Tag: thinking out loud

A Costume Conundrum

Sometimes I worry about myself. For lots of different reasons, it has to be said, but most often for the fact that my brain absolutely cannot and will not stick to the most basic version of any given idea. It always wants to escalate things until a project is impossibly ambitious.

Claire sitting on a comfy sofa, leaning on her walking stick. She is wearing a comfortable steampunk costume.
My current steampunk-ish outfit

This is a frankly terrible picture of what passes for my current steampunk-ish outfit. Knee length tweed breeches (held up by braces which are hidden by my scarf), tall leather Faerysteps boots, a collarless pintucked shirt, and a cap that’s covered with badges. This outfit came about for two reasons.
One, I need to be comfortable. (See: comfy sofa, warm scarf, earplugs, walking stick, tired face. The concrete floor in that otherwise excellent venue did not go down well with the fibromyalgia. Not at all.)
Two, it’s common for a lot of steampunk imagery to be very upper-class-colonial-Victorian-explorer. That makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, and when a friend pointed out that you never see a lower-class “steampunk urchin” costume, I knew what I had to do.

My intended costume (I was going to say “planned”, but that’s a bit of a strong word at this stage) is going to be for a character who’s an in-the-field catcher of magical and/or mythical beasts. Think of a kind of a steampunk / Hellboy / Harry Potter / Fantastic Beasts / Ghostbusters crossover.

Nerf Zombie Strike Doublestrike - a small double-barrelled plastic pistol that fires two foam projectiles at the same time.
Nerf Zombie Strike Doublestrike

The first order of business was to buy a second-hand Nerf pistol from a friend. Nerf guns of all kinds are a common steampunk accessory, and I wanted a small one that Paul could transform for me into something that looks like a tranquilliser dart gun.

I have a pair of oversized black dungarees that I usually wear to do the gardening. So far, so good. I was going to bleach them and dye them brown to match my cap. I figure that it doesn’t matter if they come out a bit patchy, as they’re supposed to be working overalls. But then I thought that perhaps I should wear something that gave a bit more of a nod to a recognisable movie costume.

Boilersuits from the movies! Top: Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters Bottom Left: Sigourney Weaver in Alien Bottom Right: Jewel Staite in Firefly
Top: Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters
Left: Sigourney Weaver in Alien
Right: Jewel Staite in Firefly

A brief online search later, and that turns out to mean boiler suits or flight suits rather than dungarees.

Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters, wearing paint-stained dungarees, a leather jacket, driving gloves, big black boots and black & white striped socks.
Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters

(Although, to be honest, this photo of Kate McKinnon in Ghostbusters isn’t so much a costume as a bunch of stuff that I could pull out of my wardrobe right now. I love it when that happens.)

Simplicity sewing patterns - 8480, a Firefly/Rogue One costume, and 8447, reproduction 1940s dungarees.
Simplicity patterns for a Firefly / Serenity / Rogue One costume, and reproduction 1940s dungarees & hooded blouse

It turns out that boiler suits are EXPENSIVE. (Health & Safety, and all that.) So I thought that I should maybe just have a little look at some jumpsuit sewing patterns. I knew that Simplicity had a Firefly/Serenity pattern (now being sold as Rogue One), and some 1940s reproduction dungarees with a hooded blouse that I definitely don’t need but am simultaneously looking for an excuse to make.

Vogue Paris Original pattern 2343, published in 1999 and designed by Alexander McQueen for Givenchy. An incredibly stylish tailored jumpsuit.

(Speaking of things I definitely don’t need… while I was browsing jumpsuit patterns, this absolutely incredible Vogue Paris Original came up. It’s by Alexander McQueen for Givenchy, published in 1999, and currently for sale on Etsy for £142.62. Patternvault has a blog post about it.)

I haven’t yet made any form of final decision, except for thinking that paying around £12 to chuck some Dylon pre-dye and Espresso Brown at my existing dungarees is going to be a lot cheaper, quicker and easier than buying a sewing pattern and fabric and starting from scratch. And it’s definitely cheaper than any genuinely utilitarian, as opposed to fashionable and therefore largely pocketless, jumpsuit that I can currently find online.

And then, of course, there’s the issue of accessories and props. What does an in-the-field catcher of magical and/or mythical beasts need to carry with them? I’ll have the Nerf gun, I already have a sonic screwdriver (obviously), and I’ve seen a miniature fire extinguisher (water pistol) that I’m definitely going to have to hang from a belt loop. (Mythical creatures might breathe flames at you, so a miniature fire extinguisher seems like a sensible thing to have.) I’ve been looking at small vintage suitcases, thinking I could maybe put together something Newt Scamander would be proud of… but I suspect a backpack of some sort would be a bit more practical. And of course it will need to double as an actual handbag, given the ridiculous amount of Stuff that I carry around with me at all times.

Four enamel pin badges which say, "I bled on this costume", "I finished before the event", "finished with safety pins" and "I survived con season".
Image (c) Aimee Major Steinberger / aimeekitty on Etsy

While I was wittering on about all of this over on Facebook, a friend spotted these enamel pin badges which are frankly PERFECT. They’re by aimeekitty on Etsy, and although I’ve never (yet) had to resort to “finished with hot glue”, I have definitely made costumes that have required blood sacrifice – or that I’ve been sewing right up until the moment we got into the car to travel to the event! I don’t currently have a particular event in mind for this costume, but I’m pretty sure that one or two of these pins are going to apply.

A Couple of Thoughts

I’m with Amelia. Don’t be misled by her statement that personal adornment should be of secondary importance – it in no way means that we shouldn’t strive to look and feel beautiful in what we choose to wear. But for me, at least, it’s time to be comfortable. No more synthetic fibres, constricting waistbands or crippling shoes. I want, and need, my clothing to allow me to be healthy, comfortable and useful. My tiny revolution starts here.

Obvious, when you think about it, but something that’s sadly overlooked. We’re so divorced from the understanding of how our clothes are made that the cost of the cloth itself in human terms is barely even considered. We go shopping not because of need, but to make ourselves feel better. A different kind of need, but one that we’re so often looking to fulfill in all the wrong ways.

I’ve been looking at blogs such as No Pants 2011, The Uniform Project, the Brown Dress Project and Wardrobe Refashion, but they were all fixed-term projects that have now come to an end. I’ll be writing more about what I actually want to do in terms of changing my own approach to the way I shop and dress, once I’ve thought it through in more practical terms. But I definitely want to make changes that I can stick to in the long run, in terms of what I choose to buy and what I decide to make.

I don’t want to be boring or preachy or holier-than-thou about any of this, and I certainly don’t want to go around wearing ugly clothes simply because they’re comfortable. (You will NEVER catch me in fleecy boots and tracksuit bottoms!) But I can definitely work on not buying things to cheer myself up, and I can try to design and make some pretty-but-comfortable clothes from recycled or more sustainable fabrics. That seems like a good place to start.