I learned in school that
there are two kinds of garments: clothing and costumes. Clothing is what people
really wore/wear and costumes are something else entirely. Any distinctions are
increasingly less obvious, and the concept of living and playing in
non-mainstream clothing has itself become mainstream. I'm going to try &
restructure this blog to have HA things and Cosplay things on separate branches
and make it more intuitive for my handful of followers to navigate. I'm still
learning how blog tools work & I don't want to delete the old posts &
just start over, so please indulge me while I meander through making it happen.
In 1982 I started gathering data for
what would become my grad paper, a timeline of how Hollywood influenced the
ready-to-wear industry. Before mass-media, fashion was the jurisdiction
of wealth & royalty. Silhouette changes trickled down slowly from the
courts of Europe & Asia to people in cities and eventually the countryside.
Money could buy cloth and notions, but until sewing machines became a household
item nice garments were still custom handwork. Mass media brought fashion
into the average person’s life and with that access came the desire to
dress. Women scanned the social columns of major newspapers to discover
clues about fashionable wedding gowns and trendsetting accessories. Printed
sources like Godey’s and the Sears catalog, and later movies and TV, gave
average people a look at what others were wearing, and what was cutting
edge. People find status in dressing like their heroes, whether they be
socialites, politicians, movie stars or fantasy characters. Movie studios
realized this early on & built partnerships with clothing designers &
manufacturers, providing their stars as models to sell clothes. Some of
the most successful ready-to-wear garments have been driven by that public
hunger. Reproductions of Scarlett’s GWTW wedding dress, the leather
jackets of Jon BonJovi and Michael Jackson, kids’ Underoos sporting images of
ninja turtles are but a few examples of wildly successful media-driven fashion.
For many people, their first exposure to historical or imaginative dress came
from a movie.
In 1982, if you wanted to copy a garment in a Renaissance painting
your main resource was the public library. If you were lucky enough to travel
to or live in a city with a museum, you might get to see your source painting
close-up, or if you were very lucky you might get to see an extant garment
similar to what you were working on. If your primary source was a movie
costume, you had similar limits. You could watch the movie, IF it were
playing in your local theater. You might see it on TV if it wasn't a new
release. Traveling exhibits & private collections, the occasional press
still, these were the gold standard to beg access to if you wanted to make
something recognizable. Theater departments all over the world re-created the
wheel [farthingale] with every production of Shakespeare. Information
sharing was difficult and primarily confined to academics.
In 1982, you probably had to create
your own pattern, so a costumer needed to know how. This required a working
knowledge of geometry, draping, textiles & anatomy.
In 1982, building accurate reproductions required substantial
personal research. If you didn’t work in theater, you might not ever meet
anyone who could tell you much about it.
In 1982, the fabrics you had access to
were limited to what your local fabric store carried or what you brought home
if you traveled. You might strive for authenticity but it was a stretch
goal. The creation of lycra/spandex and other petrochemical textiles completely
changed how garments fit and how they were manufactured. Qiana anyone?
In 1982, fewer people were sewing at home, and home-ec programs
were downtrending as women graduated high school & went right into the
workforce, unlike any generation before them. Complex garments require complex
tailoring skills, which were being lost because they were no longer needed to
create the modern easy-care wardrobe.
In 1982, costume props/wigs/theatrical
appliances weren’t something you could purchase from your local department
store. Wig and model makers were highly skilled professionals.
In 1982, playing dress-ups was for children, theater, Carnivale
and Halloween.
About 1999 I interviewed for a novel position—A major retailer
wanted to see if selling costumes to the general public was a money
opportunity. They had tested a few pop-up costume stores in major cities with
positive results the previous Halloween, and were going to open seasonal
Halloween shops across the US. Costuming as a mass market retail industry
had begun. The popularity of video gaming has contributed to erasing the line
between how children play & how adults play. Manifesting copies of your
heroes’ Erte’-esque costumes has become a competitive (and arguably necessary)
art form.
--The internet has made information about garments more
accessible.
--The internet has brought people
together with similar interests & given them forums for sharing ideas and a
display venue to share their work despite physical distances & language
barriers, all while sitting in their own homes.
--Online gaming fuels a need to bring virtual characters into the
real world to give them dimension.
--Pop culture trends have always
included a fashion aspect. The widespread incorporation of art movements like
steampunk into everyday dress underlines how fashion is a tool that can cross
boundaries like nothing else.
--Learning history by dressing it & doing it aids in
comprehension. Reenactment also preserves skills we are losing as we become a
computer-driven society.
--Taken together, these elements have
supported the rise in convention culture (“Cons”).
-- As a culture, we work long hours & we no longer dress for
dinner, for church, for nights out. Dress codes aren’t part of most lives. Most
of us live in a world without glamour, and the only fantasy we’re likely to see
materialize is a good parking spot. We need a break. Dressing up gives us
a break from the ordinary. It lets us temporarily see ourselves as
something more than exhausted worker bees shuttling the kids between activities
while picking up takeout meals. Dressing up lets us be superheroes.
-- The sustainability movement of
recent years has brought renewed interest in sewing and recycling old garments.
When you aren’t dependent on the current retail trend you can wear
anything. Why not wear what you want? Bonus points if it looks like you stole
it from Mad Max.
--Kids love to dress up. Want to bond with your kids? Play
with them.
--Costuming is a multidimensional art.
People should share their art. Now they can.
Welcome to Cosplay
