Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // Disney Archives: Heroes & Villains and Crown Jewels costume exhibits Arlington, TX // December 2024

There are two things I like to do when Wes & I go on vacation: 1. eat 🍣☕🍖🌽🍤🍸(we did plenty of that here (https://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2024/12/wes-ericas-vacation-photo-album-dfw-tx.html), and 2. go to a fashion or sewing themed museum.

The Arlington Art Museum hosted a special costume exhibit from the Disney archives (okay, not hosted, past tense; I think the exhibit is open until March 2025). 👗 The first part is a gigantic room filled with costumes and accompanying pictures of the actors in scenes wearing the costume and a note from the designer about their process or the inspiration for the piece. The second part is a series of rooms with more costumes (but no photos or design notes 😔), jewelry and other props used in various movies. I'm not a big Disney fan so I haven't seen a lot of the movies, but it was still really neat to read about the costumes and props. I kind of want to go watch all the movies now! LOL The Heroes & Villians costume room was a lot better than the Crown Jewels prop/jewelry section, in my opinion. 

The polka dotted outfits in the top left were worn by Cinderella's step-sisters, who are loud and tacky, and that is what the dresses are supposed to reflect. I LOVE those outfits... I guess I'm loud & tacky, too 😂

I spent ages in the first room. I read each & every design note and examined the tailoring on every piece. 🤓 I wish I had the creative mind and skill of a costume designer (aside- the most prolific designer for Disney has got to be Colleen Atwood; I think every other dress was hers!). I loved that a lot of the unique elements in the pieces came from specific requests from the actors. Since the costumes were actually worn on screen, it was neat to see the height and build of the actors (James Franco is very tall and Danny DeVito is very short.) A majority of the dresses were like a size 000, but they did pad out the mannequins for some of the more average sized actresses. It was weird that they only padded the mannequins for the dresses. None of the male costumes were on larger mannequin's so some of them looked baggy & ill-fitting. 

The only normal sized dresses in the entire exhibit. The Sanderson sisters and the women in A Wrinkle in Time. The mannequins looked so overweight (even though they're not) after seeing all the really skinny dresses. 

I took a ton of pictures so the rest of this will be my pictures and what I learned about each costume. 📷  First up - the dress H.E.R wore for Beauty and the Beast. 💛 She is half Filipina and wanted her culture reflected in the costume. The red decorative edging around the apron is actually Filipino script. I don't remember what it read. The traditional yellow ballgown that Emma Watson wore in her Beauty and the Beast adaptation was also very beautiful. 

My absolute favorite dress in the entire exhibit was Regina's Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time. I love the collar and the sleeves and the color! 💓 The designer wanted to dye it black but the fabric didn't take to the ink so it turned pink. Captain Hook's outfit is pretty cool, too. 

My second favorite is the jacket Emily Blunt wore in Mary Poppins. Nothing fancy or special about it (that I can remember, but I'm sure the designer's note mentioned something), its just a coat I would totally wear. 😊 It looks simple enough that I could probably sew it, but when you look closer, it has so many cute design elements like the pockets, ruffled shoulders and belt. 

I live for those ruffled shoulders ! *swoon*

Both Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep didn't want to use animal fur in their respective costumes. 🐺 The designer embroidered the lines on the Big Bad Wolf suit to make it look like it was fur, and I think the tail and lapel are made from thread, too. For the Witch dress, the designer used pieces of leather and string to make it look like the dress was made from feathers. 

How cool are those shoes!! I've seen Into the Woods but I do not remember this awesome suit.

Also for the Witch dress, the designer knew that the character would be hunched over throughout the movie, so she designed the dress to be worn in a crouched position. Most people think rules & restrictions are bad, and garments should be designed without abandon [maybe for some designers that is true], but I actually really like rules. I think they make you think outside of the box; more creatively. That's why I love my sewing club's monthly challenges so much. 💗 Almost every one of them is something that I would never do in my regular sewing, but it makes me try new things and think differently. 

The following are dresses I really liked but I don't remember anything interesting about them. LOL

Mila Kunis was a witch in this movie. The witch rides in on a fireball and is supposed to be rock n' roll so this was the designer's interpretation of a "rock n' roll witch". I adore the sleeves! 

The Evil Queen from Enchanted. 

These were the main focal point costumes placed in the center of the exhibit, but I wasn't super impressed with them. I think it's because they actually look like costumes (aka Halloween and gimmicky).

From The Prince of Persia. I saw the movie but I don't remember this- there were a lot of fight scenes that zoomed in on the footwork. To distinguish the characters, the designer made Prince Dastan's shoes different.

Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother. I don't remember who played Cinderella. This is one of the movies I haven't seen. 

Glenn Close's Cruella de Vil. I love the sketches and wish more of her costumes from the movie were on display. 

Emma Stone's Cruella. I thought I would really like that movie, since it is a fashion heavy film, but I sadly didn't. I do love this half leather, half fur checkered pattern ❤

After the first room, there was a hallway with more costumes (but no design notes), that lead into the second part with all the props and jewelry. 

It could be because I spent sooooo much time in the first part of the exhibit that my attention span was waning, but I couldn't really get into the second half. Its crazy because I love accessories. 💍 I think any other time, I would have enjoyed reading about jewelry and how its made, but I was just too overwhelmed and fatigued. 😫 A cool thing I did learn - each piece is made a bunch of times and each replica has a different purpose. The one worn by the stunt double is lighter than the actual piece. Some pieces get weathered or broken throughout the movie, so they need to create a more worn looking version. 

The Disney Archives: Heroes & Villains and Crown Jewels costume exhibit is totally worth going to. The ticket prices are a bit hefty ($37/adult) but there is so much stuff jam packed into the galleries that you'll get your money's worth. The museum attendants are super nice, so I would suggest looking at the Heroes & Villians part first, then taking a break to get a coffee or lunch, then coming back for Crown Jewels (the attendants will give you a stamp if you ask... they'll also show you a secret door to the bathroom if you're too engrossed in the exhibit and forget that you have to pee and have been holding it for hours. 😅). There is a scavenger hunt that goes along with the jewelry/props. I saw a bunch of teens running around with paper and yelling, I found Troy's class ring!, but we didn't know what they were doing. The attendant asked us if we wanted to do the hunt as we were leaving but we declined. She still gave us the prize (a Prince and Princess sticker) for finishing it. 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // DFW, TX // December 2024

 

Another year, another trip to eat & shop at Carrollton Town Center. 🍴 Although this year, we branched out and ate & played all throughout the DFW area. The hotel we usually stay at in Carrollton was full so Wes found us a place in Farmers Branch. I was a bit worried at first but it turned out to be a more central location for all of our activities. I did so much driving 🚗(which I was also dreading but the traffic was surprisingly not violent nor overly congested). Our first stop was an errand for one of Wes's friends. He ordered a computer part from Micro Center and charged us with picking it up. I assumed Micro Center would be a small shop in a strip mall but is gigantic. Should be called Mega Macro Center!! It was like the size of two Best Buys or one very large Circuit City (remember those from back in the day?) 

Vegan tuna rice cakes (top left picture) was the best part of lunch!!

Our first actual vacation stop was lunch. We went to Blue Sushi Sake Grill for dinner a few years ago. I wasn't impressed and Wes said it was just okay, but he actually loved it. When we were planning all the restaurants we'd try this year, I mentioned sushi and he suggested giving this place another go. 🍣 He said the roll he got was really good & unique, and that he liked the Godzilla theme and vibe of the restaurant. I was hoping that we'd get to sit by the Godzilla mural this time, but our hostess sat us at almost the same table as our last visit. We came during happy hour and our waitress talked us into getting all the specials. LOL Wes ordered the same roll as last time and said it was just as delicious, but I again, wasn't super impressed with my meal. 😕 I thought the shishito peppers had too much shallot and my spicy octopus roll was entirely too spicy 🔥 (like it overwhelmed the octopus). One thing saved my meal and that was the vegan tuna. Wes refused to try it but it was SO GOOD; like a thousand times tastier than I expected! Blue Sushi Sake Grill is known for its vegan sushi options. I didn't try any last time, but I was really curious about their Vegan Tuna Rice Cakes. Their vegan tuna had the same texture and taste of actual tuna. Now I know that if we got back (which I probably will veto next time), I should only get the vegan options.

I got my first hole-in-one with the bonus on the Connect 4 hole.

We went to play crazy golf next. 🏌 We've played putt putt a few times (Wes is a huge mini golf fan) but never crazy golf. It is so much better! Each hole had an added game attached to it, like it was ski ball and you had to hit the ball into the highest slot, or it was Tetris and you had to maneuver the ball around the blocks. There was the Diamond, Emerald, Ruby (our course), Amber, and Sapphire courses. I had a lot of fun even though my shots were so dismal that the automated tv screen displayed a depressing message after each shot. I kept getting the message that read, What a string of bad luck!, literally after every stroke. LOL 😅 I know & admit that I am terrible at sports (and basically any activity that has a game element to it) so I wasn't mad about it. I actually had a ton of fun! In the end, I did end up with two hole-in-ones, and one of them included the special bonus shot. 👍 My final score was 330 and I was #61 for the day (I think only 70 players had come in so far). Wes managed a 410 and was in third place for the day. I would totally come back every year and try to play on a different course (they're automatically assigned when you come in, so I think its completely random which one you'll get on any given day). My score most likely won't improve, but each course has a set of different games, and I'd like to get the opportunity to fail at all of them. 😆

So much Hello Kitty merch for her 50th anniversary. I loved the Texas kitties and almost bought one for me & Lacey.

We went "home" to the Doubletree by Hilton Near the Galleria (the hotel was seriously called that but it was in Farmers Branch instead of Dallas) to rest a bit before our shopping at Daiso, Teso, and Kinokuniya. Shopping wasn't all that this year 😔; there wasn't that much cute washi tape or pen pal supplies, and I think there is less and less tokidoki stuff each time we go. Kinokuniya was actually closed for the day, so we went back tomorrow.

Those noodles changed my life.

We had dinner at Fat Ni BBQ. 😋 It is a skewer restaurant; you order off a sheet of paper, like at sushi restaurants but they're all types of meats on skewers. 🍖 I wanted one of everything but had to practice restraint. LOL We weren't sure how big the pieces of meat were so we only ordered a few. They're pretty small portions so I would 100% opt for more next time. Each skewer can be made spicy or not spicy. We got a few of each. They're all flavored with Asian 5-spice blend. Everything we got was amazing, but the Oil Spill Noodles were the super star of the meal. It is flat noodles drenched in chili oil with bok choy and roasted garlic & scallions. It was just the right amount of spicy. 

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Grand Prairie location of 85℃. It's a smaller location with less options than the Carrollton one (and the guy at the counter wouldn't heat up my pastry like they do in Carrollton 😢), but it was also much closer to our next activity. I wanted to try the new toffee latte that was on special but they were out of toffee 😑 I got a Matcha Oat Pumpkin Spice Latte instead. I thought it might be too many flavors but it all blended together really well, and it was the perfect hot drink for a chilly morning (it was actually cold in December in TX this year! ❅). Everything was delicious, as always.

The bakery was next to an Asian "mall," so we took a walk around after we finished breakfast. It was bringing back flashbacks of the Asian malls I went to when we visited my dad's side of the family in Houston & Dallas when I was younger; herbal shops that smelled awful, gold & jewelry stores, and all the slippers, fuzzy blankets and silly imported fashions. Most of the shops that I was interested in were still closed so there wasn't too much to see. The food court looked amazing and I almost wished we came hungry for lunch. We did our grocery shopping at Hong Kong market since it was there, and we figured we might not have much time tomorrow to shop at 99 Ranch. It is smaller but still had all the stuff we needed. There were flyers advertising a dragon dance competition at Asia Times Square later in December; I wish we could have come back for it. 🐉 I wonder who won.  

Didn't like much of the art, but here are a few pieces I thought was cool. 

We went to the Arlington Art Museum next to see the Disney costume exhibit. (I took soooooo many pictures so we'll save that experience for tomorrow's blog post. 💻) The "museum" is an itty bitty section of a much larger event space. The event space had a giant E-sports arena, which seemed to be the main attraction of the center. Parking at the museum was a total rip off. 😡 There was no street parking so we were forced to pay $10 to park in a deserted lot that was at least two blocks away. There was zero security or even a sidewalk for us to walk back to the main entrance. The museum's permanent collection was a small gallery of amateur student art. It was very obviously student art. Every single piece was purposefully woke and aggressively thought provoking, i.e. there was a section of unnecessarily graphic abortion art. I prefer to view art and then come to my own conclusions about it, but everything in this gallery was screaming, look at how horrible people like you have made the world, and now it's up to me, a righteous artist, to save all of humanity with my opinions. Just so gross and pretentious. At least the permanent collection was free with our Disney ticket so I didn't waste any money on it.

Next was lunch. We ate at Hurtado BBQ--another good pick. 😋 [I think we choose good really good restaurants on this trip. I usually look on Instagram for places to try but sometimes the food isn't as good as portrayed in the pictures, but not this time. Every place was so yummy!] Hurtado is one of those small barbeque joints that is open until they're sold out of meat smoked for the day. It was really busy even after the lunch rush (I think it was around 2:30 or 3pm when we went). My eloté brisket bowl was perfectly balanced. Not too much sauce or too much lime, like I've had at other places. Wes said his Spanish rice was amazing because it was cooked in the meats' drippings.

After lunch, we stopped in White Rhino coffee for an afternoon snack before driving back to the hotel. ☕ I got a Whole Latte Love, which is a lavender honey coffee. It had a very strong and distinctive flavor. Wes said his cold brew was a little on the weak side, but still good. The café advertised a local vendor market the following weekend, which makes me want to consider doing smaller café shows here. Any recommendations? Hurtado and White Rhino made Arlington worth visiting, but I didn't really like the city much. It's definitely not as nice as other Dallas suburbs. 

How cool is this place? There are bird cages hanging from the ceiling and flying saucers printed on the dinnerware! 

We had dinner at Ida Claire. I 100% recommend this place! The Southern voodoo/tarot, ancient vibe is so cool! 😎 It just had the best atmosphere as soon as we walked in. The food & drinks was also really good. There were whole pieces of lobster in my seafood pasta 🦞 Wes got the chicken and waffles. He doesn't like his food touching, and usually chicken and waffles is served with the chicken on top of the waffles and then a bunch of toppings. But, Ida Claire had the chicken on the side of the waffles and all the different syrups & butter in their own separate ramakins. There was a Thunder game on at the bar. We sat close enough to where we could watch it. It felt weird rooting for the Thunder when literally everyone else was rooting for the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder won so they can all suck it. LOL

Our last meal before we left town was my customary black egg congee at 99 Ranch. I look forward to it every year. 😊 I got a side of taro cakes this year (they didn't have my eggplant). We already did our grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't really need to walk around the ranch. The cosmetics shop where I always get my face masks changed their hours from 10am to 11am so I couldn't get any this year. 😥 I guess we could have waited around for an hour, but we were both pretty anxious to get back to Athena & Zephyr. 🐕 We stopped in Buc-ee's on our way home and bought a ton of stuff, but I didn't take any pictures. It was fun to do activities and try restaurants outside of Carrollton this year. I already spotted some new places I want to try next time while we were driving around. Everything we ate was good, but to recreate the perfect meal I would choose: oil spill noodles from Fat Ni and the brisket eloté from Hurtado. With a side of the vegan tuna rice cakes from Blue Sushi and the fried oysters from Ida Claire, and the cocktail from Ida Claire for my drink. 🍹 And the matcha oat pumpkin spice latte from 85℃ for my dessert. 

Preview of the Heroes & Villians Disney costume exhibit.

The main reason why we spent so much time outside of Carrollton was because I wanted to see the Disney costume exhibit. 👗 The costumes are from the Disney archives so they're the actual pieces that the actors wore on screen. I knew it would be fantastic, but it was a thousand times more awesome than I thought it would be. I'm not even a Disney fan, just a massive lover of clothes & fashion. More on that to come...