My goodness!

I have finally somewhat settled into my new abode out west and had meant to post this entry soooo much earlier but sadly have been otherwise occupied and tied up!

So this one is about my awesome excursion into downtown Vancouver for Canada Day in my bright red morph suit and Canada day hat:

My partner and I had basically just finished unloading our belongings and as we were still awaiting the moving truck with the rest of our things we decided it would be a lovely way to spend our Canada day holiday out and about and in our favorite style: Costume!

Our day was spent prancing about in our Canada day hats made of hard plastic. We live just off of Commercial Drive in Vancouver and it is a pretty “happening” area. I was approached on several occasions by curious onlookers inquring as to where I ever found myself such a patriotic and interesting hat! Sadly for them it was in Calgary at my favorite place for costume apparel The Costume Shoppe! But LUCKY for them, they have an online store called costumechik which I directed them to. Huzzah!

After our lovely afternoon in our hats we came home to prepare for our evening: donning our red morphsuits.

We had planned to meet our friends at a club in downtown Vancouver called Celebrities, a predominantly gay club usually, but host to many a DJ and event. This evening they were hosting to a DJ by the name of Pretty Lights, a pretty talented(excuse the pun) artist who samples heavily to a glorious output of fine danceable music! So fun!

We were quite the hit in our attire and had so many photos taken of us we were finding it hard to have time and space to dance! These suits are maybe not geared for everyone as they leave very little to the imagination and my partner was “grabbed” a couple of times because he has a very nice physique. Hehehehe.

I will leave you all with a couple pics that we took before he headed out on our evening so you can marvel at the awesomeness of the morphsuit! Enjoy!

 Glenbow Museum in Calgary brings another fantastic costume exhibit to Canada.

Costume worn by Heath Ledger in the movie 'Cassanova'

This isn’t the first time that the Glenbow has a featured exhibit dedicated entirely to fabulous costumes, it isn’t long ago that the Marilyn Monroe exhibit was featured at the Calgary museum.  This exhibit had a display of many of Marilyn’s iconic outfits.  But, the current exhibit takes it up a step, for sure.  The Cut, Costume and the Cinema exhibit invites museum goers to:

“Discover the glamour, luxury and artistry of cinematic fashion.  Delight in the sumptious fabrics, the lavish lace, skilled embroidery and unparalleled craftsmanship and creativity. Bask in the ambiance of big-screen cinema and the allure of famous film stars.”

What makes this exhibit so special is that it brings the viewer’s attention to the details of the costumes that are created for many historical films.  The exquisite detail that brings the costume, the character, the time period, the story to life.

For a look at more of the period costumes on display in Cut! Costumes and the Cinema, check out the Calgary Herald photo gallery.

Every year around this time comes one of my favorite costume indulging events: Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo!

calgary comic and entertainment expo 2011

This is one of my favorite events to attend and partake in, as the atmosphere is very creative and costume friendly. One has trouble walking a few feet without being asked for a photograph if you are dressed to the nines.

And at this event there is alot of time and effort put into people’s attire.

This year I opted for one of the green alien girls from the original Star Trek in honour of William Shatner’s presence at the expo. My character was one of the few alien girls that Capt. James T. Kirk  did NOT sleep with. Muhahaha!

The costume itself took me 3 hours to put together. I rented my dress from The Costume Shoppe in Calgary and bought my contacts, eye adornments and body paint from them too.

Sadly I am terrible at putting my contacts in so about half an hour of that time was spent trying to put the darned things in! But the effect with the cool “Isis” Xotic eyes that I purchased was stunning and beautiful! So easy to use and what an effect! The real time consuming part was painting the entirety of my body green. Due to the cut of the dress and all the tatters and holes in it for effect, I couldn’t leave any part of me not green so it was quite the endeavour. I used this product called DisguiseStix and it went on lovely, no greasiness or cracking and my boyfriend (whom I enlisted to help paint) figured out that instead of wetting the stick and rubbing it on my skin as the instructions say, it actually went faster and put more colour on if we wet my skin and rubbed the stick on the wet areas. Of course we figured this out when all that was left was my legs, but it’s good knowledge for next time. So, painted green, contacts and Xotic eyes in and topped off with a burgundy wig we were ready to hit the show.

I attended on Saturday afternoon, met up with my best friend and 2 brothers who waited in line for 3 1/2 hours for their photo with the “Shat Man” and if that wasn’t mad enough, they also paid $75 a pop. Too nuts.

The crowd was fun and friendly and there were so many different costumes! I love how “into” it people get!  With so many artists and booths the time just flew by.  We did manage to get several photos of some pretty cool costumes and I will share them with you. All in all I highly recommend the Comic and Entertainment Expo for anyone who loves comics, amazing art (both canvas and living) or wants another reason to become a superhero for a day!

Below are some shots that my boyfriend took at the show:

The first pair is of a young Obi Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano from Star wars

Next is myself as an Green Alien with Beast from X-Men

Next is the famous Wookie Chewbacca with a pair of Stormtroopers (which by the way one can find the Supreme Storm-Trooper and order right here in Canada!)

Beside that is a Star Trek Cadet and El Jaguar

Next is the Character Scorpion from the video game and movie both named Mortal Kombat

Beside him is the Thundercat Tygra in full battle stance!

Beside that is a very cool looking homemade Alien looking creature. Sadly I didn’t ask what they were portraying exactly but the costume was STUNNING.

Next we have a group of X-Men characters from the comics.

Below them is a Knight in shining armour. I don’t know how he managed to wear that suit all day because it looked heavy and he was pouring sweat! But he looked amazing!

Next to him was a child in a homemade R2D2 costume. So CUTE!

And lastly is the row of Batman Super villans from the comics from left to right and a random Robocop: Two Face, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, The Penguin, Robocop, Scarcrow and The Joker. All of whom were inmates of the Arkham Asylum save except the Penguin and of course Robocop.

me and Beast

star wars homemade costumes!

my boy and bro in costume

WOOKIE!!!!

Scorpion from Mortal Kombat

time and effort to make this one

Superheros!

Batman's Super Villians.... and Robocop?

Cute little R2D2!

A knight to remember

Thundercat... hoooooo!

We are so excited to announce that we have an new blog post contributor ready to add great content to the Costume Canada blog.

Please welcome, Xela (pronounced Shell-a), a costume and halloween afficiano that lives in Vancouver and is studying make-up design, both fashion and film.  Stay tuned, her first post is coming very soon.

Feel free to comment here if there is any topic you would be interested in seeing covered at Costume Canada in the coming months.

-Emmie

I had no idea that the Toronto Public Library had such an extensive collection of Stage Design materials.  The collection includes amazing drawings and background documentation of costume and set designs created by Canadian designers and for Canadian productions.  Over 4500 stage designs grace this collection and can be found in the Performing Arts Centre (5th flr).

In this collection, you will find photographs and drawings of fantastic costumes designed in Canada for Canadian theatrical productions, you will find set lists, designs and plans for theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, film and television.

For more information, head to the Toronto Public Library Canadian Costume and Set Design Collection webpage. Then make a plan to visit the collection and prepare to be mesmerized!

Do you know what a DoS attack is?  I didn’t either.  A “Denial of Service” attack is implemented by having a network of compromised computers go to one particular website and results in the server not being able to handle all of the requests.  Well, that is why, the Costume Canada blog was not on the net last week.  The server host for Costume Canada was shocked at how many computers were involved in this attack and had to take the site down, they say that an attack like this is a planned attack.  When I researched why these things happen, I discover that it is usually either politically or financially motivated.  Why Costume Canada was chosen is beyond me, it was no big deal for me because I write to write and honestly haven’t had much time lately to even do that.  I would be interested to find out if anyone else has been effected by something like this.

A huge THANK YOU to the support team at Westhost.com for incredible responsiveness and help dealing with the DDoS.

Salsa Devil

Dancing Vampira

Dancing Angel

What a beautiful way to get dressed up for a Halloween party, still feeling sexy and glamourous.  I expect that we will see ’Dancing with the Stars’ to show up as a theme for costume parties at Christmas, New Years and even throughout the year.  Pick your favourite star!  If you are thinking about this costume for Halloween, have some fun with it … add some bruises and be a clutzy dancing star.  You should be able to find these (and maybe more styles) at your local Canadian costume store.  I have seen them on CostumeChik.com but not yet on the other Canadian online stores, although, I’m sure you will be able to find them soon.

It is a fine art getting the perfect children’s costumes for Halloween and sometimes the only way is to create it yourself.  You know that the packaged costumes that you can buy have been tested for the full range of safety issues; they are fire retardant, safe from choking and strangling hazards and meet the requirements for range of movement.  These, too, are safety concerns you should consider when creating your own costume.

Tips for Costume Safety:

• Face masks should have openings at the top and bottom and around the nose and mouth. Better yet, use facepaint.
• Use Velcro or ties as fasteners so children can undo them themselves in an emergency (hopefully it is just a bathroom emergency!)
• Be sure that your child isn’t restricted in movement (should be able to shoulder check and run easily)
• Costume should be big enough to fit warm clothing underneath
• Consider adding reflective tape or using bright colours so that your child is visible to others.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

post appeared in Help! We’ve Got Kids Sept 2010 newsletter.

Phew! What a year! I can’t believe that it is September already, is it just me, or did everyone have a crazy year? Before we know it, it will be Halloween. Are you ready? Have an idea for your costume yet? I have been looking at what is out there and this Halloween is going to rock!

Share your ideas, leave a comment, whatcha gonna be?  Let’s get this party started!

Leg Avenue White Rabbit Costume

Leg Avenue may be the premier manufacturer of sexy women’s Halloween costumes, but they also offer a line of teen costumes, girls costumes and mens costumes too.  The new line for 2010 has new fairytale costumes including some from the hottest theme this year, Alice!  There are new pirate, fairy, sailor and gypsy costumes and they have added some burlesque style vampire costumes!

You can watch a video (about 10 minutes long) on YouTube that highlights Leg Avenue’s new costumes for 2010 including costumes for children, juniors and men.

Leg Avenue’s Collection for 2010

 Watch for them to arrive in your favourite Canadian costume shop or online store.  Remember to support your local businesses and Canadian retailers!