Festive Attyre
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15 Random Facts

about Jen Thompson and the Festive Attyre website

  1. This website was started in 2001 after I made my first few Renfaire costumes in graduate school. My original goal was to create a site dedicated to 16th c. costuming, but after 4 years of obsessing about Renaissance stuff, I eventually branched out and started obsessing out other eras as well. In 2006, I gave the website a makeover in the hopes that it would work better for all genres of historical costuming.
  2. I have a masters degree in studio art, specializing in drawing, printmaking, and painting. Although I still love art and always will, I never felt the same passion for 2-D art as I do for creating historical clothing. Today, my MFA degree pays the bills as I teach Art I - III to a bunch of crazy high schoolers, and my weekends and summers are spent joyfully obsessing about the art of fashion.
  3. No, I don't make costumes for sale. This is strictly a hobby for me, and I don't want to screw up the fun by turning it into a job.
  4. But yes, I do occasionally take commissions for period-style miniature portraits. Costuming is a hobby, but art is my profession, so when I have the spare time (which isn't that often), I do enjoy painting on commission.
  5. I currently live in Dallas, Texas with my wonderful husband Mike. I am a bit of an anomaly in the costuming world because I do not have a cat, and I don't plan to get one any time soon (even though I do love the little beasts).
  6. No, I am not a member of the SCA or a participant at a Renaissnace faire, but I am an officer in the The Dallas/Ft. Worth Costuming Guild which is a really fun new group for local costume junkies. I also volunteer at the living histroy days at Chestnut Square in McKinney.
  7. After spending my youth as a rabid Mac-hater, I was forced to actually use a Mac computer in college, and I instantly saw the light! Now I am an even bigger Mac-addict, and in this picture, you can see my beloved blue dalmatian iMac. Someday, I'll be able to afford one of those sexy new flat-screen iMacs, but this old girl is still holding up well. And yes, I do have a strange habit of wearing costume pieces around the house from time to time. It just makes me happy.
  8. I am entirely self-taught as a seamstress and costume historian (and web designer, for that matter). My mom showed me the basics of operating a sewing machine and how to follow a pattern, but everything else I learned though books, the internet, and good ol' trial and error. It's amazing what you can learn when you put your mind to it.
  9. Speaking of patterns... I HATE them! There are some great ones out there right now, but even those always end up confusing me more than helping. Almost every costume that you see on this site was was created by drafting my own custom patterns based on diagrams from books and websites, or through pure draping. I know most of you won't believe me when I say this, but after you learn a few basic techniques, drafting and draping really isn't that hard.
  10. Even though I'd love to take the credit myself, a great deal of the popularity of this website is thanks to the costume-of-the week section, known as the Featured Attyre. For the first 4 years, it was updated every Tuesday without fail. But now that I work more and don't have as much time to spend online, I'm not quite as reliable. I miss weeks every once in awhile when things got especially hectic, but I still do the best that I can. I recently decided to take a little break and just update every other week for awhile, so I am hoping that makes it a little easier to keep up with.

  11. Halloween--1980 Halloween--1995 Halloween--2003
    My Halloween costumes at ages 5, 20, and 28.
    As you can see, I'm still going strong!
    My favorite holiday is Halloween (duh!), and I have worn quite an assortment of costumes for this holiday throughout my life. As a child, I can remember being a butterfly, a crayon, a Raggedy Ann doll, a princess, and an old man. In college, I was a phantom, a wood nymph, Dot from the Animaniacs, a lumberjack, and a circus ring-leader. These days, I don't have as many excuses to dress up for Halloween anymore, but when push comes to shove, I'm likely to throw on a pirate costume and go to the grocery store if there is nothing better to do.
  12. The vast majority of pictures on this site were taken all by myself using a digital camera with a timer and tripod. It's not that hard, people! You can pick up a tripod for under $20, and almost every camera that I have seen has a timer. And if you don't have a digital camera, you should really consider getting one. They are dirt cheap these days, and I promise, it will rock your world! Oh, and don't forget to turn off that stupid flash - bad lighting is the root of all evil in photography.
  13. I really suck at replying to email. I feel horrible about it, but I can't seem to get any better. I like getting email, but I'm a hopeless procrastinator about replying to it all. It might take me anywhere from a week to 3 months to get back to you... and my junk mail filter has been known to get over-zealous at times, so sometimes I don't the messages at all. If you want a speedy reply, my best advice is to send me a few emails in a row and keep bugging me until I remember to write you back! I promise - I don't mind!
  14. Mike and I were married at the Texas Renaissance Festival in the year 2000. Here are some pictures if you wanna see.
  15. I am absolutely addicted to antique fashion magazines like my Peterson's collection (that I will someday finish webbing). So if you ever feel like buying me a present...