A Chatty Guide To Accessories - Level Up Your Costume For LARP & Ren Faire; Advice & What Not To Buy
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
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Need to take your fantasy or LARP costume to the next level? Accessorising is the key to unique, inspiring and original costumes time and time again - even if you’re using the same base costume pieces every time. Accessories can turn a capsule wardrobe of a few items into a versatile and adaptable wardrobe - but what accessories are there? Where do you get them? Which ones will work for you?
In this video we explore;
Footwear - boots, both the classic knee high and the alternative options (yes I wear Dr Martens under my ball gowns sue me) and shoes, including simple second hand options such as ballroom dancing shoes and wedding or bridal shoes, alternative fashion shoes (goth, steampunk, lolita fashion) and historical shoes such as American Duchess
Hosiery - socks, both ankle and crew; knee high socks, stockings and thigh-highs; tights (or pantyhose if you prefer) including the sheer/nude/real life filter options, coloured tights, patterned tights, and fishnet tights - shout out to Snag Tights who come highly recommended but also like raid your Halloween section it’s a treasure trove
Hands - gloves in several categories; modern fashion gloves (primarily leather), vintage gloves (including opera gloves, net gloves and kid leather gloves), alternative fashion gloves (lace and fishnet gloves primarily), costume gloves (including stretch lace gloves and stretch opera gloves a la Bridgerton) and gloves you make yourself (sewn but mainly knitted mitts, mittens, and other knitted gloves)
Waist - belts, primarily, in various styles - historically inspired, wide belts, decorative belts - but also belt pouches and the importance thereof, bandoliers, sashes, harnesses and corsets
Furs - real and fake fur, how to tell the difference, as collars, wraps/stoles, scarfs and tippets
Masks - halloween masks, theatrical masks, dominos, half masks and full masks, and making masks yourself
Hats - and hat-adjacent headdresses, which hats to avoid (modern hats like fedoras and Victorian hats like deerstalkers), practical sun hats, frivolous pirate or musketeer hats, witch hats, flower crowns, headbands, veils and other ridiculous objects you can place on your head (with some bonus tips on ostrich feathers)
Bags - satchels, tote bags, backpacks, sacks
Props and accessories you hold - weapons (larp safe or otherwise), light sources of varying levels of usefulness (fairy lights are as valid as camping lanterns), pets and familiars (statues, stuffed toys and puppets), miscellaneous not-larp-safe props like staffs and wands
Dead Badger Designs (for all your custom prop and larp weapon needs) - www.deadbadgerdesigns.co.uk/p...
00:00:00 - introduction
00:03:01 - shoes
00:11:08 - socks & hosiery
00:18:07 - gloves, mittens, mitts
00:28:56 - belts, sashes, harnesses, corsets
00:38:32 - fur
00:44:55 - masks
00:47:41 - hats and headdresses
00:54:35 - bags and props
01:01:45 - outro
01:03:10 - bloopers
”dyeing is chemistry and therefore not to be trusted” so true 😭😂
I'd like to add an additional use for tights, they keep you SUPER warm, so your at an event in like the winter, putting them on under other layers like pants or sock will save your butt. A tip from someone who snowboards👍
Another place to find accessories that people might not think of; Erotic shops. Many of them will have leather items, gloves, masks and interesting stockings.
I have an old fur stole from an arctic fox that I found in a second hand shop about 20 years ago, and it is both horrific and beautiful at the same time. While I rarely wear it, the few times I do it's a very clear statement of what kind of character I'm portraying because people's immediate reaction (upon realising it's real and has paws) is usually "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*** IS THAT".
If for whatever reason you don’t like leggings and want to use tights I recommend finding the tights at a dance company or dance apparel store. Dancers tights are made to last and are made to be much thicker than traditional tights that you can find in general stores. You can also get them in a variety of colors and any colors that aren’t offered in the store can be ordered by the store for you usually. Bonus part is that dancer tights are not only built to last but also are made in a surprising variety of sizes. They are a bit more expensive than just regular tights from general retailers but in my opinion are worth it if you want a tights option.
May I recommend aprons as character-ful things to also wear around your middle. One of my larp characters is a metalsmith, and so I wear a heavy canvas carpenter's apron. So many pockets!
this was an amazing overview!!! i love adding accessories to my larp kit as my character levels up and develops with our storyline.
Thanks for a perfect video to do all those little belt pouch & other kit repairs to! I love your attention to details in all of this & can't wait for the next in the series. Regarding shoes, I'd like to plug paddock boots as well -- they look nice, but are pretty sturdy! And for pets, depending how light/small they are, they can make good shoulder companions. I play a character with a "pet rat" that is a stuffed animal with snaps on the bottom that can snap on to my coat or vests. As you said, definitely a good conversation starter that's begun a lot of in-game friendships!
as someone who wears lolita but doesn't larp, I love that you keep bringing it up actually
The other place to keep an eye out for gloves are working gloves: hardware stores, army surplus places etc can have some handy stuff from time to time. I had some lovely ex-police riot gauntlets that went well with armour for a while, and some black overdyed welders gauntlets
This was fun, and I enjoyed it.
The stocking hacks are brilliant. Thank you. I recently picked up a small batch of vintage reproduction patterns for gloves. I'm almost looking forward to mocking-up and adjusting them... Small glove tip - if you look on the e-bay you can find 'glove darners' that work similarly for sock darners for a decent price. Makes those finger tips a bit less expiative inducing. In the Inuit world (where the cold will, quite literally, actively kill you) having your gloves attached to a line that runs through your sleeves is essential. Wear your kid mittens proudly...
The clear button attachable bits is brilliant. Vintage tippets are made out of the whole animal. Legs & faces included. I'm not sure why. The Grannies were a little blood-thirsty with their mid-century fashions. I found one at a charity shop a few years back. On the upside(?) - you will have conversations with people. Many of the furs are still collected by Native trappers working the historic family trap line - so I'm still divided on the use of modern fur...
You can make your own mask using plaster bandages. I build up the details with plasticine with a later of paste & water to glue down the toilet paper over-layer.
A tutorial on managing feathers sounds like a fun thing...
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
54:32 had me CRACKING UP
I am SO thankful this came out today! It is a surprisingly stressful time to teach... and I had "A DAY." So, I am very glad for the wonderful diversion. I might not make it through the whole thing tonight, but I love the detail you go into about what works really well, what might work well enough, and what people might want to avoid (and why).
Ash - mentions knitting fingerless mittens
Me - watching video and knitting fingerless mittens for larp......
Great video! excited for more larp and costuming videos as I'm starting to prep for my first larp
I've also carried things in a fake quiver: a poster tube with "tops of arrows" glued to the lid, but that can still be opened. You can attach fabric and such to the outside to alter the shape and appearance (for example, I did two poster tubes side by side with the gap covered with fabric). Obviously only helpful if you can't have or don't want real arrows :)
I love accessorising my accessories, so things like adding lace on wings to shoes or just hot gluing fancy braid to basically anything.
Love the manacles.
Thank you for this!!
If you really want your sun hat to stick out you can wire the brim. Just make a correctly sized circle and whip/bind to brim, or weave wire through the brim.
Weirdest prop I've ever made was a hanging potion from a perfume bottle and a ribbon harness I both glued and sewed together around it, but i absolutely advocate for scarves and pendants for days
Loved it! A bit surprised you don’t have a helmet...
Brilliant, so much to consider to make an outfit just right and just 'You'. As I have said before (I think) this LARP thing sounds good, not sure it is for me but wow you can really make it your own.
A note on tights (this is not a sponsor, I am not sponsored) But in the UK there is a company called "UK Tights" they have lots of ordinary well priced to expensive fancy tights. Tights tend to be my go to thing as they are so comfortable and versatile. I do also like a good belt, must find more. ("is this LARP thing for me?").
The sun hat if you take a piece of wire around the rim and or through the brim it will stay out
My favourite accessories ever were an EXTREMELY sad, damaged pair of early 20th C (?) leather gloves which I sprayed gold, added some bits of dangly chain to at intervals, and lopping the fingertips off of. They had interesting detailing involving punched holes in the leather, so the result was delightfully campy and vaguely draconic!
Also add bells to ALL costumes how dare
Overly long belt tip: loop the loose end around the back of the belt, over the top, and down through itself. Very fantasy.
The decorative belt at 32m looks like a belly dance belt
I don't larp, as such
But, have seen belts like the one with the heavy metal jeweled sections with dangly bits on "middle eastern dancers". Idk how historically accurate or realistic such performer's costumes are, but, those belts are meant as an anchor to keep dancing pants & skirts & scarves from falling off the hips, or bunching up
I bet it looks stunning as a costume piece/bandolier(?) sort of thing.
I really appreciate the level of detail that you go into here (and the timeliness, to escape certain current events dominating the media). Knitted objects seem like a great place for me personally to start - things like boot toppers/leg warmers, shawls for warmth and style, glove/gauntlet type things! I've also been making tablet-woven bands that I imagine would make good belts, straps, or cord-y things for detail(?) Also I saw this tip on another video but two belts are always good, one for holding your tunic/costume together that you don't take off, and one with your weapons and things that you could take off to a) go to the loo or b) take a break without losing character cohesion! I found a great UK source a few years ago for faux fur - offcuts in 1kg bags from Faux Fur Throws! Feels slightly better than buying rolls of the stuff.
While I don’t larp I have made weird costumes. Mostly anime for my kids but my grandson is starting to think of Halloween costumes so I need to get back into the game.
Hi Robin. What/who is Kiddo leaning towards for this year?
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
@@stevezytveld6585 Cathy last I heard he was thinking about catbug which as far as I can see is a cat with a shell on it’s back. So I’m thinking a sweatsuit would work with cat ears on the hood. The shell I’m not sure about I will definitely have to think on that.
@@robintheparttimesewer6798 A shell on a cat, eh... You can go cardboard or you can go polystyrene. Base coat of gesso to hide whatever the starting colour is and then paint in the greens and browns. Or the multiverse colour kaleidoscope, if the catbug has powers?
Hm. Is Catbug out of his imagination or from a comic...
@@stevezytveld6585 it’s from a show I think.
@@robintheparttimesewer6798 Oh, I just found him - very cute. You could even reduce it into a Ladybug cape over the sweat suit. Set of cat ears. And maybe a pair of oven mitts, because they seem to be allot of those for some reason?? You've totally got this...
Gosh I just came from historical medieval YT and the consumerism hit me like a ton of bricks.😂
How do you feel about spats or boot covers? I've been considering getting into making those to spice up my Regular Person Shoes
I have never tried, but they’re cute!
I like the White leather gloves vintage🥰 are so skinny and soft now women don' t put on leather gloves 😪😪😪