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.

 

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 But that's me personally, I still say go for it.

 

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).

[image=http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk177/jedipati/TurnerCon08/intheboat.jpg]

[image=http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk177/jedipati/TurnerCon08/IMG_0309.jpg]

[image=http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk177/jedipati/TurnerCon08/turnercon.jpg]

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.

 

Whenever I have to do Male Character, I'll bind my assets using......cling wrap and a layer or 2 of Masking tape. 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.

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.


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

 

Ahh, I guess this is the one time it's nice to be a small chested girl. 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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

~Laura

 

There is an alternate reality (MC2) version in Marvel comics...Magneta...might consider that

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

 

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.

 

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. Male Tomb Raider, male Psylocke....yeah...

 

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 ...

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. ^___^

 

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.

 

Just don't do this
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/catvsvolt/Dragon%20Con%2007/045.jpg]

 

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

 

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

*shudder*

 

Oh dear Gods..That is just frightening. Plain shorts would have been better- those printed ones just clash.

I couldn't do high heels even if I wanted to- I may be female, but I have no clue how to walk in heels, and no interest in learning.
I won't have time to make my full Magneto outfit before the next X-Men movie comes out, so I'll have to settle for hopefully having the helmet in time. I'm also busy working on a klingon vest to wear for the Star Trek film. Here's a scary crossover thought- Klingon Jedi! Imagine a lightsaber-Bat'leth?

 

A quick note about belts etc. If you're female and doing a male costume, try wearing the belt on your hips rather than your waist, and blousing your shirt/tunic/whathaveyou over the top of the belt a bit. This can help disguise the fact that girls go 'in' at the waist more than boys, and can reduce the effect of a bustline a bit.

Admittedly it's not a foolproof method, but if you're less than curvaceous, it does work. I do Dark Age re-enactment, so I'm required to pretend I'm a boy when fighting, and I've found that this goes a long way towards disguising a female bodyshape.

Just my two pence on the matter!


Oh, and regarding the bloke in the slave Leia costume - please pass the brain bleach and mental floss. I may have nightmares.

 

In the words of our illustrious Emperor Palpatine:
"You will be hunted down and eliminated"
joking

 

Holy tranny batman! I'm gonna have nightmares from this...

 

... Wow, and here I thought Man*Faye was horrible. D=

Anyhow, I'm considering making a Cad Bane costume at some point, so this topic interests me.

I'm fairly slim for my height (about 6'0" and 140-150. God bless my French blood high metabolism) and I think I may be able to pull it off and still look neutral/masculine. The only problem would be the chest -of course-, but I want to find other alternatives than taping it down. (Ow, ow, ow, OW)

But yeah, with Cad I could potentially get away with not having to "hide" my visible sex (sorry, Sociology class taught me that sex and gender are two different things) attributes: heavy clothing that covers a good deal, similar build and of course, make-up.

Though if I were to "cross-play" another, human-esque character, I'd probably would want to hide my sex unless asked. (Which is why Carth Onassi, as much as I adore him, would be out of the question)