Costuming at Dragon*Con 2006

Dragon*Con is a massive annual convention held in Atlanta, Georgia, on Labor Day weekend. The convention includes role-playing game events, panel discussions, musical performances, theatrical performances, celebrity guests, and plenty of costuming. I recently attended my first Dragon*Con, and though I went mainly for the musical performances, I was entranced by the costumes, particularly those designed as replicas of characters from sci-fi, fantasy, comic books, movies, TV shows, and video games.

I have limited experience working with replication of specific costumes, preferring usually to work simply with combining pre-made items into appropriate costumes. I had planned four character costumes for myself: Death and Delirium from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Kaylee from Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity, and Alice from America McGee's video game by the same name. My Death and Delirium costumes both consisted of items taken straight out of my wardrobe, and were both very easy, because each character has a range of looks to choose from. My Kaylee costume involved a bit more effort, though that consisted solely of adding a couple of patches to clothes I already owned or had picked up at the thrift store. Only my Alice costume (which I ended up not even wearing) had involved any real sewing skill, and I had intentionally made it a non-fitted dress, because my sewing skills on fitted items are notoriously lacking.

Wandering the halls of Dragon*Con, however, I saw evidence of amazing skill at costume making. This did not only cover sewing skills superior to mine - there were people in handcrafted armor and stunning makeup, to name just a couple of the things I saw. I had never been to a gaming convention where costuming was so prevalent - far more than half of the participants were in costume - nor where the costuming skill was so evident.

Dragon*Con plays host to several official costuming contests over the course of the 4 days during which it runs. On Friday evening, the Costuming track hosted their first costume contest where the focus was intended to be on the quality of work, rather than the theatrical elements of a presentation. On Saturday evening, the Dawn look-alike contest encouraged participants to try their hand at recreating the comic book character created by Joseph Michael Linsner. And on Sunday evening, the Masquerade contest allowed costumed groups and individuals to give a bit of a theatrical performance in conjunction with their costuming efforts. There is also a hall costume contest, which requires the participants only to be photographed, and then the attendees of the convention can vote on those costumes. In addition to the official costume contests, several unofficial contests have sprung up as well, which vary from year to year.

With so much other stuff to do at Dragon*Con, my boyfriend, our other roommate, and I only managed to attend one of the costume contests this year - the Dawn look-alike contest. Prior to attending, I had mentioned this contest to my boyfriend, who had encouraged me to sign up for it. I was reluctant - sure, the idea of possibly winning $1,000 (the main prize for this contest) was great, but I wasn't so sure about it, without knowing what goes on at such a contest. So when we were left with a bit of free time on Saturday night, and wanting desperately to find a place to sit down and rest our feet for a while, it seemed like fate drew us to witness this contest.

Anthony Daniels, of C3P0 fame, was the master of ceremonies for the event, which drew about 50 participants. The costumes ranged from what appeared to be simple store-bought lingerie to carefully crafted clothing and armor. Some of the look-alikes danced, some performed very brief skits, and some simply walked across the stage, posing at appropriate moments. After all of the participants had been viewed by the audience and judges, they paraded across the stage a second time, and then Daniels wandered through the audience, talking to a few audience members, while the judges deliberated. Following that, he announced the winners. Lesser prizes are given for aspects of costuming and performances, followed by three contestants being named as the top three. All of the participants received a special piece of artwork by Linsner, a nice memento of their participation.

As the contest progressed, I began wishing that I had decided to participate this year. Afterwards, I told my roommates that if we came back to Dragon*Con next year, I would do the Dawn look-alike contest. If nothing else, at least I've got the right name...