Masquerade

So I've been looking for fabulous halloween parties to attend in the downtown area and luckily, I stumbled on this...



Since my favorite word and my favorite party theme is a masquerade... I am definitely going...But what am I supposed to wear? 

Little do you know, I have a secret power:

I can find virtually ANYTHING on the 

internet. How?

Google of course. I can Google my ass off!!!! 

Anywho, I typed in the word [masquerade] and I read a lot of things about the history of, various locations in the world  that have been throwing these fancy celebrations for centuries, and pics. 

Here's a smidget of what I found:

A Masquerade, a company based in Bellvue, WA that sells and rents costumes and accessories. 

What was most interesting, and helpful about thier online store was the fact that their costumes were arranged, for your convenience, by era. Their costumes ranged from "classical antiquity"

 ( anything like fake egyptian wear, roman soldier gear, caveman wear, aztec maiden dresses, greek goddess dresses, and spartan gear so you can bring out or reenact your favorite "300" movie scenes) to '1980's" 

 apparel ( famous Madonna music video outfits, Prince's notorious purple outfit, and some not-so 80's outfits)

I might consider renting from this place for the masquerade, but not before I take a thorough search through all of my internet resources.

 I went back to Google.

Then, Wikipedia read my mind. 

Masquerade ball

A masquerade ball (or bal masqué) is an event which the participants attend in costume wearing a mask. (A masque is a formal written and sung court pageant.)Such gatherings, festivities of Carnival, were paralleled from the fifteenth century by increasingly elaborate allegorical Entries, pageants and triumphal processions celebrating marriages and other dynastic events of late medieval court life. Masquerade balls were extended into costumed public festivities in Italy during the 16th century Renaissance (Italian, maschera). They were generally elaborate dances held for members of the upper classes, and were particularly popular in Venice. They have been associated with the tradition of the Venetian Carnival. With the fall of the Venetian Republic at the end of the 18th century, the use and tradition of masks gradually began to decline, until they disappeared altogether.In 1979, a group of young Venetians interested in theatre and culture had the idea of reviving the Carnival in Venice. Now the visitors that crowd Venice in the last week before the beginning of the Lent reach the figure of more than 500.000 and the traditional spirit of the Carnival pervades again the city. Identities again become confused. The division between reality and illusion, between past and present, never very clearly defined in Venice at any time, indistinguishably merge...

I think this is exactly why I want to go to Italy (other than to stare at random fine ass Italian men).  I really want to go to the masquerade dressed in a big costume and a really nice mask so i can meet some mysterious guy and live like Cinderella for the rest of my life, but this is AMERICA so that aint' gon' happen.

However, I think I did find a couple of masks I wouldn't mind wearing...

The real 

question is if I'm really going to buy these or go to the nearest party store...hmm...