This year, we took the whole family out to a tailor in the "Wedding Street" area of town. The soon-to-be married Chinese love to take big sets of photographs in a wide variety of poses and costumes. That is worth a blog post itself, but I don't myself have any copies of Chinese wedding photos. In any case, that makes Wedding Street the place to go to get costumes.
One thing worth pointing out is that the relative costs of materials vs. labor are the inverse of what they would be in the U.S. Here, the materials are expensive, but the labor is cheap. That really came out in the pricing of these costumes. John's costume, which has lots of details, was the least expensive. Mine, which uses the most cloth by far (a floor length toga plus mantle), was the most expensive. Lee's, for which the entire dress is finely pleated, was still less than mine.
Just in case you can't figure out the costumes, here is a summary:
I am Caesar, not any Caesar in particular.
Lee is Cleopatra.
Allyne is some character from some Japanese comic book that she likes.
John is a Napoleonic British soldier.
And Emma... well, her costume: "is a dress like a woman would wear in the Civil War era, but the sort of dress for regular day-to-day wear, it's not a fancy ball dress or anything."
And that list right there tells you a whole lot about our family.
Thanks to Jen Hughes for the pictures.
you all look great---maybe a little like the lunch line at a hollywood studio--- everything from caesar to appomattox by way of france and japan---sounds like you had alot of fun--- glad you had fun--- g pa
ReplyDeleteWhat great costumes! You had described them to me, but the descriptions didn't do them justice. Don, you've come a long way from the makeshift Jawah (sp?) costume and your days as Conan. Yes, the diversity of costuming certainly reveals the unique personalities in your family. We really enjoy all your blogs. KP
ReplyDeleteYeah, it does describe me perfectly, I admit. In my defense, however, I used the simpler description of "Civil War-era dress" most of the time. I only used the complicated description if anyone asked about it further.
ReplyDeleteAnd Allyne's character is NOT Japanese. It's a representation of the country Austria, from a comic which just so happens to be by a Japanese artist.
Can I have a Chinese Halloween costume? Although I guess the 28 yards of tulle I used on my costume would have been pretty expensive over there...
ReplyDeleteThe fabric was only expensive relative to the labor, it still cost much less than in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThis are so great! I'm so glad you posted pictures.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, did you go anywhere in these? Or did you just sit in your living room and admire each other. I don't gather that Halloween is huge in China.
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you just show the tailor a picture of what you wanted and have some measurements taken? Or did you actively pick out fabric and all of that?
I'm jealous of how colorful you guys look!
We went to school in costume. Most of the American kids dressed up, some of the European kids did, and a handful of the Asian kids did as well.
ReplyDeleteWe went to an actual tailor that makes costumes for wedding photos.
And we had lots of friends over that evening.
Was the anime costume pre-made already? I believe it would be since it's popular in Asia right? Or did she have to pick out fabrics and what not? That's so cool! Thinking of all the possible cosplay's that would be considerably less...
ReplyDeleteNothing was off the rack. Everything was custom made based on photographs and drawings.
ReplyDeleteAnime may be popular, but these "costume shops" exclusively cater to the new Chinese tradition of dressing up in a variety of costumes for a suite of wedding photos. Of all the costumes you see here, John's came the closest to something we saw on the rack.