why I costume

[anotheranon]

I was reading rm's post on love, scholarship and costume and thought it might be a good jumping off point for my own reasons for costuming.

RM uses it as another means of engaging her various fandoms. I do kind of get that in a way, though I've not really used costume to closer experience sci-fi fandom. It does kind of reflect my motivations for starting renaissance/Elizabethan costume, if a historic period can be called a "fandom". I'm not as thread-by-thread accurate as some, but I think that wearing the fit and drape of 16th century clothing gets me closer to what it might be like to be in a 16th century woman's shoes.

My limited encounters with sci-fi costuming have been aesthetically fun, but results have been mixed - I've seldom tried to emulate an entire character/outfit because I'm not an actor and don't look much like anyone in any of my shows/movies of choice. It's fun to play though (and RM is right, play is unjustly frowned upon for adults), and even though I don't look like Zoe or Aeryn I'd like to think that by "borrowing" their clothes I also get a bit of their swagger.

Speaking of swagger - this is why I love to wear men's clothes, to the point of implementing some touches in my everyday wear. I'm too busty to fool anyone into thinking I'm a guy but it's a way for me to play with male "energy", if that makes sense. It's fun to play the dashing gentleman from time to time and perhaps I lack creativity but it's easier for me to do that in a tux or breeches.

Then there are the technical aspects - the challenge of working with new materials, to see if I can make something very complicated and layered, the sensory pleasure of working with fine fabrics.

Interestingly, I've never raised eyebrows with my costuming efforts, perhaps because 1) I've never been in con space as an academic, and 2) my costuming is usually socially separate from my fan activities. I get told I looked like I stepped out of a painting, or "how did you do that??" or the like. One raised eyebrow I got was because they couldn't understand why I wasn't doing it for money.

I don't think I'm explaining myself clearly here so short version: my motivations for costuming are playing dress up, joy of making stuff, "ooh, shiny!" and getting closer to history. What are yours?

Comments

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I've been costuming for well over 30 years. I've spent countless hours creating outfits and pretending to be someone not me. When I was little, I thought my life was tortuously dull. I lived in front of a soybean/peanut field and across from a cow pasture. I wanted to dress up and go places and do things far more interesting than what every was going in rural, south-eastern Virginia. Since I couldn't get there on my own, I made it up and lived in my imagination, gakking stuff from everywhere.

I remember designing versions of one of Princess Ardala's (Buck Rodgers) outfits and my version of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland before I was 10. Then there were bellydance outfits when I was 9 and 10.

Throughout jr. high and high school there were medieval knights and ladies (my 9th grade history teacher dubbed me Sir Michelle de Puny ;-p, at the Halloween dance where I wore my knight's tunic I'd made myself on my little kid's sewing machine), Sacajewea, Athena, and the Ghost of Xmas Past.

I studied my first great costuming love, Victorian fashions, constantly when I was young. My father was active in a Civil War historical shooting society and about the only thing at the time, available for women to do, was make outfits. And oh my! Were they beautiful! I so wanted to look like that with ringlets and hoop skirts and corsets.

Money never mattered to me. I wanted to make these outfits to see if I could. To see what people would think of them. To feel, a little, like the people or the characters I was dressed as. And it's never changed.

I studied costuming in college with an eye to becoming a professional costumer but some truly idiotic actors convinced me it would be a horrendously bad move on my part (I figured I'd be dead from ulcers, incarcerated for murder, or in an asylum by the time I was 40 if I continued on that career path, so frustrating were the actors at JMU. I didn't want to spend my career yelling at people who weren't doing what they were supposed to.) and so I only do it now for fun. Which in some ways is a blessing.

I don't have to compromise my artistic vision. When I costumed Henry V as a freshman, I plotted ways of blowing up the director because he wouldn't let me costume as I saw fit. (Nothing extravagent; I cheered when I saw the outfits in Kenneth Brannagh's version because that was closer to my vision that what I was allowed to do.)

I can spend as much or as little as I want. If I can't afford to spend what is necessary, I hold off on doing the outfit until I can.

I enjoy the challenge of creating new things. I love trying to see if I can do an Edwardian walking dress or a corset or make my own crocheted sweater based on one that's seen for less than 2 min. in a movie.

I love wearing my outfits because it's fun to dress up. I love to see how others react. I love having people want to take my photo. I like having people mistake me for someone who works there (Colonial Williamsburg, the Ren Faire). It shows me there is a certain verisimillitude to my outfits.

They also make me feel more beautiful. I love how I look in many of my outfits. (Okay, the lime green lame is garish on me, but it's LIME GREEN LAME, how can you not love it? ;-p) They make me feel elegant and refined. If there's boning involved, they make me stand straighter and sit more delicately. I feel like I look like the lady I want to be.

Fandom, steampunk gatherings, and the SCA are all just outlets for my costuming. I'd still make my outifits even if I didn't get to wear them all that often. Or at least, I'd still sketch them and think about them.

My regular clothes are a couple of steps outside of mainstream and I finally just said "screw it" and started wearing what I wanted when I wanted, which means, some days I'm in fishnets, black flouncy miniskirts, Doc Martens, and tank tops, grocery shopping.

I can't stop costuming. It is for me my primary artistic outlet. I've spent decades learning to do all sorts of things just to further my ability to make, from scratch, the perfect outfit.

Continued in next reply as this was too long to post in one fell swoop.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I do a tiny amount of cosplay, where I pretend to be the character I'm dressed as. Right now, that's either Drusilla or Prof. McGonagall. They are both fun in their own ways. Dru especially, crazy is fun! ;-p

I like Dru because she captivated Spike for well over a century. She's also a survivor and goes after what she wants. Yes, she's crazy and often in her own world, but she chose a companion who stuck by her and took care of her until she was well enough to do it on her own.

McGonagall is also strong. She's survived two wizarding wars; watched those she cared about die and then helped to raise their children. She's also a staunch ally, Intelligent and has a wicked sense of humor.

These are both interesting, fun characters to dress up as and pretend to be.

Hope this wasn't too long. ;-p But this, this is one of my favorite things to talk about because it's so much fun and interesting.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you took the two comments - this was fun and interesting to read!

I too was motivated by dressing beyond the everyday - I wasn't quite as far out in the boonies as you were, but close enough to get the occasional taste of the city through clubs and concerts. My impetus to start sewing was for the imaginary club nights and concerts I was sure I'd be doing all the time if only I could drive :P

Mad props for you taking on sewing challenges early and often! It took me until 17 to learn to use a sewing machine (I was afraid it'd sew through my fingers) and until my late twenties to believe I was skilled enough to try historic costuming.

And you do a disturbingly dead-on Dru, in style and manner...