An archery tournament with food and wine and fun!

See our events page for details and payment information. :D

Capture Portland's Serene Beauty at Laurelhurst Park!

Don't forget about our special event on June 12 for the artistic types.

Saturday June 12, 2016
11 AM - Laurelhurst Park

Bring your easel and your watercolours.
Costume is admired, but as always, is not required.

See our events page for details (or click the Facebook Event Page link below it to RSVP)

A change of date!

The Art of Costume Fair & Exhibit has been moved to Memorial Day weekend. Details are as follows: (subject to change in the next few months and also, more will be added): 

We are welcoming costume vendors of all varieties, from historical kits to cosplay. Steampunk, Sci-Fi, Anime, pirates, Harry potter, reenactment, theatre, movies, costume weapons, costume construction resources, anything costume will do. Costume exhibit and contest. Demonstrations welcome too! Contact us with proposals. Costume/Fan group tables available for free (if not selling), contact us for details.

Vendor applications can be downloaded HERE
Send via mail to ORS Costume Fair c/o Nora Azevedo
4811 SE Boardman Ave #1
Milwaukie, Oregon 97267

or email to ladiesregent@gmail.com

Costume contest/exhibit:Submission forms to come.
Three prizes will be awarded to participating costumers. Rules: Participants can submit as many costumes as they want to the exhibit and for the contest. Each submission is $10. It must be displayed on a dress-form or dummy to its best advantage and put on display in the venue for the two complete days of the event. Participants and visitors will be given tokens and they can also purchase additional tokens to be used to vote for the exhibited costume submissions. The costumes will be chosen by votes. Winners (top 3) receives a trophy (first, second and third place). Awards will be given at the conclusion of the event on Sunday. Submission forms will be provided. Photos of existing costumes, or concepts/drawings are acceptable.

You can right click on this poster image, and print and share as you like.  Thanks for participating!

It's been a while, but we're having a BALL!

There will be a flurry of related events, including a dance workshop, hair workshop and more. Ticket details will be posted on the events page, so click away.  Join us for our first major winter ball since 2010!

Flashback to December - Afternoon Tea & Assembly

We have been a bit quiet, thrown into a state of limbo by Nora's tragic accident and some other negative things that happened during the past months. But we're still here, and planning is underway for a spate of new events, including a Winter Ball! We're very excited to have Stephanie Robertson Maier back in the fold, and she is inspired. And you all know what happens when she is inspired... all I can say is GOOD THING Her last little assembly was a delight. A delicious tea followed by dancing and a lively round of Speculation! Here's a little movie of the group warming up with the old and simple standard "Hole in the Wall"

   

 Please also know, I (Stephanie Johanesen) am arranging some dance workshops to be held possibly once a month at Sandy. Along with those, and the new events, we also have a large costume fair that will be for all manner of costume periods and styles, including cosplay and more. Details to come! Keep checking our events page for more details. Here are some pics from December's tea & assembly.

An ORS Leader In Need

Nora, also known as Lady Jersey.

If you haven't joined the ORS Facebook group, it's likely you are unaware that Nora Azevedo, the ORS's excellent treasurer and one of the group's valuable leaders, was, along with her husband Bob, involved in a violent car crash which only by the miracle of modern engineering, they barely survived.

In case you need evidence of the severity of their crash

Thank you for donating!

Because the medical bills will be insurmountable, we are posting their GoFundMe campaign so that members who understand Nora's value to the group, and care about her can contribute towards her safe recovery.


As you can imagine, this has had a significant emotional impact on the whole group and we want to make sure that Nora is up and at it soon. The ORS needs her! So please contribute! Thank you.

Please click here to donate: 

Save the dates!

Keep an eye out on our event page for details, registration and activity announcements for our two legacy destination events. 2015's Regency Retreat and the reknownedTopsails & Tea weekend, which will be in Coos Bay, Oregon this year.  Keep visiting, or join the ORS Facebook Group to keep yourself up to date on news and goings-on!

Flashback! 2008 Midsummer Night's Dream Masquerade

One of the folks that orchestrated this lovely event back in 2008 dug up these videos that were once posted on the 'Past Events' page on the old website. I'm glad she did! This was a stellar event, starting with a wonderful meal, then a performance by wonderful actors of an excerpt from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, to an evening of dance and jubilation.  These were filmed by Brightjoy productions. Theodosia and the Chevalier had the vision and the knowhow to pull off this event, and it was lovely!

A lovely video showing a variety of activities during the event.

This second video is of the performance on the outdoor stage.  This event was held at the lovely Ainsworth House and Gardens of Oregon City, one of our very favourite venues.

Enjoy! We did. :)  A lovely, whimsical evening of delights. Thank you Mme Theo and Chevalier!

Topsails and Tea 2014 - a stellar event!

Topsails and Tea will be taking place in Astoria this year, the first permanent settlement west of the Rockies, and Oregon's oldest.  We will be there to welcome our lovely lady friends, the Hawaiian Chieftain and Lady Washington.  The event takes place over the last weekend in May, starting Friday night, May 30 with the Astor Ball.

The Astor Ball will be held in the beautiful Masonic Center in Astoria, a building that has a lovely Grecian/Roman appearance.  Inside is a spacious ballroom and a mezzanine room from which participants may view the dancing while at cards.

Columns and a classic portico to welcome ballgoers.

The ballroom below, the mezzanine room across,
an elegant space for our purposes.

On Saturday, there will be a museum visit, and tea at the infamous, and historic Flavel House, a graceful Victorian beauty in the center of Astoria.

The Flavel House Museum.

Saturday evening will then feature the evening sail on the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain. These are ships out of the Grays Harbour Historical Seaport.

The Lady Washington

The Hawaiian Chieftain

We will tie up the weekend with a picnic at Fort Clatsop on Sunday.  It is a full weekend of all-regency-all-the-time fun, so pack your trunks and join us! All are welcome to all of our events in the beautiful, historical Astoria, Oregon.

A soaring view of Astoria and the bridge.

Astor Ball event page on Facebook (must be logged in and a member of the ORS group to view)
Topsails & Tea event page on Facebook (must be logged in and a member of the ORS group to view)

Recent Events from the NW Chapter.

To punctuate our most productive event meeting, we enjoyed a well-attended picnic at Pittock Mansion this past Sunday with no fewer than forty-five people in costume and several in plainclothes. It was a wonderful occasion and everyone had a splendid time!  See our little slideshow(s) below for images of the picnic (directly below) and a slideshow of our Topsails & Tea event in Hood River on June 1.

More events are being finalized and will be posted under our events tab soon. Keep checking back to know what we're up to for the next six months at least.

Productive meetings = new events!

The ORS leadership had a meeting this past week, and the result is a nice busy list of events that reach well into the spring of 2014. Yay! Amid other plans, we are also working on the retreat for our state as well, but those plans will be announced when we have settled things.  In the meantime, we've already got something for our membership every month through March of 2014, which is faboo, and as it always happens, new things will pop up in between as we go along.  For now, our events page will be populated as venues are confirmed, with a few 'save the dates' so people have time to plan.

Among the many new events are a few new additions to the ORS Workshop Series, including two day workshops to create foundation costume pieces for a Regency wardrobe, including the 'unmentionables', and even gowns.  So keep checking in!

The first workshop to come up is a weekend workshop to create a set of Regency stays. With the assistance of experienced costumers, like Nora Azevedo, participants will be able to create a set of stays from start to finish (hopefully) during this workshop.  Materials for the foundation of the stays will be provided as part of the fee, and all participants have to bring is their sewing kit and fashion fabric if they want something fancy to cover the exterior of their stays other than plain white.

The ORS's Northwest Chapter has two very popular posts about Regency stays, and participants can use them to help decide which type of stays would best suit them.

An Overview of Regency Stays

Achieving a Proper Fit With Regency Stays

The Regency stay is a crucial, foundation item that is required to achieve the proper regency silhouette, there is no doubt about it. There are very few substitutes for the stay, even a bodiced petticoat has its limits. Gowns designed to work with modern bras have longer backs, and although superficially they have the regency shape, they do not have the accuracy of a period costume.  Any participant looking to advance their skill level and their accuracy in regency costume, and to have the foundation garments that they can build their wardrobe on, this is the workshop for you.  It's over a two days on a weekend, and will be held at the private home of ORS leader Mary Whittaker (aka Aelfgyva). See the events page for details.

And remember, all ORS workshop series events are costume-free. Show up in jeans, a t-shirt with a latté clutched in your hand. We don't always play dress-up, but when we're not all trussed up for Regency fun, we are at least getting together to prepare for it. ;)  See you at our next event!

A delightful assembly

Friday evening was wonderful. It was a warm evening, and attendees enjoyed dancing before and after dining. Kathryn Plett of Set to Music Country Dancing was kind enough to call the dances for us on this lovely balmy Spring night.

TaborSpace was an excellent venue with excellent staff, and we were delighted to be welcomed there. It was a family-friendly evening of dance, dining and diversions.

New events, more to come, and then some.

Happy taxtime everyone. LOL. We've just added in a few events. The next two months will be packed with things to do in costume... from teas and picnics to the infamous Topsails and Tea event that has finally been rounded out and completed, so please check our events page. Frequently!

We are celebrating a special event for one of our most esteemed leaders, Miss Stephanie Robertson, who will be getting married in August. We will be holding a tea to celebrate this event, and are asking the participants to bring a postcard sized 'scrap-booky' card to contribute to her event album.  We are hoping some of the more Regency techniques will be used to create the cards, including quilling, calligraphy, watercolours, sketching and more or if you're ambitious... all!... we are looking forward to seeing what the album looks like with each individual contribution.

Can you quill? :)

Topsails and Tea has been completed at last, and has two days of activities to make the trip to Hood River worthwhile, including a customized tea menu by 3 Rivers Grill, dinner at Riverside and breakfast at the Hood River Hotel.  These are all additions to the lovely evening sail aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain.

A new picnic has been arranged in a lilac garden to boot. And we will be posting an announcement for a new hat & bonnet workshop very soon, so keep posted.

Also, the Northwest Chapter is welcoming two new leaders on board.  Mrs. Kat D'Silva and Miss Aelfgyva LaFae joined the ORS NW leadership this week and will be contributing in organizing events and welcoming new members. So please be sure to give these ladies an appreciative pat on the back for leaping into the fire with the rest of us. LOL.

News for February.

Greetings everyone! The website transition is still underway, which means that there will inevitably be some broken links here and there about the internet.  We are working to have those resolved as soon as possible. Bear with us.

We have added in some events for your perusal. We have found a wonderful new venue for our balls and assemblies. TaborSpace is an old stone church in the Mount Tabor area (Belmont Ave.).  Not only is this space central and accessible with ample parking, but it is also quite affordable.  We plan to hold many an event there, including a workshop or two.  They have a lovely coffee shop on site as well. Drop by and visit if you can. Join us on April 26 for the NW Chapter's Spring 'In Celebration of Shakespeare' Ball, and see the venue for yourself.

In other news, a date has been chosen for the sixth annual ORS Pittock  Mansion picnic, always a successful event.  We are also posting a 2013 Topsails and Tea event in Hood River, Oregon for June. There's a stitch & bitch in the planning, a bonnet workshop and more.  Click on events and keep checking in for updates. Also, be sure to join the Facebook group page to be right up to the date on events and discussions. :)

Pittock Mansion picnic, 2012

Welcome!

Welcome the Oregon Regency Society's main website! This page encompasses all of the Oregon Regency Society chapters.  We are currently updating our website to this format, and will be taking a little bit of time to verify all of the links and to complete all the transfer of past events pages and more. So bear with us! In the meantime, be sure to like our page on Facebook and to join our Facebook group. It's the best place to meet other ORS members, share resources, photos and to learn about events as they're being planned. :)

Be sure to click the tabs above for more information,