| Project: A-Kon - Sunday
- Costumers |
 No, it's not
a trophy case of a big game hunter who specializes in anime characters...or
maybe it really is. These heads weren't shot, they were sculpted out of
foam and covered with fur. They're the heads of some of the most impressive
costumes seen at anime conventions in recent years, the six-foot larger-than-life
creations that stop fans in their tracks. |
 Nickey Froberg
made the heads and the rest of those costumes, and appeared at a costuming
panel at A-Kon on Sunday. Yes, it is hot in those foam-filled creations,
but it's worth the effort to draw that attention, she said. "None of my
characters speak, so no one expects them to talk," she said when describing
the reaction of people who see and hear her in the halls. Moving in those
suits is not easy because it's hard to see outside, and the costumer has
to be careful not to bump into something valuable and break it. |
 Ruby Boiko
creates some of the best anime hair out of foam, and she revealed her secrets.
Go to a craft shop and get a $10 block of foam, then slice it into strips.
Then find a woven hat of the kind that old women wear, strip away the plastic
flowers and attach the foam strips to the hat. Shape and dye the foam,
and you have the hair for Washu from Tenchi-Muyo that Boiko wore in 1999
at Anime Weekend Atlanta. Boiko recommends foam anime hair to cardboard
or paper hair because no one gets hurt if they bump into the hair. She
also suggests that costumes should be made out of cloth instead of paper,
because cloth can stretch where paper tears apart (don't laugh, paper costumes
have been tried before). |
 Heather McCollum
has gotten a lot of attention and some awards with her large Tama-Chan
cat costume, and more attention with the Lum bikini that she wore to A-Kon.
Tama-Chanis made of fur-colored foam, sized to fit the wearer, sewn and
hot-glued together. For Lum, McCollum had no intention of dying her hair
green for this costume, but that helped her hide the brown string (the
same color as her hair) that held the horns in place (the horns were made
in a ceramics class). The pointed ears, not usually seen in a Lum costume,
were found as "alien ears" as a store. The tiger stripes on the bikini
were pastel dyed, and the boots (not seen here) were overlays of fur wrapped
around shoes. |
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