A fun and rather lighthearted question for a blustery day...
I'm interested in the problem of costuming a new character-- especially a new player character. For me, costuming a player character is often more difficult as, beyond budgetary concerns, the costuming ultimately has to be functional and weather-appropriate. (A winter cloak, for instance, may look great, but is inappropriate for an unseasonably hot autumn day.) A corset, for instance, might be really beautiful, but it also needs to withstand line fights and long stretches of continual wear. (Hats and boots fall into a similar category.)
How do people set about costuming a new character? Where do you go for inspiration? How do you start purchasing and/or making things? What sort of things do you think are absolutely necessary to acquire for a starting event? Similarly, if you have a limited budget, how do you throw together distinctive and effective costuming (this is especially useful for NPCs)? I know a lot of my readers have large costume bases, so I'm interested in costuming from different perspectives. How do you create a good costume from a lot of wardrobe? How do you create one from a more limited wardrobe?
A Happy New Year to everyone!
I'm interested in the problem of costuming a new character-- especially a new player character. For me, costuming a player character is often more difficult as, beyond budgetary concerns, the costuming ultimately has to be functional and weather-appropriate. (A winter cloak, for instance, may look great, but is inappropriate for an unseasonably hot autumn day.) A corset, for instance, might be really beautiful, but it also needs to withstand line fights and long stretches of continual wear. (Hats and boots fall into a similar category.)
How do people set about costuming a new character? Where do you go for inspiration? How do you start purchasing and/or making things? What sort of things do you think are absolutely necessary to acquire for a starting event? Similarly, if you have a limited budget, how do you throw together distinctive and effective costuming (this is especially useful for NPCs)? I know a lot of my readers have large costume bases, so I'm interested in costuming from different perspectives. How do you create a good costume from a lot of wardrobe? How do you create one from a more limited wardrobe?
A Happy New Year to everyone!
To get things rolling... if I have to create a character on a limited budget, I often rely on a statement piece (generally from my personal wardrobe) and effective facial makeup. I play a lot of makeup heavy characters (the bane of people's experience, I know), and makeup is often a good "placeholder" for me before I acquire full costumes.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Pick the one thing to start off a new PC. And it doesn't have to be something you wear. A plain skirt/dress/costume can be made signature by the right scarf/broach/bag (teaset...). Its actually a trick I use often when NPCing, stick with basic 'blacks' underneath, and make the character be the difference in the costume.
DeleteI think it's a different ball game depending on whether it's a PC or NPC.
ReplyDeleteFor an NPC, having a signature costume piece (corset, jewelry, shirt, etc.) is usually enough to convey who you are. If you are good at physical role-play, you can even allow people to tell who your character is by movement alone.
My NPC costuming tends to be more striking and oftentimes not necessarily LARP practical. I rate recognition and impression value higher for NPCs.
For a PC, I generally continue with several signature pieces. I set out for 3 changes of basic clothing + a signature piece. The basics should follow thematically i.e. french medieval, japanese kimono, etc. These I've accumulated over the years so I don't need to buy more.
PC clothing I use for immersion and comfort. The latter I supplement with a water-resistant cloak and good boots (even if not period)- I can't LARP without either.
On a budget, I recommend goodwill runs and costume swapping with friends! If you want to splurge, cloaks and good quality basic shirts/skirts/pants that you'll use all the time is a must.
I tend to start with headwear or hairstyle. All of my characters have a very characteristic headwear or hairstyle which remains consistent, which helps me get into the character. I don't tend to do heavy face makeup because I am not skilled at it and I find it to be really annoying--Kali is about as much as I will do.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest of my costume, I will often head to thrift stores and spend a good bit of time rifling through the various racks. I can often find something in bargain bins that will work for the look I'm going for, as long as I keep an open mind. I used to call my thrift store luck "Garment District karma", though it doesn't only apply to the Garment District. (I assume you've been to that store?) Though it really does depend on the genre.
I find that if I keep a few key items consistent and keep the rest of my clothes within a certain style or color scheme, I can change other aspects of my costuming based on weather. Liv has pigtails and eye makeup and general raver gear; Kali has a veil, crazy eye makeup, and generally flowy black clothes (and carries a bone club); Sage has a woodsy headscarf and an acorn hair clip and generally woodsy clothing. Everything else is gravy.
Above all, I've learned that practicality is key. Let's take Liv--as her, I often wear a short skirt. It both has freedom of movement and versatility. I can wear leggings underneath it or not as I choose. I wear my hair in pigtails to keep it out of my face. Beyond that, I have a variety of tee shirts, hoodies, and other jackets that I've collected that are in the style of the character. Sometimes if it's cold at night, I wear leather pants and leggings underneath, although those leather pants were a lot looser and more comfortable when I first purchased them 5-ish years ago. (Ah well.) Having played her for the last six years, I've collected a variety of clothing items in her style which I can bust out as appropriate.
Kali actually has the least practical clothes of all my characters. That veil may look cool, but it gets caught on EVERYTHING.
I shy away from corsetry these days as a PC. Alathia 1.0, my first Madrigal character, had a corset. It was ok in warm weather, but in cold weather I tried to pile on layers *underneath* the bodice so that I could still see the bodice and that just became painful and restrictive after a while.
I like to use Pinterest (even though I get teased for using it) for collecting and viewing inspirational images.
ReplyDeleteFor costuming on a budget, I find it's best to focus on your head/face. (Make-up, temporary facial tattoos, colored contacts, masks, hats or unusual hair-dos) because that's where the most attention is. I'm terrible with make-up and hair, so I like to search for tutorials on youtube. I'm envious of guys who can and are willing to alter their facial hair- a retro beard can really make a statement. (There were a lot of muttonchops and handlebar mustaches at a Western LARP I went to.)
I find big cloaks in neutral colors are a good staple to have in your costuming closet, because they cover a lot and allow you to wear very generic-looking clothing (solid colored top, solid colored pants or skirt) and still look "period".
For really quick, easy costuming from scratch, I make a chiton. All it takes is one rectangle of fabric. They work for fantasy, LARPs set in Hellenic cultures, and any sci-fi that could potentially have the "crystal spires and togas" flavor.
To make things flexible for different weather, I like to wear loose or stretchy costuming, so I can layer winter undergarments underneath. I have also created the same shirt twice, once with long sleeves, once with short, so that I still look like the same character for warmer and cooler events.
Definitely agree with borrowing and thrift store runs. I've found lots of great stuff at thrift stores, and you can alter them (glue trim, add lacing, etc.) without worrying about wasting money if the project doesn't work out.
Urge to blatant plug rising... ;)
ReplyDeleteOk, that aside, when I need a costume I ask some people I know, like Gabrielle for example, to make me an outfit based on the *effect* I want. I am useless in the making things department, but I can usually describe the impact I wish to have and then relying on much more talented people than me to make it happen. So I might be like "I want to look like a hard bitten mercenary thug" and then rely on the person to give me some choices to pick from and go from there.
When it comes to reusing stuff. I actually need to step up my distinctiveness game for Invictus, but basically I try to do outfit + facial marking = new person. I really need to add mask or hat to that equation because two elements is not enough. That's for NPCs. For PCs reusing stuff, I mostly only reuse things like pants or basic black or white shirt. The rest is purpose built and is something I consider a necessary expense of playing a new game.
OK, I suppose for starting the first event of PCing, I try to have at least one identifying piece of costuming, a vague sense of color scheme (or lack thereof), and (hopefully) a hairstyle decided on. To be fair, hairstyle is probably more important for me than for other people, but I find that how I hold my head/how I act is strongly influenced by hairstyle, so that's important to have nailed down (also important to test hairstyles before events to make sure they aren't super annoying/going to give me a headache).
ReplyDeleteBut if you have one or two identifying things to help define the character in your head (and other people's heads), you can futz with costuming and work with details until you are satisfied, so long as you can stick vaguely within that already-established guideline.
(Note, I totally didn't do this with my first character, whose identifying concept is 'dressed like a schlub with no sense of style', which works, but I wouldn't really recommend it. It took a few years to find a hairstyle which has become her signature thing. Since then I've gone 'blue, black, and functional, with my hair in a club', and 'ALL THE COLORS! with my hair braided into a crown and tied up with ribbons'.)
For NPCs... 2 or 3 identifying things. You can get more detailed than that, and I often do on account of enjoying making costuming, but experience has told me that no one will notice anything beyond the first few things that catch their attention. This is important to keep in mind before you make an elaborate costume, ask the PCs afterwards what they thought of it, and get, "The black thing?" (It's also nice to keep in mind when you have major costume malfunctions and have to make due... the PCs probably won't notice the things that are different that are driving you *insane*.) The High Inquisitor is JJ in a white robe and some sort of vestments. High Priestess Marie is JJ in some sort of blue dress with her hair down. Isabelle is JJ in a black bodice, reddish shirt, and either makeup or a half-mask, and even the switch between makeup/half-mask has caused me trouble once or twice.
I am also way more likely to wear stuff as an NPC that's far less functional than anything I'd tolerate as a PC, because generally, you don't have to tolerate it for as long. Plus, with some NPCs, you are going to put on things that are supremely uncomfortable and make you unable to see, and then you're going to go fight half of town, and you are going to suck it up because the cool factor is worth it.
So far, I've had at least 6 - 9 months to plan all my PC characters, except my very first one way back in 1989. I vaguely recall the first costume, but couldn't begin to tell you how his first costume came to be.
ReplyDeleteI always define the character first in every way, race, temperment, class, skills, history, etc and costuming is the last thing I think about because costuming can IMO be more readily made to fit the character concept.
I get a vague idea of what I want and then ask others for sources for things like what I'm trying to describe. Other LARPers are awesome at pointing you in the direction of what you need, whether it's masks, makeup, clothing, etc.
As for budgetary limitations... what are those? Nothing is too good for my characters. ;-)
NPC characters? I've been buying loose costuming pieces in dribs and drabs for so long as they struck my fancy, that with the exception of extremely specialized costume pieces (like, say, a lion's mane) I generally already have anything I need to just throw a reasonably good costume together on short notice.