The first few months of the year are what we call in the world of costumes “slow season”. That means all the big costume holidays have passed and nothing too big is coming up to warrant planning and creating of your next Halloween creation. Unless you’re about as obsessed as a Hannah Montana super fan, you’re not doing much with your costumes at this time of year. Well, because I’m nice and because I think it’s good for you I’m giving you another excuse.

That’s right, Mardi Gras is coming up. Don’t confuse it with Carnival. Both are intense celebrations of all things crazy and wild, but they are different. Here in the U.S. we look to New Orleans for the biggest party. So what’s pulling you in this year? Maybe we can give you reasons to celebrate…

According to reports, this year’s Mardi Gras will be as busy as any. Hotel room capacities are already at 90% in New Orleans, and they’re still going fast. This is remarkable considering the still recent tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. However, that’s not stopping tourists from planning to come out in huge numbers.

And as for us, well Mardi Gras is made for us. It’s the one time you can get into the craziest, most wild costume you can possibly conjure. The City of New Orleans makes it legal for everyone to wear a mask and take part in the festivities.

Krewes all over the city plan out big parties, galas, parades, and bashes that are epic in size and wild in nature. The city alone generates over $1 billion in revenues on the event, despite it being free to attend.

If you’re not planning on going, reconsider. Gather some mismatched costume pieces. Buy whatever you can find that takes care of your wacky costume needs. Add in some photos and you’re set to go. You’ll surely come home with enough throws to keep for next year’s celebration.

Who knows, if you clean up well enough, you could maybe throw your own Mardi Gras themed party later on in the year. We’re all about reawakening the holidays for some costume fun.

It’s time that we brought steampunk culture to MyDisguises, and made it a frequent topic.

Steampunk is “a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction” that borrows heavily from 18th century industrial age mechanics and styles. The marriage of that with fantasy settings has evolved to adapt a large fan base that is in love with the juxtaposition. Even more traditional fantasy settings in film, games, and literature have grown to adapt some of the mechanophiliac interests.

Steampunk culture is responsible for some of the most unique costume and setting design ever before seen. Although I’ve never personally seen a steampunk costume in the flesh (or the metal), it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done. The genre has showed itself into pop-culture on a number of occasions:

Steampunk Guitar (via Thunder Eagle)

Custom work like this is typical in steampunk DIY. It’s one of those kinds of DIY you just have to get right, or it doesn’t work at all. Common themes of rust, gears, and bronze metals are typical of steampunk work.

So how would steampunk work with costumes? After browsing around, I grabbed some photos and added some links to get the mental cogs turning. Maybe we can inspire a steampunk costume off for next Halloween. In the meantime, take a look here.

Links to steampunk work and images:

Steampunk Costume Update

Ocular Thingy Fixes Our Steampunk Craving For The Day

Steampunk Blog - Brass Goggles

Steampunkopedia

We hope to write more about steampunk soon, and will be looking into a costume contest for the best DIY steampunk work. I’ll keep the links here updated as I find more. Keep tuned and bookmark us for more steampunk in the future.

Time magazine has been around for ages. One of their real trademark skills is capturing culture in pictures.

A roommate of mine who is all too aware of my costume blogging appropriately tipped me off on a link over at Time. Both he and I love to read and Time is on the list. They put together a photo essay of the 10 best loved film costumes of all time. Well, that’s according to them.

Here’s a link.

What makes these costumes stand out? More than anything it’s the recognition factor. Anyone dressed in similar outfits will immediately get a staring eye of nostalgia. And as for our impressions? Well, here’s what we have to say.

Keira Knightley as Cecilia Tallis in Atonement - Too early to tell for this one, as she’s easily stacked up against some real classics that have taken years to acquire their status.

Marilyn Monroe as the Girl in The Seven Year Itch - Perfect choice, as it has inspired countless recreations of the costume by fans and impersonators. Earlier this year, this and many of Monroe’s other famous dresses went on exhibit and we were able to post about it here.

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffany’s - Truly a tribute to the modern princess, and none could wear it like Hepburn. We give our approval on this choice as well.

Olivia Newton John as Sandy Olsson in Grease - I remember thinking that this movie was from the 50’s when I was a kid. Now, I know better, but it does give a clap to the costumes from the flick. They did a great job at recreating an era and making it as charming as could be.

Check out the photo essay to get the rest of the selections…

2007 brought us upon some of the coolest sites we have seen in a long time. We thought we’d pay a quick visit back to some of the big ones and see just what’s up…

Project Rooftop

I fell in love with this site immediately, as it’s something I’ve never seen before. Comic book artist Dean Trippe put together this blog with the endeavor to re-costume some of the most well known super heroes in pop culture. In the end there are some terribly clever adaptations on classic looks that we have seen on Project Rooftop.

Rooftop likes to host contests for wardrobe redesigns and new looks. I browsed a few of them and must say they attract the most creative artists and gung-ho enthusiasts.

Most notably is the Fights, Flights, and Tights contest. This is where they trade pen and paper for fabric and mask. The annual costume contest brings in some of the more clever comic fans, so you can expect some real classy looks.

Don’t miss the contest and leave some comments. There’s sure to be a MyDisguises reader that will be submitting to the contest soon enough.

Handmade Detroit

Handmade Detroit isn’t quite all about costumes. However, they have their share of content that is great for anyone who is into the DIY thing. Whether you’re dressing up your body for Halloween, your house for the holidays, or your wardrobe with something flashy, it’s good to get tips here.

Since we were last at Handmade Detroit, we noticed plenty of posts covering the Holidays. Regrettably, I personally didn’t get the chance to implement any of the suggestions for my own personal holiday celebration. However, there’s always good content flowing in and out of the site.

My personal pick for the Handmade Detroit contribution not to be missed is the “12 Days of Crafty Projects” segment. It’s classy and looks like a lot of fun.

retroCRUSH

Ahh retroCRUSH, I love you. This site is worth more than all the Garbage Pail Kids you can muster (Actually, I bet they’d love to see your collection). It’s a respectful, light-hearted, and amazingly fun tribute to all things of the past worth remembering. I get a warm feeling every time I even peek in to see what’s going on.

retroCRUSH always has gems, and it’s hard to pinpoint their best. Personally I’d take a look a few particulars.

First is the retroCRUSH Toy Box of Glory. Here you’ll find all the cool toys you played with as a kid and couldn’t let go of. Slinkys, Stretch Armstrong, Weebles, Ouija Boards, you name it. The gallery is pretty comprehensive and there are videos and pictures to accompany everything.

I’d say that the Gallery of Retrobabes is something for the guys, but there’s just too much good nostalgia for women to not appreciate. On the costume side of things, it’s real fun to see some of these old actresses and celebrities decked out in some of their famous garb from popular films. It’s an enthusiasts hot spot.

Heck, even the web site’s layout and design is pleasantly retro.

Costume Craze

This is some sponsor love, because we really mean it. Costume Craze has had a wonderful year, and they are growing to become one of the fastest growing and reliable companies in the U.S. today. Over the past year, they really expanded their costume offerings, and have done a great job keeping our blog alive. How else would we deliver such consistent content?

Since we last checked in with Costume Craze, there’s been a lot to see. What’s most notable is the exclusive offering of custom costumes by Valerie Tabor Smith. There’s absolutely no other way to get costumes this cute for your kids.

We try not to be too preachy, but we owe it to Costume Craze for being so great and for having such a wonderful catalog. Check out the exclusive costumes you can even stock up for next year ahead of time.

Well it’s been a few great months blogging for MyDisguises. There’s a lot to talk about. So many people have come and gone, and the visits are well into the tens of thousands. Some stay for a long time, others just flash on in for a quick peek. Either way, we plan to bring you great content for a long time. Here are a few things we like to tell the new visitors to help them get the most of the blog. This is always a learning process for us, so we hope to streamline the experience.

These three tips are a great way to get more than you ever thought you could out of MyDisguises…

Subscribe to our RSS feed - I know this sounds selfish, sure we want you to read it all. But there’s more behind it. The RSS subscription capabilities will make life easier for you and let you get MyDisguises on demand. We previously did a post about RSS feeds so check it out here if you want to know more.

Leave comments to get the conversations going - Some of our readers have agreed with us, while others find the things we say contrary to their opinions. That’s okay! We encourage discussion and commentary. Once you click on any of our posts, you’ll find a place to leave your 2 cents at the bottom. Go for it, by all means. There aren’t a lot of places online where you can just stew over all things costume related, so MyDisguises is a wonderful start.

Submit news and ideas to the blog - We don’t claim to know everything but are always on the prowl for news, ideas, musings, instructions, and anything else you may have to share. I’ll be putting our email in a more prominent spot where you can contact us. If you have something you want to get out there, shoot it to our email and we’ll be sure you’re published!

Hopefully those three things will keep you up to date, in the conversation, and always informed on all things good with costumes. Let us know if you have any other great ideas.

It’s funny how most of the world who spends significant time on the Internet somehow develops this sense of humor that’s unrecognizable to the non web browsing community. Call it geeky, call it socially strange, sure whatever. But in the end, there’s just some funny stuff out there.

I’m not a person who loves cats hardly at all. I don’t hate them, just not a lover. But, this strange indescribable phenomenon that is LOLcats has somehow captivated me with enough ridiculous charm to rival Hulk Hogan’s debut into the music business (If that’s too tempting to tickle your curious bone, then check out Hulk Hogan and the Wrestling Boot Band. It’s gold, I swear).

A blogger, Google employee, and purveyor of grand knowledge of the interwebs, Matt Cutts took the LOLcat phenomenon and combined it with the spirit of homebrewed costumes this last Halloween for a costume never seen before. It’s not necessarily anything we would award with medals of high honors in construction and design. However, he does get about a billion points for being the first to ride the crest of the LOLcats wave. Bravo, Matt… I lol’ed.

Real LOLcat in the wild.

Nice Job, Matt.

The Decemberists are that kind of band that makes you think of something for a long time. They remind you of a sound you’ve heard, but you won’t put your finger on it. All the while, you conjure images in your mind subconsciously that make you piece together their feel and ambiance without cognitively coercing it. The end result could be different for people, but the process is deeper than you realize and greater than you get with any average band.

Okay, enough of my indie rock love affair blabber…

One thing the Decemberists know how to do is make a video and make it clever. Some of their stuff has a distinctly Wes Anderson feel to it. Everything in the videos is crafted to mimic their feel without being the same every time. Credit goes out to the video directors, but this band has a style they wear on them whether on video or not.

For me, in the end I keep thinking about pirates. They sound like pirate music to me. Hey, not bad.

It’s not often that crazy people put their videos on the internet..

Wait… hold on… let me start again.

Crazy people put their videos on the Internet all the time. It’s a symbol of our age. But it’s even better when someone else interviews a crazy person, then it goes on the Internet. It’s like news media wants us to just be MORE skeptical of our modern society and culture.

In the upcoming video, 16-year-old Australian kid gets busted for an epic and destructive party. You’d think he was wearing the costume to hide, but apparently its because it makes him famous. Take a look for yourself and be sure to watch until the end.

For the record, I can’t stop laughing. Guess I won’t laugh as hard when I have kids.

Time for another My Disguises suggestion…

Costume plans for the upcoming week? Month? Year? If you don’t have any ideas or plans, then a few things are occurring.  One, you aren’t reading the blog! Two, you are too busy. Then there’s always the third option, you haven’t made plans. That’s where we turn to 43 things.

Masked in the guise of another gimmicky web 2.0 idea, 43 things has a few great qualities going for it. It’s a community of people who centralize their life goals in one place, share them, and find support needed to get that extra “go for it” that we all sometimes need. So, why not make costume plans.

In detail, 43 things lets you keep track of all the goals you really want to accomplish. Once you list a goal, you can let it be publicly seen and commented on. You also are connected with other people who have similar goals. You never know who you may be able to collaborate with.

What makes it really powerful is the inherent quality of Internet anonymity and community. It’s a lot harder to have a sky high goal and tell a friend about it in person. You may get shut down. But if you’re a born and bred idealist and you think that landing among the starts is a big low for you, putting your goals out there online are a great way to feel a bit less shut down.

We’ve come across lots of people with costume goals. Some want to make it to comic con while others want to make a fan tribute costume. Still others are completing a collection or trying to find something perfect for the holidays. We’ve provided readers with a slew of ideas on how to get into the dressing up aspect of costuming, so let 43 things give you reason to execute it effectively.

Well, it’s just a suggestion but see where it takes you.

I’m kind of embarrassed that this is considered “popular” news.

A number of credible news sources reported today that Miley Cyrus, otherwise known as the youth pop icon Hannah Montana, was caught using body doubles in some shows. Why does this make the front page of CNN? Well, Cyrus moves parents to flip open their wallets for their eager tweens. So then, why can’t Cyrus just do the gig herself?

Turns out, she needs a moment to change costumes.

While the double is holding a microphone for her less than a minute, the girl motions like she is singing. However, a rep for Miley said the switch was only for costume purposes.

What makes dollars, matters. Next time I’m so popular that I don’t even have a moment to step out to change, I’ll be sure to wear something real flashy. Likely with a slew of assistants, makeup artists, and family members, Cyrus is able to pull it off almost as fast as Christian Bale could in The Prestige. Or, maybe she’s just wearing the wrong costumes.

When I first heard about the movie “27 Dresses”, I didn’t think anything about it. Maybe it’s the masculinity born inside me that shrugs off “chick-flicks” like an annoyed mother shrugging off childish nagging. But, then I noticed an article in Reuters talking about the dream chance it is for a costume designer to come up with 27 versions of one themed piece of wardrobe, and well I had to take a closer look.

Dream gig or practice in tedium it’s all the same work, right? The movie is about a woman played by Katherine Heigl who has been a bridesmaid more times than she’s likely even thought about marriage. Well, 27 times to be exact. In the ironic twist of a typical chick flick plotline, she seems to find herself confused as to when she’s going to stop going to other people’s weddings and start preparing for one of her own… to a guy she loves… who’s dating her sister. Clever? Kindof. But creating 27 bridesmaid’s dresses with their own unique personalties can truly be a feat worth mention for any costume buff.

Sure,  I’d have been more fleetfooted down the path of curiosity if the topic of interest was “27 Rock Icons” or “27 Superheroes on Speed”, but there’s something to note here. According to the article:

The final 27 dresses are Heigl’s silent but visually loud co-stars. Many of the gowns took on their own lives and names, like Heigl’s favorite, a yellow silk “Gone With the Wind” plantation-style gown, featuring orange flowers and ribbon lacing and accessorized with a straw bonnet, a white lace parasol and bright yellow heels.

It sounds like they’re more than just any old bridesmaid’s dresses. 

And like a good costume designer, Catharine Marie Thomas made multiple iterations for the set in order to choose the perfect ones. In what appears to have been a searching of the character’s soul, Thomas carefully crafted a wide array of dresses that are worth of being referred to as Heigl’s “co-stars” in the movie.

It’s talent like that that gets our attention. I’ll probably do my best to find a date for the 18th, the night the movie comes out. With any luck, I won’t blab in my date’s ear about the facts I learned on the costumes of the movie. Knowing that much about women’s dresses could be a bad thing though.

CES has begun and it’s bringing in gadget geeks from all walks of life. It’s truly an impressive show and Vegas is just the place for it.

Well, to kick things off for Microsoft, Bill Gates decided to make light of his leaving Microsoft as a daily influence there and move on to new projects. This video portrays his soul searching, as well as Gates in some roles we never thought possible.

Note Bill in a wolverine costume… not so good.