'Steamy' Fairy Tale Costume Prep & Meet-up (for DragonCon '09)

And by 'steamy' I mean steampunk, of course (well, this time I do anyway! :D ).

There's a group encouraging people who do 'cosplay' (short for costume roleplay) to try a new theme - fairy tales.

If you're not familiar with cosplay this is no dress-up thrown together in a few minutes so you can accompany your kid on the annual Halloween candy hunt. It's actually a form of performance art and these people take their costuming seriously (having a lot of fun in the process). The participant entries tend to range from well put together costumes to incredibly detailed (and mechanically enhanced) outfits that would rival any professional costumer's work.

Here's one of the organizers of this event's costume plan for The Swan MaidenI'm including the post details below so anyone interested can get involved but even if you're not, take a look at some of the ideas that are being put forth for presenting fairy tale characters. It may make you think about your favorite fairy tales a different way and perhaps prompt some creativity of your own...(you listening artists and writers?)Here are some ideas put forward to get people going (I'm quoting from this post HERE with tiny edits for readability). People get to 'claim' the character or choose one of their own. Quite a few are already spoken for (you can find the claimed list HERE):

• The Big Bad Wolf - Dresses like a gentleman, but that's offset by pointed ears, fangs, and a wicked claw device on one hand. Also, wicked mutton chops.
• Swan Maiden - A white feather robe on one side, a clockwork wing on the other.
• Little Red Riding Hood - I need a companion for my Big Bad Wolf, but other than the red cloak/cape it's free reign. In my head, she seems like she could have more of an 'early aviator' style, with flight cap and goggles, and probably oil stains on her cloak. A hatchet or raygun would probably look pretty awesome too.
• Puss in Boots - Cat ears and tail. Very noticable boots. (Sword?) -Plenty of Swashbuckley potential. Steampunk-ing the boots would make them more noticeable, especially if you limit the amount of brass on the rest of the outfit.
• The Girl Without Hands - Free design. Clockwork/mechanical silver hands.
• Aladdin - Arabian inspired outfit. Carry a lamp. (Conversely, could do a steampunk rendition on a genie.)
• The Genie- Could be awesome as some kind of robot. He'll perform any 3 tasks you wish, but then you have to use the lamp to recharge him!
• Peter Pan- Green suit and a jetpack, probably a good candidate for flight goggles and an aviator cap. Dagger/small weapon at the belt maybe?
• The Firebird -Reds yellows and oranges. Clock work wings in the same color scheme.
• 12 Dancing Princesses - bustle the skirt to ensure the "dancing shoes" are visible and find a way to make the shoes look worn and steampunked up a bit. A princess crown and carrying a branch from a "gold", "silver" or "diamond" tree would finish the set out nicely.

You can find even more ideas HERE and HERE.

Steampunking fairy tale characters is becoming more and more popular and I've noticed a few photoshoots happening around the web just this year. Below is Red Riding Hood from a shoot in April in Brooklyn:And HERE is a blog entry about it with more fun pics.

Doesn't it look like fun?

Here are the details of what's happening for the DragonCon '09 Steampunked Fairy Tales Group and where (they'll be having a meet-up and photoshoot) from the cosplay.com post (which you can read all of HERE):

Okay folks, it's time to prepare for Dragon*Con 2009, and my friend Pyro_Ike has started organizing a fun idea for a costume group. The theme is Steampunk Fairy Tales. It just seems to fit together, because they're the kind of stories that would likely still be around in a Neo-Victorian society.

Meet-Up Time & Location
Date: Sunday, September 6th (tentative)
Time: 5:00pm (tentative)
Location: Marriott Atrium Lobby Level, carpeted space next to Atrium Ballroom - across from Pulse (sailboat) Bar (May move elsewhere after gathering to get good photos.)

I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

NOTE: You can see where each of the images are from by clicking on them - you'll be taken to the owner's websites where you can find lots more fun stuff. :)