| Author |
Topic:
Plus Size professional costume
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silversun913
Registered:
Jan '08
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Date Posted:
1/18 7:53pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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I happen to be a big guy (6’ 7”, 265 lbs., 44 inch waist, & 52 inch chest) and figured this might be a good place to get some assistance. I think I’d make a great Vader but, my size isn’t helping matters unless I had $2500 to spend on a tailor made costume.
The only thing I can think of doing is buying the Rubies Supreme Edition XL costume and using it with a custom made cape. I realize that I may have to get the suit tailored, but that’s a minimal price to pay as compared to buying a custom made piece.
Anyway, I’m hoping someone here has better advice or can point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance,
Harry
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EricT
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
1/18 8:34pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Amanita posted:
I remember somebody here saying that one of the best Vaders they had ever seen was not only 5'3 but female!
I think a lot of it depends on the quality of the costume, and how the person wearing it carries themselves. What they lack in size, they make up for in attitude.
That would be VaderKinde, IIRC. She was about 5'3" tall, and used a heavily-modified Don Post STANDARD helmet, which was proportionately the correct scale (about 75%). The rest of her (handmade) costume, from photos I saw, looked FANTASTIC. Of course, I never saw photos of her with a bunch of troopers.
A lot of what we do may or may not be strictly "accurate" - my first true foray into the costuming world as an adult was Darth Maul, which I did for Halloween '01, and I'm no Ray Park (6' and a fraction, 265lbs or so), but my costume ROCKED, and everyone who saw it took pains to tell me how great it was. The only reason I don't still do that costume is that I got tired of scaring small children to tears every single time I wore it. Bottom line, there are plenty of opportunities to wear fantastic-looking costumes regardless of your body type, although there certainly are some choices that may open you up to... criticism, shall we say. Still, I say wear what you want! It's YOUR COSTUME.
As some have already commented, there are Senatorial and Royalty-type costumes which ought to serve well for plus-sized costumers. Jedi should be easily-doable, IMO, although you may need to do a custom pattern (the old Simplicity patterns don't get up to my size, for example, not to mention their inaccuracies). Even armor CAN be doable, although some types are more forgiving than others. I do a good Vader, but am not comfortable in my Stormtrooper (but it's not adjusted right anyways, I could work on it and make it look better even considering my size). You DON'T have to be a Gamorrean.
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Eric Tank
SL-7171 Garrison Tyranus (VA)/501st Legion
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ardavenport
Registered:
Dec '04
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Date Posted:
1/18 9:07pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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jainasolo2001 posted:
I'm looking for a plus size professional Star Wars costume. I'm going to Disney during Star Wars weekend and want it to be good quality. I'm thinking about making the Jaina Solo tunic, but I'm not sure if it will be good enough. Anybody have any ideas for plus sizes?
I was just wondering.....does Disney allow people in the park in costume? I know they use 501st and Rebel Legion in the parades, but because of problems last year they're being really strict this year with only pre-approved member costumes.
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Jedi-Loreen
Title: OCSWS Secretary
& Master of the Blades
Registered:
Dec '02
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Date Posted:
1/18 11:39pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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I don't think they are allowing anyone who isn't in the 2 Legions to go in costume this year.
Apparently last year, from what I gathered on the RL forums, since they posted about meeting places on the open public forums, people who were not in either group, and didn't necessarily have good costumes, thought they could just show up and tag along, and that created problems.
So I think this year only pre-approved costumes from the invited groups will be allowed, and they are using a private forum to talk about the Event and post where the meeting places will be.
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Darth_Eagle
Title: Fanforce CR Singapore
Registered:
Jul '01
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Date Posted:
1/19 2:17am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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EricT posted:
Even armor CAN be doable, although some types are more forgiving than others. I do a good Vader, but am not comfortable in my Stormtrooper (but it's not adjusted right anyways, I could work on it and make it look better even considering my size). You DON'T have to be a Gamorrean.
Heehee...one reason why I worked towards getting a Biker Scout Trooper Armor 1st all these years instead of Stormtrooper was because I saw a very Plus Size lady wore it at SD ComicCon and she didn't look that bad. I think it's someone's GF/Wife here as it was back around 2002, right after GT had to close down thanks to LFL Lawyer's "Love Letter". Scout also seems to be more forgiving for those who're short or tall IMHO tho' skinny ones may need some paddings (remembering how my friend looked like when he wore his ex-Scout Armor and how much space there was when he wore his Clone before it was modified correctly  ).
Other than that, I guess short people also seems to be better for Pilot; the joke we told in our Garrison here is that they needed shorter people to fit into the TIE Fighter Cockpit.  And Fat people are okay for it too as when someone critic, you can always reply that you "belong to one of those Squadron who was posted on the Outer Rim and didn't get to see much action" like the Squadron Baron Fel was posted to in one of the DH Comics.
Other Imperials Costume/Armor are also okay for us Plus Size Costumers and the only Armor I see that have restriction is the Stormtrooper/Sandtropper tho' it can be fix like wider Thigh and Calf piece. Heck! One of the 1st Asian Stormie I knew was only 1.5m tall, around my height and yet after trimming and some modifications, she looked great in her Stormtrooper Armor.
Ya, the only reason why I haven't reconsider again getting a Stormtrooper Armor apart from the financial part, is that I knew my Thighs and Calf are still too big to fit into the size available in the market. Height can always be fix slightly with one of those Boots Height Inserts and wearing Boots with heels.
That reminded me, got to find better photos of Imperial Officer Boots and decide how high I want the heels to be. Gonna ask a friend to get her source custom make my boots for me as I have Fat Calves. 
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jainasolo2001
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
1/19 7:05am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Thank you everyone for all the ideas!
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Alright people- today's spelling lesson is JAINA
J-A-I-N-A not J-A-N-I-A!!!!!!
spell.... repeat.... good!
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LLL
Title: TFN Fan Fiction Archive Editor
Registered:
Jul '00
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Date Posted:
1/27 9:46pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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In my opinion, it helps the overall look of a costume when the wearer is about the same size as the character.
In that case, since females in the movies are never anything but thin-thin-thin and ethereally beautiful, I'd never be able to dress up as anything.
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Amanita
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
1/27 11:29pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Exactly. See my thread on Jedi garb for unusual body types. My friend fell in love with my Twi'lek garb, and now wants to be a Twi'lek Jedi. By that logic, she can't. She's 4'11 and plus-sized.
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Jada
Title: Chapter Rep
Charlotte, NC
Registered:
Apr '06
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Date Posted:
1/28 7:51am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Amanita posted:
Exactly. See my thread on Jedi garb for unusual body types. My friend fell in love with my Twi'lek garb, and now wants to be a Twi'lek Jedi. By that logic, she can't. She's 4'11 and plus-sized.
But in the bar/cantina scene in AOTC there is a plus size Twi'lek.
There is also Yarna from Jabba's Palace. I finally talked my husband into doing Malakili the Rancor Keeper if I costume Yarna the 6 breasted  dancer.
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Amanita
Registered:
May '03
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Date Posted:
1/28 9:14am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Something else that occurred to me- yesterday I won several figures in an Ebay auction, two of which were little Jedi younglings (Aww cute!) If my friend likes the idea, I could always model her Jedi robes off of the youngling's kit- I love those outfits!
Of course, the beautiful thing about well made Jedi kit is that it DOES look good on many body types. In some cases, downright slimming. At the very least, loose fitting enough to hide all manner of sins, figure-wise.
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Adalia-Durron
Title: Oceania RSA
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
1/29 2:59am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Many of Padme's gowns can look really good on plus size ladies. Especially the ones in ROTS. I myself struggle with costumes and found that many of Padme/Amidala's costumes hide an abundance of ....well, you know. 
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Age is part of what makes women beautiful, not an imperfection that needs to be corrected
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jedilucass
Registered:
Dec '02
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Date Posted:
1/31 8:11am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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wow, a topic has to really get my interest to get me to sign in after all these months...
I'm a plus size girl, and I have never let that get in the way of costumes that I want. The costume that got me into the star wars realm of gowns was the pastel lake gown. With the simple alteration of bringing the back up, I had my dress, and I think I looked awesome in it. I'm one of the pictured on PadawansGuide. I didn't have the armbands because I thought they would make my upper arms(not my best feature) look bigger, so those were left out.
I don't think size should stop anyone from making a costume. Sure, you might not have the Padme figure, but it's how you wear it, and your confidence that makes a costume look good. Sometimes you're forced to make alterations to the orginial design, because they have yet to make a backless bra to support the larger bra sizes (I'm actually working on figuring out something to where I could make the back of the pastel lake gown a little lower for big busted me, inspired by a woman on america's next inventor show). I got a lot of compliments on that dress, and no one came up and said "hey, your dress isn't accurate because of the back". I think a large part of that dress's success was that I felt pretty in it, and felt like Padme, and that was that.
It's all about confidence. Yes, I agree that plus size women shouldn't do the slave leia costume, and those type where alterations aren't possible. Any of Padme's costumes, I think, can be worn by plus size women if you're willing to sacrifice some screen acuracy. I always loved the family gown, and I thought a good way for a plus size woman to do that costume is wear it with the cloak. The picnic gown and fireside gown would be amazing for plus size women, because of the corsets, which force everything in and smooth everything out. And wearing a Spanx under all costumes is a good thing with some of her gowns.
Episode 3 costumes work well with the plus size woman, just because they are roomier on Padme. It kinda bothers me that it's the reason they work so well, but I get over that when I see plus size women wearing them, and I think they look better on plus size women than they do on Padme, because we have the curves that they had to use padding on Natalie for.
You can make almost any Padme costume, be reconized as Padme, and feel in charecter. Just have a Padme frame of mind.
Just my two cents, mind you.
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Takianna
Registered:
Apr '05
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Date Posted:
1/31 10:12am
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Amen sister!
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abodeofthedamned
Registered:
Dec '04
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Date Posted:
1/31 4:15pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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A friend of mine once said that medieval gowns were made for fat girls (Her words! Not mine!) so flowing gowns can be quite fetching on the bigger ladies. Add on to that a bit of attitude and you have a winning combination.
One thing I will say though, despite my earlier protests to the contrary, is it can be embarrassing to watch someone, particularly a friend, embarrass themselves by trying a costume that they just were'n't meant for. In this particular case it was a River costume and trying to mimic Summer Glau's moves during a costume competition.
Mind you, I should'n't talk, I was talked into doing 'Crazy Britney'. I'm a 6'2", 275lbs, bald hairy and goateed male.  Yes, copious amounts of alcohol were involved.
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"Canon" is for Trekkies.
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Adalia-Durron
Title: Oceania RSA
Registered:
Jun '03
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Date Posted:
1/31 8:24pm
Subject:
RE: Plus Size professional costume
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Even Princess Leia's white gown can look good on a lady with a bootylishous figure. I made one for a friend who I consider voluptuous, and she looked really great!!!
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Age is part of what makes women beautiful, not an imperfection that needs to be corrected
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