Oh, the Costuming

Well done Brave indeed.

Himself:   Leaving Wednesday not today.  He’s at work as his work laptop updates itself. Herself:  Monday: Talked with Bee, menus, grocery shopped, did all those Monday things leaving me little to do today.  Will work on a Comic Con themed piece for the Thursday group. Reading:   Read the first of the http://www.lindacastillo.com/>Linda Castillo Chief of Police Kate Burkholder mysteries.  Couldn’t stop reading until the book was done.    Balance:   Napping yesterday.

I swear I personally saw all 120,000 Comic Con visitors and photographed most of them.  According to my image count, I didn’t really do this but between the two of us we did come home with over a thousand photographs mostly of folks in costumes.

I’ve obviously been naive about this world of costumes. 

Although many Convention attendees use characters that have already been created, such as the princess from Brave, others follow a trend and the costume follows.  There were flocks of zombies flitting through the crowds with their white drapes and their dripping blood.  Around every corner you could find another massively muscled Batman or curl on the forehead Superman.  There were an easily spotted few students from Hogwarts with their capes flapping behind them, but the largest group of visitors were steampunk.

Often research lead to dramatic costumes and the creation of a persona is born from this.  I asked the officer in the picture below how he created his costume, and he said he had known what he wanted when he started.  He had been unable to find the exact costume he wanted, and after months of research he sewed this frock coat with striped pants and vest.  Though the Costume panels discussed researched, they mentioned Google but never mentioned brick and mortar libraries.

   Two visitors from a steampunk world.  A well researched regimental officer.

At the Steampunk Costume panel I attended, I was told that all steampunk women wore corsets.  In reality, the housekeeper may have, but her lower class minions would have worn a chemise under their layers of black and aprons. 

Once the costume is created, most steampunkers create a persona to live in it.  Many of the attendees seemed to favor the upper class and take on those mannerisms.  Although there were medals and pins for the average workman, I saw virtually no working class folks except for the Great Geezer.  I asked several folks who were knowledgeable about steampunk where the lower class women were….the maids or the cook.  There aren’t any, I was told. 

Perhaps there will be one in the future with the appropriate mannerisms to follow.