Just another mushroom costume at the Minnesota Ren Fest
Yes, hello. I wanted to talk about my newest outfit worn at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. I wrote a post a few years back about my mushroom concept costume, and that still gets many reads and clicks today, especially in the late summer and early fall, when the Ren Fests are happening all over the place… Once again, of course, I dressed up as… another mushroom!
Reviewing my previous mushroom costume
My former mushroom costume from the Ren Fest! I dressed as an Amanita Muscaria! I wore a red beret and wore heavy blush with white spots on the cheek, and a black dress with a white peter pan collar, embellished with red mushroom embroidery on the collar.
My last mushroom costume was just taking real things from my closet and making them mushroom themed. My regular style influences are quite far off from the standard ren faire look, but I really try to emphasize my mushroom obsession with a red beret as my mushroom cap, a black peter pan collar dress with mushrooms on the collar, and red tights and pointy black boots, adopting a bit of 60’s energy throughout.
Read about my last costume here! >> A Mushroom Costume at the MN Ren Fest!
The NEW costume details~
I wore a romper base with a pair of cowboy boots, and a strawberry coin purse, just in case I had to toss a coin to my witcher.
I saw a youtube vlog where a vlogger had her friends describe their little accessories and how they used already-owned items to create a ren faire vibe. I was amazed by the DIY aspect and honestly, it really changed the game for me. Take my own things… and make them renaissance? genius. I don’t know why, but I assumed everybody buys local from the festival for half a decade, until they accumulate enough olde stye things to wear one time a year. I now realize there’s plenty of renaissance potential in your everyday items!
The Romper
Wild Fable romper spring/summer 2024 (size large)
The romper was a dupe of the Vanessa Mooney Elisabeth Dress. Target’s brand Wild Fable designed a spring/summer 2024 romper clearly emulating the Elisabeth dress look, and I instantly bought one (I got it in size large, though it runs large. I’m a medium up top, and large on my hips). I tried obtaining a link, but it’s no longer on Target’s website, so you can only order it secondhand through Poshmark or Depop.
Some listings for the same romper online! I bought mine at Target for maybe 24.99? So these are kind of a steal tbh.
Pointy witchy cowboy boots, hehe
My boots are from Tilly’s, called the Soda Rerun Women’s Western Boot in a size 7 (find them here). I bought these two years ago when I was experimenting with that yeehaw look. I wanted a hybrid western boot (more “boot” than “cowboy”). Also, I’m weird about shoes that make my feet look long, so I searched for boots with a shorter toe box, because I really dislike how I look with the cowboy boots giving elf shoe energy.
My strawberry bag
My strawberry bag! Coach Outlet, but out of stock, still, linked below!
The purse is actually a chained coin wallet from Coach Outlet (find here, sold out, sorry). I bought it 2 years ago on sale for 70 dollars. One thing about me– I love a kitschy bag. Coach Outlet, Kate spade outlet, and Betsey Johnson are kind of my go-to shops when I’m looking for kitschy bags. Bigger designers aren’t really making bags shaped like fruit, yknow? That’s… Kate Spade, Coach, and Betsey territory. I dig it though.
Last minute jewelry additions (not closely pictured, but present)
For other accessories, I added a few jewelry pieces from my personal jewelry collection, mixing metals with my bracelets. In my closet I had a belt from an old pair of pleather shorts I no longer own, but kept the belt for some odd reason. The belt has a rectangular buckle, and a flimsy structure, which just made it look even more rustic and witchy, so that worked. Then I looped a gunmetal grey statement necklace through the belt to add pirate or belly dancer vibes to the finished look!
FINALLY, The Inky Cap Witch Hat
I dressed as an Inky Cap Mushroom! The inky cap is known for its white or beige color, which eventually rots on the edges into this drippy black goo until the entire mushroom eventually shrivels up black. They are native to Minnesota, so I see them regularly, and that inspired me.
I began SEWING black embellishments to the edge of this generic beige witch hat last summer! But once August/September rolled around, Eric and I didn’t have a weekend that worked for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, so we ultimately skipped MN Ren Fest 2023. My inky cap witch hat was left to rot, unfinished, in my closet until the next year’s ren festivities…
This year we picked a weekend that worked, but it was dangerously close, so I had no time to finish sewing my embellishments to the hat. I panicked, with a week before our 2024 ren fest adventure, I pulled out a hot glue gun and. hoped desperately that it would work!
I hadn't worked with hot glue on fabric before. I grew up sewing by hand and machine, but I never knew hot glue worked on fabric, so it was a great little cheat code for an artist/maker like myself in a time crunch! Here’s some photos of the process, in which I did blister my pinky with hot glue (bad), but the hat was complete on time,and did what it had to do on the day of the fest! I got a few compliments on it, and I always take a chance to dress as a mushroom!
Thanks again for reading!
Some news and posts upcoming:
♡ I’m ENGAGED??? I have yet to truly expand on that anywhere, so maybe I will write more about it here.
♡ I have some travel blogs I never uploaded. One from literally last winter in New York, and one from this fall in the Badlands and the Black Hills!
♡ Lastly, some post-election self care, and my updated reading list.
Anyway, I’ll probably upload these all next… I’m just trying to get on a roll with my posts. I hope you all enjoy my new mushroom costume. If you make a mushroom costume, I’d love to see it. Also if you see a real mushroom in real life, I’d also love to see that. If you’ve read this far, you’re an angel!
Best,
Cody
