[Classy Cats] Art Deco Festival 2017

Art Deco Festival was once again held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach from August 19-20, 2017 The annual event was much smaller than the previous year. Because of the continuous and needed refurbishment and restoration of the art deco ocean liner, Art Deco Festival was very limited in what they offered this year than previous years. There weren’t interactive programming (ie: soda tasting, alcohol tasting, etc) and the “lawn party” was condensed with the Sunday swing party. However, this did not stop vintage enthusiasts from attending the annual art deco celebration.

(Note: A majority of my photos were from my iPhone. My apologies if the photos won’t turn because WordPress’ image editor of rotating images is highly flawed)

 

The Outfit

I wore the Raileen navy colorway dress from Stop Staring! Clothing. It was my dress dream for a while – i love sailor / nautical themed cuts. It seemed to fit in well with Art Deco Festival now that I know more that Art Deco is more than just “Gatsby for a Day.” The hat is vintage. I ended up having my hair done by Lady Reese of Reese’s Vintage Pieces. It took her a while to come down from Los Angeles – my hair was finally done at 4PM with a few hours to spare to get photos aboard the ship!

 

The Event

There was a lot of things that were scaled down because of the restoration. We did manage to check out one seminar on Art Deco in design The presentation focused on the optimism for the future of Art Deco as seen in design. There was a focus on discussing various Worlds Fairs in the 1930s that reflected future living projected for 1960. The presenter also talked about how Walt Disney adopted this concept for Disneyland.

There were also opportunities to shop. The Vintage Bazaar was on the fourth floor deck. It was about the same humble size as last year. I ended up picking up a few headbands from The Vintage Darling and a red dress. There were a handful of tables to browse around including the Art Deco Society’s membership table. For the weekend you could apply for a household membership at $50. We ended up getting membership for the two of us.

We also went to Chelsea’s Chowder House for lunch. It was nicely preserved and had art detailing the behind the scenes of the Queen Mary providing fast facts. The two of us ordered the chowder and calamari. Because we’re from Boston, our taste in chowder is very picky. This was the best chowder we’ve had on the west coast so far. After some exploring on the ship, we went to the Art Deco bar on the bow side for drinks to wind down our day on the Queen Mary.

 

The Ship

While most of the ship was blocked off, there were still a few exhibits to check out:

 

Overall

We were hoping that this would be the same as last year, but we understood Art Deco LA wanted to make do with what they had. We couldn’t afford the $200 per head ticket for the grand ball. We could have done the Sunday swing dance, but we weren’t sure if the price also included all access to the ship. I did think the $25 was worth it to include exploring around the ship. Jared’s never been to the Queen Mary. Though most of the ship was under renovation, it was still nice to see that care and attention is still given to this Art Deco icon. I would recommend this event for those curious about Art Deco culture; it’s a great event to dress up for. Also, if you’ve never been on the Queen Mary beforehand, this is a great way to learn about history and appreciate this Art Deco marvel.