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Sakura Con - Saturday - Costuming
 Even the people
who make the most elaborate of anime costumes for conventions admit it's
too much work to make sense, but it's worth the effort when they walk down
the halls. " I love the looks that people give us in the hallways - `What
the hell is that?' " said Nickey Froberg, who made the stunning Genma Panda
and Pen-Pen costumes worn by her friend Neal at recent conventions. Froberg
brought the heads of those costumes and some works in progress (like this
Totoro) to Sakura Con. |
 Froberg was
joined by Melissa Quinn, who makes and sells costumes through her Faerie
Fingers operation. "I look at anime clothes and I think `This is what fashion
should have been.' " Quinn, one of the few people who makes anime clothes
on commission (David and Kimberly from Cosplay Closet are among the others),
wore a Belldandy outfit of her own design and had an Urd dress on display
in the dealers' room. |
 These heads
start as ordinary party balloons. Inflate them, cover them with paper mache
and use that as a form for the head. Line the form with any old cloth and
then cover everything with foam in the shape of the character. A lot of
Froberg's foam comes from a friend at a computer company that uses the
foam for packing. The fur comes from fabric and specialty stores, and has
to be bought at the right time of year - the stuff is usually on sale after
Halloween because everyone else has finished their costumes by then, she
said. |
 There usually
aren't pre-made patterns for anime clothes, so Quinn has to figure things
out on her own. Take the robe worn by Mousse in Ranma 1/2. Quinn calculates
the shape of the robe, then has to estimate how the fabric would fit on
a real human. "The thing that you fight with anime costumes is that the
fabric seems to appear and disappear," she said. "You have to make a middle
of the road judgment on how much fabric to fight." Then she makes prototypes
out of cheap fabric before sewing the finished article. |
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