Venetian Masquerade Mask Black - Half Face Colombina, Ribbon Tie, Unisex

Plain Black, and That Is the Design

There is no filigree on this one, no glitter and no stones, only a satin black finish. Black is the colour that folds into evening dress instead of competing with it, so the mask reads as an object and not as a costume. It works as well with black tie as it does over a slip dress. Nothing about it announces a theme.

The shape is the Colombina, the Venetian half-mask covering the eyes and the bridge of the nose and leaving everything below it free. You can talk in it, drink in it and be kissed in it, which is why it has outlived every other mask shape for four hundred years: a mask that has to come off for a drink lasts half an hour, and this one lasts the evening. It weighs almost nothing, the moulding holds it off the cheekbones so it never presses, and wide almond eye openings leave your peripheral vision intact. It is moulded PVC, 18 by 8 cm, which is 7.09 by 3.15 inches, in one unisex size, and the black satin ribbons knot behind the head, so it fits any size and holds on without a band.

Look after it as a rigid object rather than as a garment. A soft dry cloth is all the surface needs, while solvents and alcohol wipes dull the satin finish and there is no way back from that. Store it flat or face-up in a box with nothing resting on it, since light rigid PVC cracks under weight. Heat is the other enemy, because it warps the moulding, so a hot car is out, and so is any patch of direct sun, which in a high-rise with a glass facade rules out every shelf near the window.

• Classic Colombina half-mask: eyes and nose bridge only
• Talk, drink and be kissed without taking it off
• Moulded PVC, 18 by 8 cm (7.09 by 3.15 in)
• Plain satin black, with no filigree, glitter or stones
• Wide almond eye openings and full peripheral vision
• Black satin ribbon ties; one size, unisex

Rigid pieces like this go into Brickell boxed with room around them, delivered the same day and never bent in transit.