

We were a bit too late to watch the parade and instead set out to chat with the artists of Orniello and Wellenkind. I bought a ring from Orniello and Hias bought a new hat from Wellenkind.

I realized that I didn't film enough for a video so we basically run around and I made videos of the booths and the artists. During that time we also bought a new Cherry mead which was 30€. 

Today we also got two program points: the historical dances from Eulenspiel and the concert from Schandgesellen.  

Afterwards we went to the venetian camp and met friends who came with her friend group that had never been to a medieval festival. They were starstruck and excited and the energy was contagious.

 

We ate some cake at the parish again and it then began to rain. It was annoying but at least we were not stuck outside as the people working there invited us into the building. when it stopped raining we made a few pictures and then grabbed our stuff and went to the train station. 

We were home around 3pm and I was so happy to see my cats again. It was a long and expensive weekend, I was cold most of the time but it was fun. But, next time, we will not stay at the hotel.

 

 

If you enjoy this blog and want to support it, consider leaving a small donation via PayPal. Every bit helps keep things running and lets me keep creating more content just for you. You can donate by clicking the link below:

Thank you so much! 

All the best, 

Auris Lothol