 Costuming
is among the most accessible part of anime conventions. Fans love the colorful
outfits, but they don't always see the work that goes into their creation.
And newcomers often ask experiences costumers how they created their suits.
So at NekoCon, costumers gathered to talk about the effort it takes to
make their outfits. |
|
 Tikki is one
of the costumers who puts a lot of work into finding the right sewing machine,
which isn't an automatic decision in the era after Singer ruled the North
American market. Experienced costumers can get very particular about the
kind of stitches they use to hold together their outfits. (One tip is to
find a machine that makes an effective stretch stitch if you're using fabric
that has to be gathered with an elastic backing.) |
 David Carpenter
brought the revised version of his amazing Guyver costume, which has been
updated with fresh lighting effects. Fans see the astonishing sculpture
of his fiberglass work from the outside, but they rarely see the inside
and how it's molded to fit his body. Take a close look at the leg section
on the right and you'll see that there's a lot of padding. that's to make
the suit comfortable when Carpenter moves, and to keep the inside of the
suit from grinding against his skin. People who work with fiberglass love
its flexibility, but they also dislike having to deal with the rough glass
fibers in the matting that's made solid after being cured with resin. |
 Erica Door
showed off the first of several costumes she made for the weekend. There
are four kinds of fabric in the costume, with the headpiece constructed
of a stretchy fabric drawn over a wire frame and attached to a headband.
The dangling headpieces are fabricated from an ingenious combination of
common materials: the balls are ordinary racquetballs painted metallic
blue. The gold objects are candles, with the attachments pressed carefully
into the wax. |
 Big guy Dave
Zyn emphasized the need to get the look of a costume just right, and said
that's one of the main goal any costumer faces. But there's another goal
against which that has to be balanced, and that's making a costume comfortable.
The time of year for a costume makes a difference; heavy costumes won't
be much fun in mid-summer heat, he noted. And then there's another practical
consideration that many costumers don't appreciate until it's too late
- how easy is it to get in and out of the costume if you have to go to
the bathroom? |
