The Halloween Let Down

As a kid, I always wanted to cosplay my favorite characters at Halloween. When we'd go to look at costumes, I'd always be horribly disappointed, searching for the costume my favorite characters would have worn. For some reason, marketing gurus thought that costumes should have a picture of the character or the name of the show they were from printed prominently on the costume. I'd feel heartbroken. No self respecting cartoon heroine was going to walk around with her own face plastered on her dress. It was disheartening. I didn't want to dress up as a nod to my favorite character, I wanted to step into their role for a moment. I wanted to look in a mirror and for just a moment, completely embody them.

My mom was always frustrated. "What do you mean you don't like any of the costumes? I thought you said you wanted to be Rainbow Brite? This is a Rainbow Brite costume, what's wrong with it?"

Seriously, when did Rainbow ever have her name plastered on her skirt? Do you remember it? Neither do I. Same thing goes for She-Ra and Strawberry Shortcake. They were not the ultra-vain name brandishing types. Lady Lovely Locks was all about the hair, not about the picture of her hair on the front of her dress (but let's be honest, I'm a brunette, I wanted to be Maiden Fair Hair. That costume wasn't even available for purchase. Don't even get me started on the pitiful Cleopatra costumes out there.

Ultimately this led to a lot of homemade costumes that couldn't be bought, but they weren't the characters I loved either. They were always something that couldn't be bought, because "if you're going to be something I can buy in the store, why don't we buy it in the store?" And as a grown up sewing maven, I get it. The amount of time I pour into every costume for my kids, I get it. Every year we make my daughter's costume and buy one for my son. Why? Because cosplaying Darth Vader is easy for a preschooler, right off the rack. Cosplaying Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night as a teenage girl? Not so much.

So, this year as I work on my zaftig Mina Harper cosplay and my daughter's Starry Night, I smile and remember the day I realized while holding a cheap polyester Rainbow Brite costume that was just wrong, that dressing up can be more than that: deserves to be more than that.

Cosplay over costumes any day.

Madd Make up

Yesterday I happened to be sitting at the computer at the right time to notice that Madd Style Cosmetics was having a giveaway (a super complicated giveaway) for a full set of pigments. Um, hello? Yes, please!
Did I mention the super complicated part?
Ah, well, here's that bit.
Super complicated means that you had to opt in, tag someone, be tagged, and then get assigned by the party who tagged you/assign the party you tagged three to six colors and a theme for a sugar skull inspired look for them to create on no more than half the face, but at least one eye.
I was assigned white, pink, yellow, and blue in something super girly with hearts and flowers.


This is what I came up with.  

Noting the exclusion of black or green, I did hot pink (Young Blood with some Ben Nye bright blushy goodness) flower of traditional sugar skull styling, layered over a multi-yellow (Ben Nye creamy yellow and some scary unlabeled yellows I borrowed from the tween) sunflower with pink hilights, a couple hearts and polka dots in light pink. Eye done in Disco Biscuit, one of my favorite blues and Gothcupcake's Zombify- Police Box (also sold as TARDIS), which was also used for the lines. The white is Ben Nye creamy foundation.
I decided to go with the "phantom mask" or quarter face approach because it's girly, as commanded by Megan, in the mommy can kiss the toddler still kind of girly way, and because I think it rocks old school.

Just before washing it all off, after dinner (yes, I sat down to dinner this way, because it made me giggle) I decided to rough in a full half face, for giggles. I would have finished it, but without my glasses, I really can't see at all, and my glasses slide around so much I didn't want them smearing things.  But this is what it looked like roughed in.

This is with the glasses, since I wanted to see it before it had been washed off.
Of course, they ended up smearing the heck out of the details they're covering.

In any case, I had a lot of fun working on this, and the toddler thought it was funny and enjoyed sticking his little fingers in it.

He likes makeup.

Fan Girl Friday - Cosplay anyone?

When I 15, I got into the whole Renaissance Faire thing, which soon, or naturally, escalated into LARPing.  Costuming was fun, it was easy.  Chemise? Check. Corset of doom? Check. Skirts galore? Check. Old-timey boots of comfiness? Check.  Random sparkely shiny goodness? Check.
Easy peasy.
Want to add some magic? Sure, a wand, a staff, some amulety awesomeness.
Maybe a swordbelt and a sword?
Whatever floats your boat.

I never thought much about it. A nod to era and I was good to go.

HOWEVER, I have always wanted a Doctor Who Scarf. Specifically, a Season 14 Doctor Who Scarf. Why Season 14? Because it's the scarf from the first episode I ever saw, when I was a kid, watching with my daddy.  So then I was thinking, striped and long, and that's all that counts, right?
Well, the more I looked, the more I realized there were people out there to whom a precise replica meant a lot. For instance, they cared if you slipped the first stitch or not, what gauge of yarn was used to create it, and just how purple the purple is with relation to the taupe.

Then I started looking closer at costumes, thinking of dressing the toddlerpants as Eleven for halloween.
What kind of pants are those? Black right? Noooo, look closer- they're black skinny jeans.

Quick, what kind of shoes is he wearing? Hmmm?

Does it matter?  Is black pants with black shoes good enough, or does it have to be black skinny jeans with black boots?  Then how near in styling do the shoes have to be? Is any tweed jacket good enough, or should I start swatching all the candidates?  Does it matter what color that bow tie is?

I was thinking of doing something 'River Song-y" for Halloween as well, but is it enough to be in the general area? At what point is "in the style of" cool enough, and at what point does falling short of a precise reproduction (other than the sizing) just scream "I wish I was cool enough to call myself a cosplayer?" Does dressing in the style actually say "I'm not bound by cannon, so I can dress even cooler?"

I just don't know where the line between emulation and creepy copying starts.
Thoughts?
Have a Four scarf you want to part with?
Er, I mean, thoughts?