#cosplay history

[pants-magic-pants]

okok, one more ✨

so i know you would like to make the other Goblin King outfits. but are there any other characters you would like to cosplay? or that you have already cosplayed?

Thank you for asking! Yeah, I have cosplayed before. None of the proof of it's here because I've designated it as a Labyrinth blog. My interests and projects do not resemble each other at all, and my cosplay history reflects that. hahahaha

Anyway, my last cosplay was the Mad Hatter from Disney's 1992 series "Adventures in Wonderland". The show is extremely dear to me, and I also love the costumes, so I made his entire outfit (vest, tailcoat, pants, spats, collar, bowtie, hat), which were my introductions to making clothes. Didn't crawl before I ran. hahaha It took about 10 months to complete in 2021. A couple of videos of him can be found on my youtube channel.

Before that, I had been closet-cosplaying Dance Magic Jareth from time to time, and had made a much easier less screen accurate version of his ballroom attire minus the coat, and this blog has that content under the "jareth cosplay" tag.

Before that, I closet-cosplayed Kurama from the anime Yu Yu Hakusho from 2017-2018. I was obsessed with the show and characters, and having a quarter life crisis, so I dyed my hair red and let him consume my entire being.

Before that, I for some reason had a fixation with Jared Leto's Joker from Suicide Squad (2016)... Don't judge me, I know he wasn't a very good joker! I just didn't care! I didn't know how to sew yet, so all the pieces were collected, the bowtie was commissioned, and I had to go all around town trying to find dress shirts for my tiny body. All the while, I holed up in my room practicing his makeup. It took about 3-4 months? @mistahgrape was my handle on instagram and tumblr.

Then finally, there was my first cosplay which is also my cosplans for the future. I used to closet-cosplay Nosferatu when I was a bub (2011-2013) the whole time I was away in film school. I have a degree in film which was heavily focused on the German silent era, so he meant/means a lot, and I would make videos pretending like he visited me in my apartment. lol The blog strange--cargo is all about that. I desperately wanted to commission a screen accurate outfit but just never did, so I'm going to make my dreams come true and hopefully take him to cons and make people laugh/creep them out.

watch out!!

[cosplayinamerica]

by Anna-Neko

Before all the endless online, digital everything, before FB and Insta, the “don’t u know how many followers…” & influencers nonsense, there was this man!

Kevin would take your photo, make small-talk & drop encouraging comments and make you feel a star! A former cosplay partner still fondly remembers how he would always know what she was cosplaying as! No matter how obscure! If he didn’t know the cosplay – he would ask about it! The interest always genuine. He seemed to remember everyone from con to con, and in later years when instead of running around he would set up a corner with a backdrop and do photos this way – he would jot down file numbers & email me full-size images after the event if asked.

So just a quick scene setting up. It is very easy to forget, but back then (1999 to maybe 2002~ish) there was waaaaay less conventions. There wasn’t an event happening every weekend, much less multiple events at same time! Digital cameras were not a thing. Well, obviously they existed, but your average otaku heading to an anime con might bring a cheap 35mm disposable camera (or maybe 3, if CVS had a multi-pack sale!).

Kevin’s FansView website was THE cosplay/cons site. He updated multiple times throughout the event, 2 or 3 times each day! There weren’t just photos of “hot people”, he tirelessly took photos of regular attendees, cosplayers of various ages and skill levels, guest & panel highlights…. If you weren’t lucky enough to be at the convention itself, seeing all his photos was the next best thing! In a few years we’d have con report galleries on Cosplay.com, Geocities and LinusLam …. but all these were _after the fact_, not during. Not quite the same, ya know?)

Even my mom knew his website, and during cons I’d call home during the weekend and she would excitedly tell me she was just on Kevin’s site and saw my photo!

Like, seriously…. we’d joke a con wasn’t a con until you either a) saw House of Anime truck in the parking lot, or b) ran into Mr Lillard.

Over the years there’s been all sorts of amazing run-ins with him. He would always make some jokes, and go above and beyond helping a fellow nerd – like the time my brand~new digital camera (in 2000! quite the expense!) suddenly died (6 AA batteries the monster ate) and he kindly tried to help me with both fresh batteries and advice, and when it looked like the camera wasn’t coming back he straight up took out his FILM CAMERA (again, this man was a pro! He always had a backup) and took photos of my cosplay and friends’, and handed me the finished roll

OR that other time my memory card was already full within literally first few hours of the convention (circa 2000, CompactFlash. Gigs? ha! Your PC might have 2 gigs hard drive and be a luxury. Memory cards ran in the Megabites) and this SAINT of a man helped by using HIS LAPTOP to let me clear out the card, email the zip file to myself then and there, and thus have memory space to take another 30~40 photos

or this Other OTHER time we were talking about shitty hotel hallway lights… And asked if he would mind popping with us outside real quick? He took the time to go! Outdoors into the sunshine! On the lawns by the hotel for a good 30 minutes! Thus giving us our first ‘proper’ cosplay photoshoot no less!! (freakin 2001, people!! pro~photoshoots or sheduling time-slots with an online-famous photog was not a thing. Not yet, not for another few years)

He made all us awkward weebs feel welcome from the get~go! Nobody had internet once left the house. No cellphones. Especially not a phone that could double as a hi-res camera. You came to the convention with a cheap disposable film camera, or none at all – hoping your friends brought one. Conventions didn’t have photo suites, no staff photogs… it was not a thing yet.

The other joke used to be “oh you’re at so-and-so con? Did you run into Kevin yet??” or “no no no, don’t change yet! We need to find Kevin!! You must be documented” (and if you had insane luck, you may even see that photo as convention cosplay coverage in an issue of Animerica months later!) For some of us, the only photos of those early costumes only exist because Kevin was there to take it.

#cosplayhistory

[plurinerd]

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a random tumblr post wrap around to homestuck. (No, I’ve never read it and I’m marginally aware of the history of its fandom)

So a couple days ago, some folks braved my long-dormant social media accounts to make sure I’d seen this tweet:

And after getting over my initial (rather emotional) response, I wanted to reply properly, and explain just why that hit me so hard.

So back around twenty years ago, the internet cosplay and costuming scene was very different from today. The older generation of sci-fi convention costumers was made up of experienced, dedicated individuals who had been honing their craft for years.  These were people who took masquerade competitions seriously, and earning your journeyman or master costuming badge was an important thing.  They had a lot of knowledge, but – here’s the important bit – a lot of them didn’t share it.  It’s not just that they weren’t internet-savvy enough to share it, or didn’t have the time to write up tutorials – no, literally if you asked how they did something or what material they used, they would refuse to tell you. Some of them came from professional backgrounds where this knowledge literally was a trade secret, others just wanted to decrease the chances of their rivals in competitions, but for whatever reason it was like getting a door slammed in your face.  Now, that’s a generalization – there were definitely some lovely and kind and helpful old-school costumers – but they tended to advise more one-on-one, and the idea of just putting detailed knowledge out there for random strangers to use wasn’t much of a thing.  And then what information did get out there was coming from people with the freedom and budget to do things like invest in all the tools and materials to create authentic leather hauberks, or build a vac-form setup to make stormtrooper armor, etc.  NOT beginner friendly, is what I’m saying.

Then, around 2000 or so, two particular things happened: anime and manga began to be widely accessible in resulting in a boom in anime conventions and cosplay culture, and a new wave of costume-filled franchises (notably the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings movies) hit the theatres.  What those brought into the convention and costuming arena was a new wave of enthusiastic fans who wanted to make costumes, and though a lot of the anime fans were much younger, some of them, and a lot of the movie franchise fans, were in their 20s and 30s, young enough to use the internet to its (then) full potential, old enough to have autonomy and a little money, and above all, overwhelmingly female.  I think that latter is particularly important because that meant they had a lifetime of dealing with gatekeepers under our belts, and we weren’t inclined to deal with yet another one.  They looked at the old dragons carefully hoarding their knowledge, keeping out anyone who might be unworthy, or (even worse) competition, and they said NO.  If secrets were going to be kept, they were going to figure things out for ourselves, and then they were going to share it with everyone.  Those old-school costumers may have done us a favor in the long run, because not knowing those old secrets meant that we had to find new methods, and we were trying – and succeeding with – materials that “serious” costumers would never have considered.   I was one of those costumers, but there were many more – I was more on the movie side of things, so JediElfQueen and PadawansGuide immediately spring to mind, but there were so many others, on YahooGroups and Livejournal and our own hand-coded webpages, analyzing and testing and experimenting and swapping ideas and sharing, sharing, sharing.  

I’m not saying that to make it sound like we were the noble knights of cosplay, riding in heroically with tutorials for all.  I’m saying that a group of people, individually and as a collective, made the conscious decision that sharing was a Good Things that would improve the community as a whole.  That wasn’t necessarily an easy decision to make, either. I know I thought long and hard before I posted that tutorial; the reaction I had gotten when I wore that armor to a con told me that I had hit on something new, something that gave me an edge, and if I didn’t share that info I could probably hang on to that edge for a year, or two, or three.  And I thought about it, and I was briefly tempted, but again, there were all of these others around me sharing what they knew, and I had seen for myself what I could do when I borrowed and adapted some of their ideas, and I felt the power of what could happen when a group of people came together and gave their creativity to the world.

And it changed the face of costuming.  People who had been intimidated by the sci-fi competition circuit suddenly found the confidence to try it themselves, and brought in their own ideas and discoveries.  And then the next wave of younger costumers took those ideas and ran, and built on them, and branched out off of them, and the wave after that had their own innovations, and suddenly here we are, with Youtube videos and Tumblr tutorials and Etsy patterns and step-by-step how-to books, and I am just so, so proud.  

So yeah, seeing appreciation for a 17-year-old technique I figured out on my dining-room table (and bless it, doesn’t that page just scream “I learned how to code on Geocities!”), and having it embraced as a springboard for newer and better things warms this fandom-old’s heart.  This is our legacy, and a legacy the current group of cosplayers is still creating, and it’s a good one.  

(Oh, and for anyone wondering: yes, I’m over 40 now, and yes, I’m still making costumes. And that armor is still in great shape after 17 years in a hot attic!)  

[batwynn]

I know a lot is going on in the world right now but this kind of loss of art is breaking my heart in two.

The Valentino’s Costume Group in Hollywood has lost everything after the death of their co-founder, the pandemic, strikes, etc. and is now being forced to do a very quick liquidation sale before having to send all of their years of hard work to be turned into rags. (Yes this is a real thing)

These people have crafted thousands of costumes over 20 years to rent to everyone and anyone who needed one. They’re sex worker and queer friendly. They’re also being accused of being “fast fashion” while being one of the few places in this world actively working against fast fashion with their work. They don’t want to have to turn their hard work into rags. It’s the only option for them with the enormous amount of costumes/fabrics they have to remove from the building very quickly.

So, Californians and anyone willing to travel to Hollywood: YOU can save a costume! (or two?) YOU can save someone’s art from being destroyed! YOU can own pieces of Hollywood! YOU can save so much sewing supplies and fabrics!

Where: 5535 CAHUENGA BLVD, N. HOLLYWOOD

Phone: 818-427-5248

Special hours for Influencers: May 20-30th 9:30am-4:30pm MON-SUN

What: Vintage, designer, menswear, historical, specialty, children’s, shoes, jewelry, vintage hats, show packages, racks, fabric, etc!

Important note: Please be kind and patient with the folks managing this sale. There’s maybe 2-3 people working at the most, and they all just suffered the death of someone close to them and the loss of their dream.

Please, please signal boost this. Their hard work should not go to waste and this terrible loss is already hard enough on them.

[cheekios]

Cash App Loan + Interest

If you participate in the poll please reblog and fully interact (♥️ + comment) with my posts.

Goal: $110

CA: $HushEmu

PP: emuslayter@gmail.com

Hey guys it’s cheekios. I have been really struggling lately. Losing my job + only pair of glasses being destroyed I hate to do this. I have no choice to play catch up to stay afloat. This loan will just keep collecting interest. Would really appreciate help with goals this month.

[humanoidhistory]

Halloween Ball at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.

[shannonpurdyjones]

Spinning in full garb at the Carolina Ren Faire

(If you turn on sound be prepared for the jovial shouts of children and conversations of other faire goers...quiet filming does not exist at ren faires lol)

Took the opportunity to spin in period character while at the ren faire with my partner and kids on Saturday. Got lots of fun questions from other faire goers, many nods of respect from faire staff, and spun about 25-30g of wool. 🥰

Loads of fun, 10/10 would recommend doing period fiber arts as cosplay.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Someone just tagged one of my tweedy selfies with "dark academia is problematic" and I'm just dying over here, especially since I associate my look more with riding horses than archiving at the Mütter Museum.

Anyway, "vintage style, not vintage values."

[elliotly]

last Halloween post — Griffin from Babel by R.F. Kuang !

[persephonaae]

TERFs GO AWAY I’m nonbinary and as this is a look that is about exploring my own identity, gender is included in that. I’m not a woman, I am not your ���divine feminine”. An edit I wish I didn’t have to make.

Here are some of the pictures of the Minoan/Mycenaean look I did yesterday! Mind you, it's all very generalized since I haven't made any clothing studies from these time periods yet, so I had just grabbed random clothes and jewelry from my closet that I could at least pass off as the ~vibe~ . I went for a pretty simple interpretation of makeup back then and ended up not really putting a whole lot on my face before the decorative elements, just a very thin amount of white foundation, but even so I figured my skin is pretty pale as it is that if this were historical I probably would have just been fairly bare faced anyway in a similar fashion. I tried to stay pretty close to how makeup might be applied back then and not go too anachronistic, and if I did it was for photographic or artistic purposes (namely, light contouring on my nose not for any sort of like, modern feature minimization, but to make sure my own Greek ethnic features weren't flattened by lighting levels or camera perspective)

Overall this was a really fun exploration of historic culture! Seeing the finished makeup on myself kind of brought over this cultural euphoria for me, even though many things have changed since ancient Mediterranean civilizations, there's almost a feeling of sameness in exploring the history of your heritage and seeing someone who looks or feels like you in ancient art. (But also a brief little disclaimer: the Mediterranean has been an extremely diverse region for thousands of years! I'm just one way of looking and that absolutely isn't representative of all people of Greece, neither then nor now!) I want to explore more historical fashions within this realm, and next time try a more extreme version of the makeup, something that feels more on the ceremonial side than casual like this one.

[ineffableigh]

The costume details in Good Omens never cease to amaze me

I was working on cosplay research and looked up 'men's dress shirt rounded collar' since I noticed Aziraphale's blue dress shirt collar is rounded, not pointed:

So it turns out...

"The rounded collar was part of Eton College‘s dress code beginning in the mid-1800s. Because men wanted to be perceived as belonging to this exclusive club, the rounded, or “club” collar was copied by the masses." (Source)

Between that and the fact that Aziraphale's waistcoat, from what I can find, most closely matches shawl collar waistcoat designs from the 1830s, and his waistcoat at Saint James Park in 1862 is the first one we see him wear that most closely resembles his 'modern day' one, it's safe to say our lad is stuck at the start of the 19th century.

Which COULD be hilarious given undergarment styles of the time:

Through the late 19th century - union suits! Lovely for cold London winters.

1907...

However, I suspect 1940s style to be most likely, as it seems to be what he emulated when pretending to be Crowley at the end of Season 1.

1940s undergarments:

Anyway this has been your fashion history dork brain dump LOL

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 354

ARADIA IN THE ÖTZI THE ICEMAN FIT, WHAT WILL SHE DO

[cosplayinamerica]

The ICG published Costumer’s Quarterly magazine in print from 1987 to 2001. Digital scans now make this magazine available to all.

View it here https://costume.org/wp/the-international-costumer-newsletter-2022/costumers-quarterly-magazine/

[spyboy2000]

𝗝𝗶𝗺𝗶 𝗛𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘅 𝟷𝟿𝟼𝟿, ʙʏ ᴇᴅ ᴛʜʀᴀsʜᴇʀ.

[leonardoeatscarrots]

Probably reading into it too much, but it's interesting that Viktor's waistcoat folds over the left side instead of the standard.

Context:

Most mens clothing buttons/fastens over the right with the left side on top like so:

While women's clothing folds the other way:

Supposedly, this is not to distinguish gender, but to aid in dressing. This distinction dates back to when most [upper class] women were assisted in dressing. It was easier for [right handed] servants to fasten clothing which was buttoned over the wearer's left. Men, however, would dress themselves and had an easier time buttoning clothes that folded over the right.

Now, in today's society (or in the society of Arcane) this is irrelevant as most people dress themselves (with the exception of those with mobility or cognitive issues such as infants, the elderly, or the disabled). Thus, this has become nothing more than a gender-distinguishing trait in fashion.

This probably doesn't mean anything, but I noticed it while looking at references for my cosplay. It bothers me.

The possible takeaways are as follows:

Viktor wears women's clothing for a plethora of possible reasons (trans viktor confirmed!!!!?!?!??)

Viktor lacks the motor skills needed to fasten his clothes and requires some form of help

He's left handed and has custom clothing to aid mobility

It's symbolic of his physical ability and independence (like how vi and jinx have Vs and Xs in their designs)

It's a meaningless design trait that the artists incorporated without any deep, hidden meaning and I'm just projecting my historical fashion hyperfixation onto my current project.

(Although please note that every male character has vests/blazers/coats that fold over the correct way or down the middle, with the exception of Viktor and also Heimerdinger for some reason) (but also note that I didn't check every character) (and I don't seriously believe any of this, I'm just bothered by the knowledge that the way everyone's clothes fold over is seemingly random and has nothing to do with established fashion norms and no other apparent pattern. But the idea of trans viktor, however unlikely, was enough to cast my findings into the void.)

[humanoidhistory]

Scenes from the masquerade at the 18th World Science Fiction Convention, aka Pittcon, held in Pittsburgh, September 3-5, 1960. Photos by Jay Kay Klein.