Costuming Crosspost
Jul. 28th, 2008 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesAlrighty, I've just posted this on my costuming and craft filter on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
britgeekgrrl but, given the fannish nature of, um, all of my costuming, I decided to crosspost here, also.
Incidentally, if you want on to the aforementioned filter, let me know and I'll add you to it - although I warn you, it's a lot of "Sewing gods, why do you hate me so?" sort of angst and such.
***
This is more about cosplaying, per se, but also costuming too.
I know I've mentioned the idea of retiring at least one costume - Girly Time Agent - and, yeah, I think it's time for her to be put away.
Personally, I like the ensemble, but I'm tired of explaining it to people. Heck, even the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
dw_cosplay folks were baffled until I explained it to them, and if they couldn't figure out the joke, I think the concept is doomed. 'Tis a shame, as I like the idea of original Time Agency costuming (c'mon, even if John Hart told the truth about them being down to six, that means there's room for some original ideas) but if people aren't getting the joke, I'm a lot less keen on telling it, so to speak.
Besides, those boots are bloody murder - almost literally.
Almost as murderous are the shoes for the Femmy 10 costume. I really must put some gel insoles into those things.
Femmy 10 is another costume potentially up for the chop. I've been wearing her for almost two years, and after the fab exposure at SDCC, I don't know if there's much point in wearing her again. I might pull her out, occasionally - such as at Gally - but leave her at home during the non-Whovian conventions. The "having to explain the joke" factor is also at play, here. Fortunately, it was much easier to explain than the Time Agent thing. All I had to do was look a bit rueful and say "Reversing the polarity flow is not always the best idea. You should see what's happened to Donna/Rose/Martha (depending on which companion was not in the vicinity), it's awful." and folks would grin. Good enough but, as I say, I think the costume needs a rest, if not complete retirement.
I must admit that I got a bit of a querulous vibe from the "traditional" cosplayers - especially several of the chaps dressed as The Doctor in his canoncial form. Maybe they thought I was taking the piss which, in a way, I suppose the costume does, but I don't mean it in a malicious way. It didn't help that there was something like seven people wearing variants of the Tenth Doctor's gear and I think that some of the querulous vibe might have been attributable to simple exasperation.
***
In my perception of things, there are costumers - folks who wear a costume - and cosplayers - folks who wear a costume and like to (duh) play in-character. I know some excellent cosplayers -1ucifer, estelofimladris, scifichicx, hystericblue42, xanmuse, karisu_sama, iamradar, laragoth to name but a few. Not only do they put together some wonderful, meticulously-detailed costumes, but they pick up the character and carry it with them as they stroll the convention, do their pictures, etc. The fact that they all intimidate me a bit probably doesn't help my confidence any....;)
I've always been v. hesitant about applying the label cosplayer to myself, as I don't get into the character. There are moments when I might riff a bit, but 90% of the time, I'm a person in a costume.
But, Johanna! You say. You've been a role-player for even longer than you've been a costumer. For goodness' sake, woman, you're a LARPer. Why aren't you a cosplayer?
There's a couple of reasons:
1) Sheer self-consciousness. Yes, really. Stop laughing! Beneath all this bluster I'm acutely self-conscious almost all the damned time and that's inhibiting. This leads directly to:
2) A general dissatisfaction with my so-called acting ability. As I've bitched on the gaming filter, I feel like I consistently fail to meet personal standards in terms of performance during LARPs (tabletop and online games are much easier in that regard) and those are situations in which I (usually) feel much more familiar with the character than I do in a costuming situation. Case in point: I don the Femmy Ten gear two or three times a year, for a few hours at a time. I've spent hundreds of hours withdr_demontfort, and I feel like I've only just gotten her where I want her - and I still had to go through a whole litany of pre-game warming up to clamber into the character and (with luck) be satisfied with the performance I turned out. So... I don't think I'm a good enough performer to take on the title of cosplayer. I just can't step into the characters that easily, nor keep it up very well. A bad cosplayer is probably up there with a bad actor for since wince-inducing, er, wincyness...
And, finally:
3) A firm belief that a person should costume/cosplay to their physical type. This is how I feel, you don't have to agree with me. As you all know, there are media characters out there that I love to play in various online forums. But I'd never go so far as to re-create their costumes and step into cosplaying. No matter what I do in terms of diet and exercise, I will always be short, curvy and brunette. That latter can be fixed with wigs, but the other two are, essentially, constants. Corsetry and heels can help only so much. Now combine this with the fact that whlist there are some curvaceous brunette characters out there, there's not many of them I want to recreate - either as a costumer or a cosplayer. D'oh!
For instance, I've received the following suggestions for costumes:
And, of all of them, I think the only character that I'd actually get a kick out of playing would be Ms. Peel. Maybe Vala but, as I said, that's been done in my social clique and I don't like to duplicate my friends' efforts. At best, it's like showing up at Ascot Ladies' Day in the same hat as your buddy - a bit embarrassing and possibly awkward. At worst, it could be perceived as rivalry, copycatting or sheer stalkerish weirdness. Not that those would be my motives, of course, but I hate to cause alarm unnecessarily. I think it's polite to give my friends lots of room to have their fun, and multiple copies of a character could crowd that.
As I'm writing and thinking about this, I suspect that what I perceived as potential "WTF are you playing at?" from The Collective Doctors at SDCC might be more fairly blamed on my feeling self-conscious.
Y'know, if costume makes me feel self-conscious, maybe I shouldn't be wearing it, hm?
Cue segue to the next bit...
***
The past day or two has had me thinking about why I make costumes. There's rarely a single reason, but I'm identifying trends.
1) The "challenge" factor. I want to learn a new technique, and the costume offers an opportunity to learn and (one hopes) successfully use said technique. This was a big part of why I did the Rebecca Fogg "tearaway" rig. That costume simultaneously drove me batty and was really, really satisfying to (ahem) pull off.
2) Vanity. It's something I think I'll look good in. Both vanity and the challenge were behind Commodore Franky Cook, whereas the "water" dress was nothing but vanity. Heh.
3) I find the idea amusing, even if other will find it baffling - Avon Lady, Femmy Ten, Girly Time Agent. Granted, this one's proven a bit frustrating, over time.
So I think I shall be dumping reason #3 as a primary motivator for creating costumes, at least for the meantime. The one exception is the promise I've made to dress up as Barbara Gordon to go with TN's Killing Joke Joker. Yes, it's that tasteless, but we both got such grins of wicked delight at the idea that it has to be done.
***
Clearly, though, my two-hangups need to be dealt with. As I'm pretty adamant about the costume appropriately for your body type/facial features one, I s'pose I'd better work on not worrying so much about treading on someone's toes. I'm quite willing to consider the notion that it's all in my head, honestly I am. It's just not easy to shift. Sigh.
***
My current wish-list of costumes is short, but potentially v. costly - which is why I'm working on none of them at the moment.
- Emma Peel. See above. There would be both vanity and the fun-to-play factors in operation, but it's not terribly likely until certain conditions are met.
- Ms. Evangelista from The Forest of the Dead - just the mourning garb, though. I don't know how I could even begin to make a mask to reproduce her face. Given the sheer tonnage of embellishment on this one, and the fact that I've not much 19th century costuming experience, this one falls under "challenge" - with just a bit of vanity, too.
- Generic Member of Faction Paradox. This comes dangerously close to "in joke" with a dose of "it's a challenge" thrown in. As such, this idea is very much at the bottom of my list until I can a) focus the idea better (there's not much in the way of visual reference out there) and b) decide if the explaining-the-costume factor will be worth it. As I've mentioned onfangrrl_squees, the risk of being mistaken for Sycorax is rather high, and I need to refine the concept to minimize that risk.
- Donna Noble. I'd only do this for Chicago, as I'd not have to worry about treading onfairegoddess' toes. Besides, she's going to look so fabulous, I'll wilt in comparison. This costume wouldn't, in fact, but much work, as I'd actually treat it as an excuse to purchase a good suit (eventually), something which would see a fair bit of use in the so-called real world of supposed adults. Pair it up with a red wig (I might have the Fogg wig cut down, as that's another costume up for retirement) and I'd be set.
- The Eighth Doctor. This is another suggestion that's been made to me, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. First of all,brewsternorth does an excellent Eight (and we both go to Chicago and Gallifrey) and I'm not sure if I'd be pushing the bounds of reasonable-costuming-for-body-type with this one. In other words, never mind the fact that I'm eight inches shorter than Paul McGann, I'm more concerned by the probability that there ain't enough Ace bandages/corsetry/girdle technology in the word to reasonably contain my curvy bits. Crossplay is territory that I, in general, believe I should leave alone, unless said (male) character happens to be a bit on the dumpy side...
I suppose it's a good thing I'm broke, given this bout of paralysis! Given my druthers, I'd tackle Donna (a good suit is always a good idea!) and Evangelista (which could do dual duty at Dickens - how alliterative!). The rest are very much gravy. Actually, with Real Life being what it is, they're all gravy. Very expensive and unobtainable gravy.
To veer off into a moment's naughtiness, I should mention that, man, the Doctor gets all the hugs from the fangirls! I don't know if I would be able to take advantage of that, myself - and never mind the potential ethical stickiness (dratted ethics! When did I acquire a conscience?). Meanwhile,, a couple of folks in taaaaasty costumes were dangerously close to being propositioned by your humble author v. bluntly indeed, but the less said about that, the better. All I can say is, in hindsight, I'm glad that my brain stayed ahead of my mouth for most of the weekend - it made for a refreshing change!
(mental note: must make post on britgeekgrrl's poly/kink filter about potential new fetishy thing. Oh yes.)
***
BTW, The TARDIS bag made for me by the fabulouspraedestinatio was, I think, a bigger hit than anything I wore all weekend, and that includes the FanPerson Appreciation outfit. (Mental note: make sure you don't have plans for dinner away from the convention center before donning such gear. My god...)
britgeekgrrl but, given the fannish nature of, um, all of my costuming, I decided to crosspost here, also.Incidentally, if you want on to the aforementioned filter, let me know and I'll add you to it - although I warn you, it's a lot of "Sewing gods, why do you hate me so?" sort of angst and such.
***
This is more about cosplaying, per se, but also costuming too.
I know I've mentioned the idea of retiring at least one costume - Girly Time Agent - and, yeah, I think it's time for her to be put away.
Personally, I like the ensemble, but I'm tired of explaining it to people. Heck, even the
dw_cosplay folks were baffled until I explained it to them, and if they couldn't figure out the joke, I think the concept is doomed. 'Tis a shame, as I like the idea of original Time Agency costuming (c'mon, even if John Hart told the truth about them being down to six, that means there's room for some original ideas) but if people aren't getting the joke, I'm a lot less keen on telling it, so to speak.Besides, those boots are bloody murder - almost literally.
Almost as murderous are the shoes for the Femmy 10 costume. I really must put some gel insoles into those things.
Femmy 10 is another costume potentially up for the chop. I've been wearing her for almost two years, and after the fab exposure at SDCC, I don't know if there's much point in wearing her again. I might pull her out, occasionally - such as at Gally - but leave her at home during the non-Whovian conventions. The "having to explain the joke" factor is also at play, here. Fortunately, it was much easier to explain than the Time Agent thing. All I had to do was look a bit rueful and say "Reversing the polarity flow is not always the best idea. You should see what's happened to Donna/Rose/Martha (depending on which companion was not in the vicinity), it's awful." and folks would grin. Good enough but, as I say, I think the costume needs a rest, if not complete retirement.
I must admit that I got a bit of a querulous vibe from the "traditional" cosplayers - especially several of the chaps dressed as The Doctor in his canoncial form. Maybe they thought I was taking the piss which, in a way, I suppose the costume does, but I don't mean it in a malicious way. It didn't help that there was something like seven people wearing variants of the Tenth Doctor's gear and I think that some of the querulous vibe might have been attributable to simple exasperation.
***
In my perception of things, there are costumers - folks who wear a costume - and cosplayers - folks who wear a costume and like to (duh) play in-character. I know some excellent cosplayers -
1ucifer, estelofimladris, scifichicx, hystericblue42, xanmuse, karisu_sama, iamradar, laragoth to name but a few. Not only do they put together some wonderful, meticulously-detailed costumes, but they pick up the character and carry it with them as they stroll the convention, do their pictures, etc. The fact that they all intimidate me a bit probably doesn't help my confidence any....;)I've always been v. hesitant about applying the label cosplayer to myself, as I don't get into the character. There are moments when I might riff a bit, but 90% of the time, I'm a person in a costume.
But, Johanna! You say. You've been a role-player for even longer than you've been a costumer. For goodness' sake, woman, you're a LARPer. Why aren't you a cosplayer?
There's a couple of reasons:
1) Sheer self-consciousness. Yes, really. Stop laughing! Beneath all this bluster I'm acutely self-conscious almost all the damned time and that's inhibiting. This leads directly to:
2) A general dissatisfaction with my so-called acting ability. As I've bitched on the gaming filter, I feel like I consistently fail to meet personal standards in terms of performance during LARPs (tabletop and online games are much easier in that regard) and those are situations in which I (usually) feel much more familiar with the character than I do in a costuming situation. Case in point: I don the Femmy Ten gear two or three times a year, for a few hours at a time. I've spent hundreds of hours with
dr_demontfort, and I feel like I've only just gotten her where I want her - and I still had to go through a whole litany of pre-game warming up to clamber into the character and (with luck) be satisfied with the performance I turned out. So... I don't think I'm a good enough performer to take on the title of cosplayer. I just can't step into the characters that easily, nor keep it up very well. A bad cosplayer is probably up there with a bad actor for since wince-inducing, er, wincyness...And, finally:
3) A firm belief that a person should costume/cosplay to their physical type. This is how I feel, you don't have to agree with me. As you all know, there are media characters out there that I love to play in various online forums. But I'd never go so far as to re-create their costumes and step into cosplaying. No matter what I do in terms of diet and exercise, I will always be short, curvy and brunette. That latter can be fixed with wigs, but the other two are, essentially, constants. Corsetry and heels can help only so much. Now combine this with the fact that whlist there are some curvaceous brunette characters out there, there's not many of them I want to recreate - either as a costumer or a cosplayer. D'oh!
For instance, I've received the following suggestions for costumes:
- The Baroness - I'm not a fan of GI Joe. Never was, probably never will be. I don't see the point in creating a costume for something of which I'm not a fan.
- Vala Mal Doran (Stargate) - see above. Besides, I've got a couple of pals who've done that costume far better than I ever could (more on that, momentarily)
- Aeryn Sun (Farscape) - see above. (Although it's nice that my friends seem to think I look like Claudia Black).
- Silk Spectre (Watchmen) - okay, I'm a fan of the character but, oh damn, I'm not built for that, no matter what my lovely friends seem to think. No way, no how. Especially not the movie version.
- Irena Spalko (Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull - I like the look of the costume, but I haven't watched the movie and I'm not sure I'm going to, so I can hardly call myself a fan of the movie/the character. Also, it's a costume that would work best with a group of Indy cosplayers and I honestly don't know of any.
- Emma Peel - okay, this one, I will do, but on condition that I lose a few pounds/join a gym and can afford to do it in leather. I'm tired of screwing around with vinyl. This costume would, in fact, be a reward specifically for losing X amount of weight and toning up. So don't hold your breath.
And, of all of them, I think the only character that I'd actually get a kick out of playing would be Ms. Peel. Maybe Vala but, as I said, that's been done in my social clique and I don't like to duplicate my friends' efforts. At best, it's like showing up at Ascot Ladies' Day in the same hat as your buddy - a bit embarrassing and possibly awkward. At worst, it could be perceived as rivalry, copycatting or sheer stalkerish weirdness. Not that those would be my motives, of course, but I hate to cause alarm unnecessarily. I think it's polite to give my friends lots of room to have their fun, and multiple copies of a character could crowd that.
As I'm writing and thinking about this, I suspect that what I perceived as potential "WTF are you playing at?" from The Collective Doctors at SDCC might be more fairly blamed on my feeling self-conscious.
Y'know, if costume makes me feel self-conscious, maybe I shouldn't be wearing it, hm?
Cue segue to the next bit...
***
The past day or two has had me thinking about why I make costumes. There's rarely a single reason, but I'm identifying trends.
1) The "challenge" factor. I want to learn a new technique, and the costume offers an opportunity to learn and (one hopes) successfully use said technique. This was a big part of why I did the Rebecca Fogg "tearaway" rig. That costume simultaneously drove me batty and was really, really satisfying to (ahem) pull off.
2) Vanity. It's something I think I'll look good in. Both vanity and the challenge were behind Commodore Franky Cook, whereas the "water" dress was nothing but vanity. Heh.
3) I find the idea amusing, even if other will find it baffling - Avon Lady, Femmy Ten, Girly Time Agent. Granted, this one's proven a bit frustrating, over time.
So I think I shall be dumping reason #3 as a primary motivator for creating costumes, at least for the meantime. The one exception is the promise I've made to dress up as Barbara Gordon to go with TN's Killing Joke Joker. Yes, it's that tasteless, but we both got such grins of wicked delight at the idea that it has to be done.
***
Clearly, though, my two-hangups need to be dealt with. As I'm pretty adamant about the costume appropriately for your body type/facial features one, I s'pose I'd better work on not worrying so much about treading on someone's toes. I'm quite willing to consider the notion that it's all in my head, honestly I am. It's just not easy to shift. Sigh.
***
My current wish-list of costumes is short, but potentially v. costly - which is why I'm working on none of them at the moment.
- Emma Peel. See above. There would be both vanity and the fun-to-play factors in operation, but it's not terribly likely until certain conditions are met.
- Ms. Evangelista from The Forest of the Dead - just the mourning garb, though. I don't know how I could even begin to make a mask to reproduce her face. Given the sheer tonnage of embellishment on this one, and the fact that I've not much 19th century costuming experience, this one falls under "challenge" - with just a bit of vanity, too.
- Generic Member of Faction Paradox. This comes dangerously close to "in joke" with a dose of "it's a challenge" thrown in. As such, this idea is very much at the bottom of my list until I can a) focus the idea better (there's not much in the way of visual reference out there) and b) decide if the explaining-the-costume factor will be worth it. As I've mentioned on
fangrrl_squees, the risk of being mistaken for Sycorax is rather high, and I need to refine the concept to minimize that risk.- Donna Noble. I'd only do this for Chicago, as I'd not have to worry about treading on
fairegoddess' toes. Besides, she's going to look so fabulous, I'll wilt in comparison. This costume wouldn't, in fact, but much work, as I'd actually treat it as an excuse to purchase a good suit (eventually), something which would see a fair bit of use in the so-called real world of supposed adults. Pair it up with a red wig (I might have the Fogg wig cut down, as that's another costume up for retirement) and I'd be set. - The Eighth Doctor. This is another suggestion that's been made to me, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. First of all,
brewsternorth does an excellent Eight (and we both go to Chicago and Gallifrey) and I'm not sure if I'd be pushing the bounds of reasonable-costuming-for-body-type with this one. In other words, never mind the fact that I'm eight inches shorter than Paul McGann, I'm more concerned by the probability that there ain't enough Ace bandages/corsetry/girdle technology in the word to reasonably contain my curvy bits. Crossplay is territory that I, in general, believe I should leave alone, unless said (male) character happens to be a bit on the dumpy side...I suppose it's a good thing I'm broke, given this bout of paralysis! Given my druthers, I'd tackle Donna (a good suit is always a good idea!) and Evangelista (which could do dual duty at Dickens - how alliterative!). The rest are very much gravy. Actually, with Real Life being what it is, they're all gravy. Very expensive and unobtainable gravy.
To veer off into a moment's naughtiness, I should mention that, man, the Doctor gets all the hugs from the fangirls! I don't know if I would be able to take advantage of that, myself - and never mind the potential ethical stickiness (dratted ethics! When did I acquire a conscience?). Meanwhile,, a couple of folks in taaaaasty costumes were dangerously close to being propositioned by your humble author v. bluntly indeed, but the less said about that, the better. All I can say is, in hindsight, I'm glad that my brain stayed ahead of my mouth for most of the weekend - it made for a refreshing change!
(mental note: must make post on britgeekgrrl's poly/kink filter about potential new fetishy thing. Oh yes.)
***
BTW, The TARDIS bag made for me by the fabulous
praedestinatio was, I think, a bigger hit than anything I wore all weekend, and that includes the FanPerson Appreciation outfit. (Mental note: make sure you don't have plans for dinner away from the convention center before donning such gear. My god...)
