The Metropolitan Museum of Art has converted the world’s largest collection of historical clothing and accessories, The Costume Institute, into a searchable database which is now available to view online.

This project begin back in 2000, and for eight years they’ve worked on formatting and digitizing their 31,000-piece collection. Amazing!

Harold Koda, the museum curator, reports, “Once we got the information together, we thought it would be ideal if the general public could log in and, for instance, find all of our Christian Diors.”

Wow, a person could spend countless hours on their website, and still not see everything. It’s so great that the museum is digitizing and preserving this information for countless generations to come.

Good news, Evil Doers! If you’re a fan of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you’ll be happy to know that the Evil League of Evil is now accepting applications!

Create your own Evil Villain and submit a video - the winners will be shown as a Bonus Feature on the upcoming Dr. Horrible DVD!

Here are the rules listed on the ELE website:

Ha! How fun is this? Better hurry though, the submission deadline is only a couple of weeks away. Some videos are already up on Youtube, and they are a lot of fun to watch.

Those are great!

For more information, head on over the ELE website. Good luck, Horrible Fans!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible’s lab coat has been found!

It seems everyone has been searching high and low for the perfect Dr. Horrible Costume. The hardest thing for people to find has been a replica of Dr. Horrible’s Lab Coat. There are all kinds of lab coats available, but nothing that looks exactly right.

Fortunately, Irongate Gallery has produced an exact replica, available for sale on their website. For around $100, you can order a custom lab coat that includes the goggles and the caduceus (logo) sewn into the front pocket. Check it out!

Irongate Gallery is a costume shop that specializes in hand-tailored reproductions and original costumes for all occasions. Very cool!

I’ve edited our original post on “How to Make a Dr. Horrible Costume” as well. That post gets a ton of hits as the world searches for the perfect Dr. Horrible costume.

It’s so great to finally be able to get an authentic Dr. Horrible lab coat. Thanks, Irongate Gallery!

Edit 11/05/08: Shadow Dale Creations now also offers an authentic Dr. Horrible lab coat for $200. Available in white or red.

My attempt at a Lolcat

Costume Craze Coupon Code: mydisguises

Interested in Free Shipping from Costume Craze? Enter coupon code mydisguises during the checkout process and receive $5.99 off! Good for free ground delivery (no matter how much you buy!) in the continental U.S. or can be applied towards any shipping method you choose.

This blog is sponsored by Costume Craze, and we are grateful for all they do. Not only do they pay all hosting and bandwidth fees for us, but they also provide tech support when we need help with a complicated widget or plugin. They are a fun and talented group of people.

We are more than happy to pass on this promotion to our readers. Halloween is just around the corner - don’t wait until the last minute to plan your costume!

You’ll see a place to add this coupon during the checkout process at CostumeCraze.com:

Thanks, Costume Craze!

Going to Comic-Con? Marvel Comics will be teaming up with costume vendor Disguise to hold the first ever Superhero Costume Fashion Show at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego.

The Fashion Show begins in the Marvel Booth (Booth #2429) Friday at 2:00 and will be followed by a photo-op with the models.

According to the press release:

This is no cosplay; these are seriously fierce costumes worn by incredible models, strutting their stuff down the catwalk, for the debut of the sexiest line of costumes ever created and inspired by Marvel super heroes.

Dressing up as a super heroine in the past would have meant spandex and tights. No more! Disguise has tossed this old and unflattering cartoonish concept and instead made fashionable, wearable and fun costumes that not only fit great but look fabulous. These costumes are inspired by some of the hottest and most iconic heroes to grace the pages of Marvel, and this will be your first chance to see them live as they make their Comic-Con debut!

 

This looks awesome! I’m pretty sad I won’t be going to Comic-Con this year.

For a special preview of the costumes, CLICK HERE.

Do you like superheroes and supervillains? Are you a fan of musicals? Then wait no longer.

Head on over to www.drhorrible.com to view Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!

It’s the story of a low-rent supervillain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.

This musical will be free to watch for one week only. After July 20th, 2008, the video will only be available for purchase on iTunes. A DVD packed full of fun extras will be released sometime in the near future.

For an additional back story of Capt. Hammer, be sure to check out his “Be Like Me!” Capt. Hammer online comic published by Dark Horse Comics.

And don’t forget to pick up your Dr. Horrible T-shirts!

So what are you waiting for? And be sure to tell your friends.

The Dragonfly costume from Superhero Movie is up for auction on Ebay.

Direct from the set, this is Mike’s screenworn Dragonfly stunt costume. This hero stunt costume includes a green and black w/ black dragonfly on front and attached mask spandex zip up the back dragonfly superhero shirt, green and black w/ hard shoes inside spandex dragonfly superhero pants and a green and black w/ velcro belt that attaches to shirt w/ black buckle. Includes the original wardrobe tag.

This movie is a silly spoof on superheroes. It was released in theaters last March, and the DVD comes out this July, 2008.

Here’s the official movie trailer, if you haven’t seen it already:

MovieWeb is giving away an official costume from A&E’s upcoming miniseries, The Andromeda Strain.

The costume is an actual Wildfire Lab costume from Daniel Dae Kim’s Dr. Tsi Chou character in the mini-series!

The outfit consists of one pair of pants, two jackets, two t-shirts and one pair of shoes.

Click Here for complete contest information. One lucky winner will be randomly selected.

The Andromeda Strain premieres on A&E for a 2-night special event on May 26-27. The DVD will be released on June 3rd.

An entire town is killed by a mysterious virus brought to earth by a returning satellite. A search through the town reveals two survivors: a baby and an old man. Why the virus spared them could provide the key for immunizing the populace. A crack team of scientists isolates themselves with the survivors in an underground laboratory, and now they only have a few days to find a cure before the world is destroyed.

For more information on this miniseries, visit the Official Website.

ThatCostumeGirl is letting people choose which costume she will wear at this year’s Dragon*Con.

So head on over there and vote for your favorite costume!
www.thatcostumegirl.com

We’ve already blogged about the celebrities and paparazzi who attended the Celebrity Gala, so now let’s take a closer look at the Superhero exhibit itself.

The Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit runs until September 1, 2008 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“Through the years, the superhero has been used to embody—through metaphor—our social and political realities. At the same time, it has been used to represent concepts reflective of sexuality and corporeality through idealized, objectified, and hyperbolic visualizations of the human body.”

The Graphic Body
The “S” emblem inscribed on Superman’s chest and cape functions as a simplified statement of his identity. Almost every superhero carries a similarly expressive bodily marking.

Read more…

The Patriotic Body
Superhero comics both reflect and respond to real-world social and political conflicts…which usually involves upholding American utopianism as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Read more…

The Virile Body
While phallic symbolism is implicit in the representation of most superheroes, it is made explicit in the case of the Hulk. With his thick neck, bulging tendons, and throbbing veins, he suggests the turgidity of male arousal.

Read more…

The Paradoxical Body
Nowhere are these biases more blatant than in the representation of female superheroes. With unabashed and unapologetic obviousness, women are portrayed as objects of male desire and fantasy with absurdly exaggerated sexual characteristics.

Read more…

The Armored Body
Like Batman, Iron Man serves as an effective metaphor for paranoia, but also as a metaphor for the quickly disappearing distance between the body and technology.

Read more…

Wow, these are some deep, psychological analyses!
Check out their website for the entire online presentation!

Buzz is everywhere for summer blockbuster movies, and since the season is just beginning the stream should be steady.

Amidst that, a second trailer for Steven Spielberg’s new installment in the Indiana Jones series has just been turned loose and is already getting people pumped. Here’s the high quality version from the site.

So it’s not surprise that everyone is uncaging their retrolust for this movie. However, we have seen some IP rehashes that were less than what was expected. Indiana Jones movies have always been the perfect mix of fun, humor, action, adventure, and cheesy romance. We’ll see this time around if Spielberg still has it. As for me, I’m not getting psyched and overshooting my expectations.

How do you think this one will turn out. Leave some thoughts in the comments section.

Oh man, oh man, oh man! The Maker Faire is upon us very soon and we have every reason to latch on like a fly to his favorite flourescent. Infos have been peeping out the Interpipes for at least a few days now and we’re getting a better grasp of what to expect. In fact, a schedule has been whipped up courtesy the Maker site that will tickle your geek fancy:

[via Makerfaire.com]

Boiler Bar Stage
Jon Sarriugarte’s Boiler Bar Theater Presents
Craft Demos
• Soft Circuit Embroidery • How to Make Your Own Shoes…the Easy Way! • Make Your Own Free Range Mini-Monsters • Finger Puppets Who Wish To Not Die • Making Jewelry • Felt Faux Fruit • Create Ribbon Straw Flowers on Vintage Flower Looms • The DIY Bride: Quick & Easy Wedding Projects for Any Budget • Fashioning Technology: DIY Style • Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone • Guerilla Pattern Drafting • Create Your Own Photo Flip Book • Photojojo DIY Photo Blocks
Festival Stage
• EepyBird
Lion Brand Booth
• Lion Brand Yarn Unique Activities

Click through to see more!

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