Photographing Costume Porn
and other advice from The Costumer’s Manifesto,
The online guide to fixing your life and making great costumes

Sections: (Some of these are text chapters with a few illustrations, while others represent short sections of mostly photo how-to projects.  Images have been optimized for web viewing; Hi resolution images are available).

  1. Introduction
  2. The Costumer Within (Self-help inspirational career advice for costumers that has application to other social misfits, artists, etc.)
  3. 6 Sick Suit Ideas (Photos and easy how-to text on easily transforming thrift store suits into extreme wearable art projects)
  4. Idea Stealing (Advice on where to hunt for artistic inspiration)
  5. The Omnigarment (Pattern, diagrams, photos and text on making a costume garment that can be worn more than 30 ways.)
  6. The Up Side to Cancer (Advice on making even the most rotten situation work for you, based on my own cancer experience last year.)
  7. Turning Your Head Into a Cabbage (Photos and how-to text on making cheap craft felt into sculptural hats.)
  8. Reading the Play (1 page checklist)
  9. Photographing Costume Porn (Photos and how-to text on photographing costumes to their best advantage, as in “costume porn” books like Historical Fashion in Detail, or Dress in Detail from Around the World)

  10. Flex Your Head Mental Aerobics 

  11. Weird Food for Costumer Parties (photos, drawings and how-to text on edible wearable art and related sculptures)
  12. Travel for the Soul (Self-help advice on why and how artists need to travel)
    1. Costume Pilgrimage Sites:
      1. Museums (Some examples, each volume could contain a few)
        1. Musee de la Mode et du Textile (Paris)
        2. The Ethnographic Museum (St. Petersburg) 
        3. The Theatre Museum (London)
        4. How do you get to visit a study collection of costumes in a museum?
      2. Stores
        1. Lacis
        2. Barnett Lawson Trims
        3. Map of the L.A. Garment District
  13. The Mantua Project (Photos and how to text on turning Bollywood wedding wear into 18th Century European court dress)

  14. Things Nobody Tells You About Sewing Machines tips

  15. Monster claw gloves
  16. Measurements Charts, size conversion tables, tips
  17. Sample Forms for organizing costume lending, show measurements, dresser lists, etc. (Putting this in with a note allowing mass duplication of the forms would make this book a cost effective choice for every shop)
  18. Costuming Your Car or Computer (Photos and how-to text on modding your computer, or decorating your car)
  19. Junk Jewelry Lust (Photos and how-to on making oversized stage jewelry based on museum pieces using fimo)
  20. 25 Great Costume Movies You Have Never Heard of and Need to See
  21. How to Render Without Worry (Drawings and brief text on a way to make costume rendering easier and less stressful)
  22. Fairy Princess Hair (Photos and how-to on hair extensions similar to info on my web page here)
  23. Witch Wig into Samurai Lady
  24. Patterns for 
    1. Alaska Native Dress
    2. Kabuki Costumes
    3. Cutting an Indian Bedspread into an 18th Century Banyan
  25. Fun with Dick and Jane: (Photos and how to on making Penis and Vagina mascot costumes) 

    1. The Lysistrata Costume Controversy

  26. Deep Theory (Advice text with some photos on why “concept” is of vital importance to designers, and how it can make your work cheaper, better and easier)
  27. Why White is Never White, and Red Need not be Red Either
  28. Gaining Respect for your Work from Directors, Actors, Academic Colleagues, & Volunteers  Based on advice bits from these two pages: Salary/Respect & Community Theatre Hell
  29. Fortuny Style Pleating 
  30. The Importance of Being Artificial (Reprint of a published article where I explained about a very concept oriented production of The Importance of Being Earnest)

  31. Portfolios & Resumes

  32. Size Matters (Making the most of Actor Bodies by making the tall taller, the fat fatter, the busty bustier, and the small look smaller)

  33. Spray Dyeing Jesus (Photos and how to text on spray-dyeing costumes like those in Jesus Christ Superstar)
  34. Mask Making: 
    1. Plaster Bandage & Foam
    2. Foam and Airball on a Plastic Base  
    3. Carved Insulation Foam Mask
    4. Wire Sculpture
    5. Muslin Mache Mask 
  35. The Ten Commandments for Costumers (Exactly what it sounds like)
  36. 10 Quick Tricks
    1. Using oval or round doilies to make ruffled lace cuffs
    2. Mexican restaurant birthday hats into quick Cavalier hats
    3. Pajamas into Commedia clowns
    4. Placemat Hats
    5. Hot glue lace necklace
    6. Fimo shoe heels
    7. Animal/bird foot shoe
    8. Nylon stocking "naked" sleeves for the invisible bead trick
    9. Suggesting fur costumes without cooking actors
    10. Naked but not naked
  37. Costuming the Traditional Christmas Drag Show (Photos and how-to text on making quick, cheap showgirl costumes for Christmas pageants of a different kind.)