Cosplay Anyone?

Lori Lancaster | November 3, 2004
[hidden by request]

Scott Horowitz | November 3, 2004
You've already seen my "non-halloween" picture.

John E Gunter | November 3, 2004
Nope, never do any such thing. [slides multiple costumes into the back of the closet]

Actually, I'll need to see if I can find any pictures of the costumes I've done in the past. Heck being a Theater major, how could I not have dressed up *not* on Halloween!

Plus it's so much fun to dress up for cons, I just haven't done it in a very, very, very long time.

John

Amy Austin | November 3, 2004
Wow, another closet dresser!!! ;DDD I really wish I knew some "real" folks who'd play like that! All my friends are spread out all over the freakin' place, from FL to WA and CA to NC!!!

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
Well, sort of, Lori -- my home state is FL... I'm going to NC. So I will be closer, but as far as any of this sort of thing goes... I'm the only one I know who's "wild and crazy" enough to do it. Lord knows, I'm not married to a "wild and crazy guy" -- and he probably curses it every day. ;D

Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
Oh, cute -- I just looked at the pic, Lori... is that Serena???!!! (I will be slightly embarrassed if it is actually you, because I was/am about to say that she looks lighter than the other pics... kind of a blondie!)

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
I thought it might be an old picture, goofy -- nice hair trick!!!

(I guess that was kind of a dumb question, though, huh? How big was Anime back then... all I know was "Speed Racer"!!!)

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
"Transformers"? Really??? I know it isn't animation, but do you remember "Ultraman"? I watched that, too...

Scott Hardie | November 4, 2004
I like dressing up for murder mystery parties. I still need to get one organized in my current gaming group after I don't know how long. I have dressed up as a Hawaiian chieftain (link) and a dirty preacher (link) (it's hard to tell, but the pants were bright magenta). I can share Denise and Lori's pics from that same event if they'd like.

Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
Hahaha... those were both good pics, Scott -- I had seen that one of you with the gray hair on your banners... now I understand. The chieftain look works well for you, but perhaps you should consider a tanning booth the next time??? ;DDD

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
I haven't done a lot of dressing up in theater costumes; I was always on the production end of things, not the acting end. Not that I wasn't a good actor, many of my professors said I should get into acting, I just didn't like the emotional overdrive I'd get into.

I'd always get extremely worked up, adrenaline rush that would make me overly giddy nervous and it was a feeling I didn't really care for. Not that it was a bad feeling, but it was an out of control feeling and I'm a person who very much likes to be in control of myself. That's not to say I don't do wild and crazy things, I mean come on, I've been doing theater for many years and if you can't do wild and crazy things, you don't need to be in theater.

Course that's probably why I'd dress up at cons, I've also made fun of some of the people who have dressed up for cons. Which I guess is kind of a bad thing, but when you spend the time to dress like you are some kind of medieval warrior and you are running around in white sneakers, you really need to have left the costume at home.

I understand the guy probably had moccasin boots or some such, but if you didn't bring them with you, you shouldn't have worn the costume.

Course the good thing about working with the theater and studying a drama related program, you learn all kinds of interesting cheats that you can use for costume design. One project I chose was to make a fake leather coat. Although it only turned out ok, at least in my opinion, it would have passed for a real leather coat on stage and I received an A for that project.

So there are all kinds of things you can do with a costume to get the effect but not really spend an extreme amount of time and effort into creating the costume. Still looking for some of the pictures I have of costumes. Not even sure if I have them anymore, but if I find them I'll drop them on my site and post links to them. Course, I still need to find a new picture for Scott also.

Maybe I'll find something tonight.

John

Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
I agree with you, John -- there are many effective ways to cheat for a costume, and I have seen some, too. But cheating for theater, I think, is a little bit different from wanting your own... like you said, it would have passed "on the stage" -- it's dark, people are far away... you can get away with a whole lot, and they do all the time!

Going back to my e-buying habit, I have a great love of vintage clothing (esp. from the 40s era), and I have succumbed to many a skilled (or lucky) photo of an item, only to be GREATLY disappointed by it in reality (more often by fit than quality, but it does happen). As a photographer, you'd think that I'd know better, but I started to theorize about the irresistible desire that is instilled by some of these things (strictly from a photo point of view, not dealing with the verbiage of the listings), and it's the "feeling" or the "image" one can get from a "costume" -- just like in theater! You see an awesome movie or play, and you want to *be* that character... you fall in love with the look and the mood, the nuances that helped to create that feeling/character, and you don't notice that maybe it wasn't a real period item... but they made you believe it was! And maybe it didn't even fit the player right... or maybe it didn't even have a zipper! But who's going to notice if it's pinned or held together with duct tape in a dark playhouse (and don't even tell me it doesn't happen!)?!! It's completely brilliant, the things that you theater people do to fool the crowd, to sell the dream -- BRILLIANT! But, just as I wouldn't want in my house a soft pine floor that was built for one show's set (and looked like HELL when the play was run through!), I also wouldn't want such a "fixer-upper" to wear in real life.

Sure... sometimes, outrageous expense and severely limited availabilities of certain elements means that you will have no choice but to cheat a little. After all, who is really going to be able to tell the difference between lace from the 40s and some modern lace that was purchased because it looked *really* close to the real thing (especially, if you're working off photos and not a real sample!)? But call me a snob... I will try my damnedest to get "the real thing" if I can.

I guess it really all depends on your intended purposes. I know that a good cheat can be just as satisfying, and who wants their genuine period shoes to get muddied running around somewhere they weren't meant to -- in those cases, of course, it's best to substitute. As with theater... a couple of weeks later, that costume won't matter much when the play is run through its end -- so who cares if it's ripped in a few places? In the end, all that anyone really cares about is "Did they buy it -- did I sell the dream?"

John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
Well if you're talking about authentic items, that's a completely different subject. I've got quite a few antiques, that I won't do anything to unless I can get original pieces to fix them. That I completely understand from a clothing aspect.

But if you need to cheat somewhat for a period costume, as long as the correct look is there, I'm not to worried about it. As an example of what I'm talking about...

If I'm going to a convention wanting to look like some ranger wearing chainmail, if I can get aluminum chain to look as good as real chain, I'll take the aluminum because I really don't want to lug around that extra weight. So cheating as far as costumes, not period wear is ok in my book.

Course, cheating when you're talking about period wear if you are looking for authentic pieces of clothing, well that's lying if you tell someone that you've got an original civil war uniform, when you've made it on a Singer sewing machine.

John

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
Absloutely, on the aluminum comparison, John... you get what I'm saying, totally.

Yeah, those Civil War buffs can be *really* picky! First of all, they hate the word "costume" and will vehemently protest its use when describing their re-enactment clothing... And yes, they insist on hand-stitching for authenticity's sake.

An ex- of mine (the one I saw "Seven" with?) does Civil War & WWII re-enactments, and one Christmas I bought a pattern and some fabric that I thought might make a great shirt to wear for CW or every day... but I only got as far as cutting it out -- the hand-sewing daunted me (time & effort-wise).

My step-mother, father and half-siblings seem to have developed an interest in CW stuff, as well. I know that she has made a lot of outfits for various events for the kids, as well as friends of the family. She also told me recently that she and another lady were thinking on selling on ebay, due to the demand, and the other lady has a nice capital sum to invest in it. I know that they'll be using machines to do it, though... that would just be craziness, and I would charge crazy $ for hand-sewn!

John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
Hmmm, likes anime and likes sparkly, nope, never would have guessed it! ;-)

One bit of cheating I've seen in the past that was well done was by a friend of mine. He always dressed as Conan, but the boots he used were regular boots that he put fake fur on. He did a good job so you couldn't tell he was wearing boots, unless you could see the soles of his shoes.

So cheating can be ok if you do it right. But it is much easier to do it in a theater with the low lighting. :-D

John

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
[hidden by request]

John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
I'm not teasing, I like sparklies too, honest. ;-)

Hand sewn. Thats more dedication that I care to deal with, but I've done it before while costuming for school. Your right, your hand does get mighty cramped and I was somewhat younger then. I can only imagine now what would happen.

John

Scott Hardie | November 6, 2004
I think it's in the header rotation anyway, but here's Kelly Lee, Lori Lancaster, Denise Sawicki, Ray Lancaster, Jason Fedorow, and myself (link)

John, if we do have a murder mystery party, I expect to be impressed by your costume! :-)

Lori Lancaster | November 6, 2004
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Scott Horowitz | November 7, 2004
You guys look like you're about to film a 70's porno.

Scott Hardie | November 7, 2004
Yeah, I know, Lori. Forgetting to use the flash is a dangerous thing. I did the best correction I could.

Lori Lancaster | November 7, 2004
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | November 7, 2004
Thanks for the new pic, Lori. Anybody who's interested, take another look: (link)

You had to go and use the one with Kelly in it, didn't you? ;-)

Lori Lancaster | November 7, 2004
[hidden by request]

Amy Austin | November 7, 2004
Both of them are quite funny! Kelly an old flame, Scott? Looks like she's on the end, isn't she? People can fall of the ends of pictures *really* easily, you know! ;D

Lori Lancaster | November 8, 2004
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John E Gunter | November 8, 2004
Been looking at the CosPlay site, very nice costumes on there. Going to take me quite a while to look through it all, but will have a great time doing it.

As far as a costume for the party Scott Hardie, alot will depend on how much time I have to work the costume up.

John

Scott Hardie | November 11, 2004
Yeah, old flame. I had two versions of the photo, one from the store with Kelly cut off at the end, and one from Lori with all six of us visible. Lori chose to display her preferred version, and I chose mine. :-)