Costume Contest
Thanks to prankstergoth who was at the costume contest and stayed for the photo session after. I really appreciate it!
This is probably one of the better photos I have of the costumes at the moment. It doesn't have the flash going, so the reds look more natural. A flash catches the black threads going through the silk and makes the silk look darker.
I guess I can go into a little detail about it since we spent nearly 4 hours behind stage in complete Chaos. I'm amazed that they managed to end it at a decent hour. At one point I was even walking around in my shorts and the top half of the dress LOLOL
This was the first year for the contest. For those of you who don't attend, normally Dragoncon has the infamous "Masquerade". Unfortunately, as many come to find out, sometimes really beautiful costumes get over looked in the Masquerade because they simply can't come up with a memorable, funny or amazing skit. If you put up a fancy embroidered dress up against a great skit with the muppets.....yeah. No chance - especially if half the judges are "celebrity" and don't understand work or creativity. Not that the muppets didn't deserve to win. Holly is my friend here, but you get it! The skit is 50% of the win. Beautiful + no skit = no win.
Anyway, to the point here, they made up a separate costume contest. No skits allowed. No music. Just you, your costume and the judges. And the prizes are the same as for the Masquerade, if not a bit better. Grand prize was $75 in dealer bucks + 6 yards of high quality velvet.
But being the first year, it was a bit crazy. Spat can confirm this one!
The judges - all experienced costumers, decided they wanted to give each contestant enough time during pre-judging to explain everything. 20 minutes if necessary. While this is nice, they were also not given mention to the fact that there were different categories and half the judges didn't show up until 20 minutes into judging! The pre-organization was very minimal. Spat was even frustrated by it as he was stuck there for hours and thought this would be quick! I don't blame anyone in particular with this. Costume contests in general can be difficult to organize.
So 1.5 hours into the judging, they had done like 18 people out of 50. *facedesk* They only had 3 hours to do this!!!!! And that included the "show". Prejudging was supposed to be done in 2hrs.
We were judged 6th and when we realized it was going slow, we spent 40 minutes out in the lobby wandering around. When we came back they lead our butts up on stage and judging was STILL going on! I'm not sure how many people were in the audience. It was dark and I had minimal vision. I also get crowd blindness on stage. I forget that they are there. When we walked on stage, I do recall hearing an audible *gasp* from the audience when we came on. That is my most memorable moment. You have to understand that I've seen these costume every day for the past 4 months so after a certain point, the newness and prettiness is worn off and I am like, yeah whatever. The *gasp* kind of brought a bit more of an awareness. It reminded me of when I saw Silvano's album for the first time and I was looking at all the wicked photos he took of the Carnival!
However I am humbled and still shocked that I won Best in Show O_O I swear if you could have seen some of the wicked costumes and ideas we were up against, I have no idea how they managed to judge anyone. Each costume on it's own could have won. I'm not saying this to be falsely modest. I'd also like to thank Spat for putting in a good word with the "late" judges who came late and did not judge or see us.
On an even nicer note, I do know that they came up with a few categories because they felt the individuals did such an awesome job that they didn't want them to go without an award. Best Embroidery was one of them and believe me, if you could have seen some of the hand embroidery. I figured those people would win for sure.
Anyway we had a complete blast and I was thrilled and humbled by the whole experience.
I can't wait to see the photoshoot we did on the street!!!
((ADDS: here are a few other costumes from the contest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/varjohaltia/tags/costumecontest/ not all of them but a few))
This is probably one of the better photos I have of the costumes at the moment. It doesn't have the flash going, so the reds look more natural. A flash catches the black threads going through the silk and makes the silk look darker.
I guess I can go into a little detail about it since we spent nearly 4 hours behind stage in complete Chaos. I'm amazed that they managed to end it at a decent hour. At one point I was even walking around in my shorts and the top half of the dress LOLOL
This was the first year for the contest. For those of you who don't attend, normally Dragoncon has the infamous "Masquerade". Unfortunately, as many come to find out, sometimes really beautiful costumes get over looked in the Masquerade because they simply can't come up with a memorable, funny or amazing skit. If you put up a fancy embroidered dress up against a great skit with the muppets.....yeah. No chance - especially if half the judges are "celebrity" and don't understand work or creativity. Not that the muppets didn't deserve to win. Holly is my friend here, but you get it! The skit is 50% of the win. Beautiful + no skit = no win.
Anyway, to the point here, they made up a separate costume contest. No skits allowed. No music. Just you, your costume and the judges. And the prizes are the same as for the Masquerade, if not a bit better. Grand prize was $75 in dealer bucks + 6 yards of high quality velvet.
But being the first year, it was a bit crazy. Spat can confirm this one!
The judges - all experienced costumers, decided they wanted to give each contestant enough time during pre-judging to explain everything. 20 minutes if necessary. While this is nice, they were also not given mention to the fact that there were different categories and half the judges didn't show up until 20 minutes into judging! The pre-organization was very minimal. Spat was even frustrated by it as he was stuck there for hours and thought this would be quick! I don't blame anyone in particular with this. Costume contests in general can be difficult to organize.
So 1.5 hours into the judging, they had done like 18 people out of 50. *facedesk* They only had 3 hours to do this!!!!! And that included the "show". Prejudging was supposed to be done in 2hrs.
We were judged 6th and when we realized it was going slow, we spent 40 minutes out in the lobby wandering around. When we came back they lead our butts up on stage and judging was STILL going on! I'm not sure how many people were in the audience. It was dark and I had minimal vision. I also get crowd blindness on stage. I forget that they are there. When we walked on stage, I do recall hearing an audible *gasp* from the audience when we came on. That is my most memorable moment. You have to understand that I've seen these costume every day for the past 4 months so after a certain point, the newness and prettiness is worn off and I am like, yeah whatever. The *gasp* kind of brought a bit more of an awareness. It reminded me of when I saw Silvano's album for the first time and I was looking at all the wicked photos he took of the Carnival!
However I am humbled and still shocked that I won Best in Show O_O I swear if you could have seen some of the wicked costumes and ideas we were up against, I have no idea how they managed to judge anyone. Each costume on it's own could have won. I'm not saying this to be falsely modest. I'd also like to thank Spat for putting in a good word with the "late" judges who came late and did not judge or see us.
On an even nicer note, I do know that they came up with a few categories because they felt the individuals did such an awesome job that they didn't want them to go without an award. Best Embroidery was one of them and believe me, if you could have seen some of the hand embroidery. I figured those people would win for sure.
Anyway we had a complete blast and I was thrilled and humbled by the whole experience.
I can't wait to see the photoshoot we did on the street!!!
((ADDS: here are a few other costumes from the contest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/varjohaltia/tags/costumecontest/ not all of them but a few))