Considerations when wearing a costume in public?

Correction, there was no costume contest. It was best Halloween Memory. Luckily I didn't wear my costume to school, and for a pic of what my friend and I looked like, check out the 2006 Halloween Costumes thread, first post on page three. His Sidious turned out great!

 

Besides language usage, if you smoke or drink, be careful who sees you light up and what you're drinking too. Kids are very perceptive and notice every little thing adults do. lol

 

I went to a con on the weekend, wearing my Padme dinner gown and my classic Leia dress. Mostly went off without a hitch, Leia was very popular with everyone! Though I did have a few problems with my PAdme gown.

Firstly, the train. It was prone to being stood on, and unfortunately ended up ripping the seams at the top. It's easily fixed, but it wasn't something I'd considered. Next time I wear it, I will be sure to always watch my 'tail' (as I call it ) and ensure that it doens't get stepped on too much.

The second problem was with an incredibly rude dark jedi. He'd already commented on my friend's Asajj costume ("Asajj is bald" - actually she did shave her head for it earlier in the year, but she has a job now and can't), and a few other people's costumes as well. He came up to me in my Padme costume and commented that my cleavage wasn't quite as big as Natalie's was int he movie. I have honestly never had anyone say anything like that in my life, and I was wholly shocked at his comment. I had actually made the corset to be a little higher than it should have been, as it was a family event, and I didn't really want to be flashing everyone. I was walking around with a couple of friends at the time, one of whom turned around and and told him he should never say something like that to a lady, I wish he'd been in his Darth Vader suit at the time My other friend didn't hear him say it, but when I told him later, he was quite angry. I guess there's nothing much you can do about those sorts of rude people.

Other than that it went off pretty well! Except for the bad sunburn I got in my Padme costume. I wasn't outside for all that long, but the walk between venues was a killer! I'll remember that for next time!

 

What that guy said was completely uncalled for. If you're going to give a negative comment, always have some way to back it up. Of course, that was just a perverted comment... you had every right to smack him up-side the head!

 

Thanks Fett-Man. I'm sure if I hadn't been so exhausted and shocked, I would have slapped him at least. But then, that wouldn't have been very senatorial of me But really, the only reason he would say such things about other people's costumes is because he was feeling insecure about his costume. So that's his problem. But my friend told me later that last year the guy was going on about how good he was with a lightsaber, and challenged my friend to a duel. He of course accepted and promptly shattered the guy's MR with his Park saber. Sounds like he has a bit of an ego problem anyway.

Everyone else loved the costume though

 

He got showed-up then! Glad to hear everyone else was appreciative.

 

Next time someone says something like that just tell him that his..!&#$ isnt as bid as haydens. Gosh, what a jerk. I would have ventured over to the dark side for just a bit had someone said that to me. >_<

-Larame Kaine

 

Isn't as "bid" as Hayden's?

You really don't want to stoop to the same level as the jerks out there, which is exactly what you'd be doing if you respond that way.

 

Yeah I figured it was prolly best to ignore it really. Plus I just didn't know how to react, but I kept my dignity.

 

"Well at least I have two hands!"

 

I've been lucky so far. Two appearances with Sunrider Base, Rebel Legion. Both went quite well.

Here's my observations of what went down and how it all went.

1.) Unless you're a "face character," be prepared to just do the occasional crowd shot, where you are one of many characters posing with a given person. And even if you are a "face character," be prepared to be passed up if there's a Darth Vader or a C3PO in the house. There are certain characters which are crowd pleasers, and Vader rules the roost. My costume is of an original character of mine, so people were admiring of the costume and occasionally took a shot of me alone with their cell phone or personal camera but when it came time to get their official Cinemax Polaroid pic they opted for someone more familiar.

I felt really bad for the woman who wore a full-on, super-detailed Padme in purple outfit, because she was getting oohs and ahhs but no love when it came time for pictures. I mean, look at this. Freakin' sweet, man. Did people want to pose with her when Vader was in the house? Nope.

Of course, our Vaders (we had two!) were awesome. Here's a "family snapshot" featuring one of them with our Padme in purple, our Leia Episode IV, and our Luke Episode VI. Take a look.

The rest of the photo album is available here. We had fun, regardless of how "popular" our characters were. I think we did quite well.

And of course, there was the time that only Duke from the 501st Legion Southern CA Garrison and me went to the TimeWarner cable phone room. There I got lots of interest, as the only Jedi there. Duke and I were a funny match...he's tall, much taller than Temuera Morrison so he's totally out of proportion, and I'm a 5' 2" chick with a hobbit-like shape. But it worked, we brightened up the days of folks in a depressing job, and it was fun. And a really tall guy in TK armor is a totally impressive sight. Here's the album from that day.

As far as conduct goes, common courtesy goes a long way. Watch your Terran Standard...no cussing. Be polite. Smile a lot if you are wearing a costume that shows your face. Don't smoke 'em if you got 'em, wear a patch if you're hooked. Drinking is another matter. In the Prequel Trilogy you saw Jedi off at bars on a couple of occasions. Don't get faced in the gear, though. That's unseemly.

Oh yeah...when you go off for your lunch break, make sure you keep your costume well-protected if you can't do a quick change into civilian wear. My outer tunic almost got some "battle damage" from salad dressing...that stuff is super-hard to get out of fabric and I worked really hard to make sure the spot didn't set. (Spotted with detergent immediately when I got home, and not one but two washes before tumble-drying.) Wearing some sort of poncho or some sort of outerwear over your carefully made costume might be a good idea, particularly if you went all-out like our Padme in purple did. Yeah it looks silly, but whatever. You're already sticking out like a sore thumb in the restaurant wearing the costume. If you are afraid of looking silly, don't do the cosplay thing. Me, I could care less.

And you know what? You might look odd, but people flash you smiles when you're in the gear. They love it. So when you wear the gear, act worthy of it in public.

 

If you're wearing a helmet, KEEP IT ON AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!! Vader lost his cool one time at the last Con I went to. Well, actually he regained his cool in a way [face-laughing]. But seriously, the occasional air brake isn't bad, but I see Stormies and Clones walking around all the time without their helmets. It completely takes away from your character. On Halloween my friend was Palpatine and he kept taking off his hood. I kept having to shout at him, because he just lost his Sith-ness.

 

I thought it was a no-no to take off your full helmet in public.

I know our 501st guys and gals in California aren't allowed do to that under normal circumstances. They have to go to some sort of "back stage" area if they want to rest and take off their buckets. Especially the Vaders.

 

I think the helmet rule depends on the event. Conventions aren't full on formal events, so its not a big deal to take off your helmet there. More formal charity events and official LucasFilm events require helmets on. Hopefully, if someone is a first time costumer at that type of event, a more seasoned costumer will help them out, and make sure they know what to do.

 

When someone takes off their helmet say: "Hey, there's this really cool invention called a helmet fan!" See what you get in return.