The Exploits of a Kamikaze Costumer

I have a terrible weakness for costumes, and have all my life. Halloween has long been my favorite holiday, and I probably became a goth at least partly out of a desire to dress up every day. I go to science fiction/fantasy/media conventions in large part to have an excuse to wear extravagant costumes without waiting until Halloween.

I am, however, not really a traditional costumer. I don't sew much more than straight seams, and the idea of constructing a garment is too daunting to contemplate. I'm far better at "concepting" a costume, taking a bunch of seemingly unrelated pieces and seeing how they can be put together to come up with something remarkable. This is quite an adventure to do and can be thrilling when it works; but it can also be disastrous when it doesn't.

Thus, I dubbed what I do "kamikaze costuming"--an all-out assault on the ideals of traditional costuming, with no guarantee of success and many chances to crash and burn.

Much of my costuming is done with "found" items: things I find at thrift stores or specialty stores, matched up cleverly with some special accessories to give the "feel" of a historical outfit; or else with basic shapes and some non-sewing, or at least non-garment-construction, handcraft. My ideas can come from anywhere, but most often start with me opening my closet and saying, "What have I got in here?" From there, I get a concept, and then visit thrift stores, hardware stores, craft emporia, Christmas shops, and anyplace else that might have something I could use to flesh out my idea. This doesn't necessarily take any less time (or expense) than "traditional" costuming; but it does provide all kinds of opportunities to think in non-traditional ways, and the thrill of (possibly) creating an amazing costume without having to sew a stitch.

This section contains a selection of some of my Halloween and con costumes over the years. To see photo(s) and a description of the costume, click on a link at the left. Some of the photos are quite large, in order to preserve as much detail as possible, and thus may take a while to load--please be patient.

The last update to the costumes on this site was in May 2001. For information on some more recent costumes, please see my costume blog. I do intend to do write-ups here of many more costumes, as well as to update the technical aspects of this site, but these tasks will take time.