Author Topic: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
Amanita  362 posts
Registered: May '03
40693_Shaak Ti
Date Posted: 2/26 5:20pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
First a disclaimer. This post isn't about male or female impersonation, or more "adult" things best discussed elsewhere.

What do you do when you really want to do a costume worn by somebody who's the opposite gender?

Do you try and obscure your own gender as much as possible, ignore it, or play with it?

For example, I want to do Magneto's costume from X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Obviously I'm the wrong gender- very much female. I've got long hair and obvious chest.

I could try and obscure my female-ness as much as possible- try and find some way to flatten that chest, hide my hair under the helmet, and such.

Or I could just ignore my female aspects, pretending they don't exist.

Or I could play with them- What might Magneto look like if he took a dip in Ranma 1/2's spring of drowned Girl?
Tailor that jacket to look good on a female form, wear that hair long and show it off, etc.
I actually found a pic from an X-Men comic showing Magneto with long white hair, worn in two long tails framing his face. Not sure how good that would look under the X-3 helmet, though.

So all you costumers out there, how might you handle this situation or one like it?
For a Star Wars angle, I've seen at least one, possibly two men wearing the Slave Bikini from ROTJ. I've always thought a male re-design of the costume might be interesting.

 

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Verdaera  98 posts
Registered: Apr '05
40331_Aayla Secura
Date Posted: 2/26 6:50pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
First of all, I say if you want to do it, do it! Costuming's all about fun anyway.

Now from my costume-nazi point of view, how I would personally go about it is this. If your features lend yourself to being able to look like the male character, especcially with some work like a wig and fake facial-hair paint, I would try to go about it as you would any replica to look as much like the character as possible. You could always do a 'female' version of the costume. I have seen plenty at conventions of female versions of male costumes and they are a lot of fun! (I admit though, I'd be scared of a male slave Leia) I consider them in the novelty category rather than a canon rendition of the costume. If I were to try for a male version of a costume, I'd pick something with armor to conceal my femininity without much fuss rather than trying to look like Anakin or something. Personally, I try to pick costumes and characters that best match my features... I don't do many face characters because I don't look like them, but I've done an Illyria and I'm going to do a young Beru happy But that's me personally, I still say go for it.

 

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jedipati  923 posts
Registered: Aug '00
22677_Anakin's Lightsaber
Date Posted: 2/27 3:34pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
hmm... that's a hard one.

I, unfortunately, don't have the facial features to pull looking like a guy off, though I have tried (this last halloween, I went as Captain Will Turner from POTC.) But, though I knew it was fairly hopeless, I wore a sports bra that did a pretty good job of flattening my chest, and luckily the layers disguised the rest of the curves, and drew the beard and sideburns on.

My friend and roommate-for-the-trip, on the other hand, does have the right sort of facial features, and she went as Captain Jack Sparrow. She used crepe wool to create her beard and managed to fool a lot of people, so that when she spoke after dinner, the waitress said "You're a girl?!"

Here are some pictures of that- you can see how it went. I'm the blonde, since there were three of us in the same costume (long, long story).







It might have been more realistic for me to go as Captain Wilhelmina Turner (I've seen pictures of someone doing that- replace his shirt with a similarly colored corset), but I had fun with it. It all depends on how realistic you want to be. If you can pull it off, go for it- it's a lot of fun to see people do double takes when they realize that it's a girl under that beard. If you can't pull it off, you might still want to go for it, since it's still fun to have people give you a second glance to make sure.

 

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Darth_Eagle  4535 posts
Title: Fanforce CR Singapore
Registered: Jul '01
49440_H48: Witch King
Date Posted: 2/28 8:14am Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
Whenever I have to do Male Character, I'll bind my assets using......cling wrap and a layer or 2 of Masking tape. tongue Will wrap around 10-15 layers of the cling wrap with at least 2 going around the shoulder to prevent the wrap from slipping off (it did happen when I first did it for Neo Reloaded and I only did 5 layers). And I wore Sports or non-underwire bra underneath them and bring along a small sharp scissors for removing the binding later. wink

And a word of advice from my own experience:
Make sure you have your breakfast before you start binding. I made the mistake of not doing that one time and my chest was in pain till I removed the bindings.
And try to stretch your chest slightly as you bind so you're not squeezing your chest too much.

Anyhow, I understand there're those "Chest Binder" for cosplayer but since I never try them out, donno how effective for those with bigger assets like C and above cups.


Haven't got to the makeup part like making my eyes "deeper" but got the "tutorial" at hand in Japanese from those Cosmode Mook. hypnotized


Oh! You can also try checking some of the threads at Cosplay.Com for more tips, especially different body type will need different method.
http://www.cosplay.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46

 

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Miba  67 posts
Registered: Feb '04
6878_Admiral Daala
Date Posted: 2/28 3:10pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
Ahh, I guess this is the one time it's nice to be a small chested girl. wink I wouldn't have much trouble at all crossplaying. Just a normal pirate shirt obscures my feminity fairly well, and I haven't really done other male costumes.

Now, hips on the other hand, are a completely different story, those give me away too easily. Any suggestions on that aspect? Not that I'm into crossplay, but it is a good question anyway.

 

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jedipati  923 posts
Registered: Aug '00
22677_Anakin's Lightsaber
Date Posted: 2/28 5:27pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
Miba- layers help. If you're dressing as a pirate, then sashes and belts, tied correctly, can disguise the curves. And, since you mentioned pirate clothes, you notice that they'r loose fitting, which also helps.

If you're in a loose fitting costume, then you might wear an extra layer underneath- a scarf or sash or length of fabric- wrapped around your waist, to get it closer in size to your hip. Even fairly snug costumes can accommodate this, if you're careful.

Coats and cloaks help hide the curves as well.

Armor can have padding on the inside to help hide curves.

If it's really tightfitting, you're probably out of luck.

 

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toysoldierjedimom 
Registered: Jan '09
Date Posted: 3/1 7:13pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
I cosplay (non-Star Wars) as a male character and I have bound my chest, but I am larger so I had to bind my whole body. Not comfortable and I could barely sit and it didn't make much difference in the look since my character has a long coat anyways

 

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jedilucass  484 posts
Registered: Dec '02
47916_Padme (3161)
Date Posted: 3/1 7:55pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
I honestly like the idea of a female take on the costume. if not, then adding underthings that would make your figure less female. Build up the shoulders (shoulderpads!!), and as far as the chest, there are bust minimizing bras, and I've heard using ace bandages to wrap around that area to flatten it. If going the male route, I'd do more than just flattening the chest, and do waist up. As far as features, there are stage makeup techniques to create a more distinct jaw line, and spirit gum to make beards or stubble or whatever your facial hair needs. And there is also this stuff called.... I wanna say nose putty (I just learned about 3-d make up in class last week) that you can use to make bumps in noses, that sort of thing.

either way, I think you could pull it off with the right amount of work. But my two cents is make it female, but still do the helmet. grin

~Laura

 

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jedimika  509 posts
Title: Louisville KY FF CR
Registered: Apr '08
42237_Obi-Wan Clone Armor
Date Posted: 3/1 9:13pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
There is an alternate reality (MC2) version in Marvel comics...Magneta...might consider that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneta

 

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Amanita  362 posts
Registered: May '03
40693_Shaak Ti
Date Posted: 3/6 9:15am Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
A female version of Magneto that's Canon? Interesting.
Trouble with that outfit is that I'm on the plus sized end of things, so skintight spandex would be a huge no-no for me.
On the other hand, the movie costume would be much more flattering- it's tailored, but forgiving enough that somebody with a less than ideal figure is not going to look like they've been stuffed into a purple and red sausage casing.

 

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Jo-Nich  310 posts
Registered: Sep '05
42322_Mandalorian Skull Symbol
Date Posted: 3/27 10:35am Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
I usually don't have issues with females donning male costumes. I just consider it a "creative alternative". Like it would be cool to see a female captain america, or female magneto. It's the other way around that ends up looking akward. grin Male Tomb Raider, male Psylocke....yeah...

 

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shinigami-orihime 
Registered: Jan '09
41190_Anakin Solo
Date Posted: 3/28 4:11pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
I think you should go for a female version. I went as Hannah Solo, ANH Han costume with a navy skirt with bloodstripes and not hiding the assets. I'm short so I couldn't pull off Han Solo anyway.
If you're going to go for female I think you should make it cute and just alter little things to fit your body. Don't go in with the fishnets, mega high heels and loads of make-up and jewellry, it looks scary O.o...

If you want to go the male route, I went to animecon as Edward Elric from full metal alchemist. I made myself a sixpack ^___^
I just cut some rounded shapes out os polysteyrene, it was to sit right under the breast area and thin down to my hips, so I look like a muscular man. joined them together with strips of belt, then put elastic in 4 places to hold it up. ^___^

 

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moosemousse  13344 posts
Title: CR - FF:UK South
Registered: Oct '04
50891_NaNo 6
Date Posted: 3/28 10:46pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
I've seen a lot of women doing male characters so it doesn't seem strange to me. I've seen a picture of a woman who made a great Squall from Final Fantasy 8. I've also seen some horrors, like Sailor Bubba. If you'd rather do it one way then go with it, just as long as it looks 'right'.

This is making me think about what Qui-Gon would be like if he was female. doh!

 

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navarre1095  1334 posts
Registered: May '05
Date Posted: 3/29 8:41am Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
Just don't do this

 

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Evil-Henchman  2379 posts
Registered: Jul '04
6614_Darth Vader
Date Posted: 3/29 11:22am Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
navarre1095 posted:
Just don't do this



*shudder* [whisper]The horror.[/whisper]

 

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jedipati  923 posts
Registered: Aug '00
22677_Anakin's Lightsaber
Date Posted: 3/29 12:44pm Subject: Cross-gender costuming and cosplay- ideas?
navarre1095 posted:
Just don't do this



Um... at least he's wearing boxers underneath?

*shudder*

 

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