Senior Erik Teder was a mirror for President’s Ball.
Courtesy | Gabe Beckwith

While some men chose their cleanest dress shirt and most recently ironed suit as their outfit for a Versailles-themed President’s Ball Feb. 7, senior Erik Teder chose to be a mirror.

“I wanted to do something related to the architecture or history of Versailles,” Teder said. “I thought about being a beheaded Louis XVI, but I didn’t have time to pull that together.”

Instead, Teder had to settle on a more attainable outfit for the Student Activities Board’s annual event, and the last one of his Hillsdale career. Upon remembering a discussion of Versaille’s Hall of Mirrors in an art class taught by Assistant Professor of Art Christina Chakalova, Teder knew he’d found his answer.

“This room was one of the most extravagant displays of wealth in the palace, because importing huge Venetian plate mirrors was unthinkably expensive,” Teder said. “Dressing as an escaped mirror seemed like the perfect mix of a historical curiosity and a conversation starter.”

And a conversation starter it was, as Teder said his ensemble, which he made out of foam insulation and aluminum foil, received a lot of attention throughout the evening as students approached him and questioned what he was wearing.

“The most common reaction was a mixture of surprise and confusion,” Teder said. “I quickly learned that the architecture of Versailles is not as commonly known as I was expecting.”

Teder said he then explained his costume and invited onlookers to gaze into the mirror and tell him what they saw. This, Teder said, led to several amusing interactions.

“When I meet new people, I like to ask them to explain their life story in six words, à la Hemingway,” Teder said. “Being a mirror was the perfect excuse to ask people to reflect on their lives.”

The costume was clever and attention-grabbing, but Teder said it came with its setbacks.

“I didn’t keep the mirror on the entire night, because the foam insulation got warm and the whole apparatus made me about three times as wide as normal, and while this rigorously enforced personal space, it became impractical,” Teder said.

While Teder’s costume was memorable, not all students took the same creative liberties with their President’s Ball outfits.

Senior Ava-Marie Papillon said she didn’t intentionally dress to the theme of the evening, but the dress she planned to wear — a light yellow ballgown — just happened to resemble Belle from  Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

“Before I knew the theme for the dance, I just knew that I had a yellow dress stashed away in my closet that I wanted to wear again,” Papillon said. “I had been told by many in the past that my yellow dress resembles Belle’s in ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ so I guess I always had it in the back of my mind that I could be Belle for the dance.”

Papillon, a French major, said she was excited to learn the theme of the event had French influence.

“When I heard that the President’s Ball theme was going to be Versailles, I was so excited and decided to lean into the theme by embracing the ‘Belle-ness’ of my dress and trying to do my hair like hers,” Papillon said. “I found it to be a happy coincidence that I was planning on being Belle for the dance and then the theme turned out to be French.”

For Papillon, the event was an excuse to give “second life” to a dress she bought for musical recitals several years ago.

“I generally don’t think too much about matching the theme because I am honestly just so excited to have an occasion to dress up in a fancy dress,” Papillon said. “But this year was different for me because I actually owned a dress that really seemed to fit the theme.”

When it came to sophomore Samuel Baggott’s wardrobe for the night, he chose a historically accurate outfit: a maroon tailcoat with gold embroidery layered on top of a black and gold vest and a ruffled dress shirt.

“I definitely took inspiration from the theme in putting my outfit together,” Baggott said. “When I heard what the theme was I started looking for a ruffle dress shirt and a tailcoat, both of which I found on Amazon. With those pieces procured I just added a pair of black dress pants and shoes, and it was complete.”

Baggott said while he typically tries to dress on theme for SAB events, he had never purchased attire specifically for an event before this year’s President’s Ball.

“This theme gave me an excuse to add to my wardrobe and bring smiles to a bunch of party-goers in the process,” Baggott said. “A win all the way around.”