Sunday, April 26, 2015

The LOTR Symphony: A Costume Extravaganza Weekend!

We interrupt your regular stream of SHB Sew-along posts with a special newsflash about the Lord of the Rings Symphony! (Actually, can it really be called a newsflash if my report is a week late? Ah well, I blame the upcoming AP exams and SHB. Always convenient for an excuse, the latter.)

I've seen the LOTR Symphony twice before, but that was 1) several years ago, 2) before I knew how to sew/make costumes, and 3) just select pieces played from the soundtrack in a standard three hour-ish long concert. When I first found out about the Symphony Silicon Valley's three concert, play-along-live-to-the-movies extravaganza, I knew right away that I had to go to all three and dress up. After all my sadness about the movies being over and done with, it was one last chance to be immersed in the world of Middle Earth with other equally enthusiastic fans. Well, the concert series took place last weekend and it was everything I ever wanted. The music itself was incredible, of course; Howard Shore's score is a masterpiece and the musicians deserve all the props for learning that much music and performing it so perfectly over the course of three very long concerts. But this is not a music reviewing blog, it's a record of my creative output, so let's recap the costumes instead!


For Saturday's FOTR concert, since the focus is on introducing hobbits, I pulled out my hobbit maiden costume again, but added a dark green apron for another layer over the skirt. It's a small thing, but I think it really helps to pull it all together. Fashion bloggers (and San Francisco tour books) are always harping on the importance of layering and apparently that applies to hobbits, too.

So excited about the series of concerts I'm about to attend! I love that the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts looks so Rivendell-y in architecture. Okay, they were probably just aiming for Art Nouveau, but then elves are very Art Nouveau

My companions (only two, alas, not eight, and I am not so fortunate in my friends as to have elves and dwarves in my company) were my sister Emily and her boyfriend; they went a decidedly more offbeat route with their costumes:

Can you tell what they are? Travis is the black hole down which Pippin (Fool of a Took!) dropped the bucket and skull in Moria, and Emily is an assortment food from the seven hobbit meals!

A hobbit and her breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. 

A shortcut to mushrooms! Also non-broken carrots, ashless-tomatoes, and some nice crispy bacon! I don't think hobbits had lobster or farfalle pasta, but then IKEA wasn't really aiming for making hobbit meal plush toys, I don't think. 

For Sunday, I decided that if I was going to do this, I would do it right, so I brought two costumes (and a breast pump and freezer bag!) with me so that I could have different outfits for TTT and ROTK. Since we were sitting by the same people, by the time ROTK rolled around, they had definitely noticed that I was crazy enthusiastic with my different outfits for each movie.

I had originally planned to make Arwen's mourning gown for TTT (I even had fabric stashed for it!), but time and SHB got the better of me and it never happened. This just means that there has to be another LOTR event in my future, right? Anyway, I settled for an easier elven look and just added the stereotypical long elven sleeves to an existing floor-length white gown. Drafting the sleeves was easy enough, and I cut them out of white rayon jersey from the stash so that it would be sufficiently flowy without needing a hem. The most difficult part was actually unpicking the old sleeves, which I originally sewed on with a stitch length setting of 1, for reasons unknown to current-day me. Totally worth it, though, because something about those sleeves reads instant elf!

Ideally this would all be silk chiffon instead of polyester and rayon stretch knits, but hey, I'm a low-budget elf. Besides, my elven princess doesn't need to destroy Middle-Earth with dry cleaning chemicals. Also I don't get unsightly wrinkles even after sitting through a three-hour concert. 
Here's what the top part of the sleeve pattern looked like. They ended up being 45" long from the top of the sleeve cap to the bottom and floated beautifully behind me when I walked. 
So swooshy and fun when I'm moving!
I got carried away with flapping my sleeves and realized I could use them the way Zhang Ziyi does in House of Flying Daggers. 

Of course, the whole elven princess look was also helped along tremendously by a lovely delicate wire circlet made by my friend Kristy (Etsy store here, should you wish to order something similar for yourself; she does custom orders). She only had a week to make it (on top of her day job) so I'd say it was pretty great for a rush job!

A close-up of the circlet. The best thing was that it stayed on by itself; no need for bobby pins!
If you thought the stand I had it on was weird, it's because it's a plush octopus (not me-made, though). Even octopi deserve to feel like pretty pretty (elven) princesses?


I loved how swooshily elegant I felt in my Galadriel-esque gown, but I must confess that I was most excited about my ROTK costume. I decided to reprise my very first costume, the Eye of Sauron, which I originally wore for the ROTK midnight showing as a college student. Has it really been that long since these movies came out?! I find it incredible that Emily is older now than I was when these movies came out. She went offbeat again, dressing as the web-bound Frodo, complete with a giant stuffed spider.

Emily made the spider and pinned the white blanket around herself and penguin-waddled up the walkway of the theater...now that's dedication!
"Looks like old Shelob has been having a bit of fun!"
Don't worry, I took the eye off before the concert started so that people behind me could see! 
Impromptu shot with other dressed up fans after the show!

The first time I dressed as the eye as an enthusiastic but clueless college student, I was surprised that people kept stopping me for pictures; that was my first experience with the fun of cosplaying and in retrospect that was what got me hooked. This time, things were no different and I could barely get two feet during intermission without being stopped. In fact, many people said it was the best LOTR costume they'd ever seen, which was gratifying, of course, but probably not entirely fair to people who spend hours upon hours making elven armor or hand-embroidering trims. After all, my costume cost less than $10; I merely used Sharpies on a balloon again and used fishing wire to suspend it between two papier-mache horns. Tape and junk mail, that's all I ever use for my costumes!

I used red, orange, gold, and black sharpies to create the flaming eye look.
Nothing says all-seeing evil like a latex sack full of my breath... 
It turns out that plush red sea creatures are just perfect for displaying costume headpieces. I used hair ties to secure the horns to a headband, meaning that I can just reuse it again as a normal headband at a later point if I wish.  
My super low-tech rig for getting the eye to look like it's floating between the horns. 
"The eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened to a pit, a window into nothing." And an adorable red lobster. 

I am so grateful for Mr. Cation being willing to be on duty for so long so that I could enjoy myself.It was hard to be away from SHB for so long but it was so worth it!

I know, I know, I should've dressed him in his hobbit costume (and moved the Duraflame log)...

23 comments:

  1. Lols at that eye of sauron and your sisters costumes. Fun.

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  2. Ohhh, that sounds like a most epic event! Loving the multi costumes- especially the epic sleeves!

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    1. It was definitely epic! It's just too bad that events on such a level of epicness (epicity?) only happen but rarely; those sleeves need more excuses to get out.

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  3. Sounds like great fun, I wonder if they travel like the Zelda concert (which was excellent, btw!), my whole family would definitely want to attend. SHB is so adorable!

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    1. As far as I know, this was a standalone event. The conductor traveled to do this concert series and the one in NYC, but the musicians are all local.

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  4. Sounds like a lot of fun! I've been to the LotR symphony twice now, but it was a little different--music from all 3 of the movies with just some stills and sketches showing behind the orchestra. The first time was a more epic undertaking, considering that 3 friends and I did a road trip from Delaware to Ohio to watch the US premiere with Howard Shore back in 2004, because we weren't sure if it would ever end up near us! But since we were living out of suitcases for a couple of days, the closest I did to a costume was a shirt I made back in college--and still have--that always looked rather Elven to me. The second time was a summer or two later at an outdoor venue in Philly, so we had a picnic with hobbity-type food. I found out recently that the same venue is doing FotR the way you saw it for this concert over the summer. But I can't go, because it's close enough to my due date that there's no way Hobbit will be ready to take the occasional bottle and stay with a babysitter by that point. There was definitely a period of mourning.

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    1. Oooh, I went to those concerts too, in both SF and AZ, but you're right, those were different. Allow me to express my deepest condolences that you won't be able to make the FotR concert! I would be mourning too!

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  5. What a fun way to see the movies again! Love your costumes! The eye is so wonderful because it's so simple yet effective. It has a bit of a magical quality because it hovers! I bet it's even better in motion because it probably bobs around a little when you wear it. You really can't beat simple creativity for being memorable - I'm not surprised people told you it was the best LotR costume they've seen. (I also love your sister's offbeat costumes!)

    ~ Brooke

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    1. You're right, the eye did bob around and "look" at people, which was great!

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  6. I laughed so hard from your comments, my co-workers asked me what was wrong! ^^ I lvoe the low budget elf and the eye of Sauron really IS one of the best (low budget) LOTR costumes I ever saw. Not everything needs a huge budget, the dedication and ideas you have more than make up for that!

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    1. Excellent, I'm glad to have made you laugh! And yes, it doesn't get more low-budget than the $3 for the pack of balloons.

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  7. All of your costumes look amazing! Wish I could have gone, it sounds like so much fun! (Also, isn't it Pippin who drops the bucket down the well, not Merry?)

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    1. Thanks for catching that mistake! I've fixed it and I now hang my head in shame at making such an error.

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  8. You guys have the cutest/most clever costumes! I especially love your Barad-dur/Eye of Sauron costume! I was considering attending the concert as well but the timing was really bad for us. Ah well, maybe next time (if there is one).

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    1. I'm sorry you missed the concerts; they were fantastic. Next time!

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  9. Your costumes are always so ingenious! I admire what you can make with very simple materials. You and your sister are my idols!

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    1. Aww thanks! I call it the inspiration of trying to be as Asian (read: cheap) as possible.

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  10. I vote for a full-family hobbit picture!!

    You look lovely

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    1. If only my husband would dress up too! But he is firmly in the I'll-just-take-pictures-for-you camp.

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  11. The elven dress is just gorgeous, you could wear that out to any event. I love the Sauron costume too, very original :)

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    1. Except that knowing me, I would manage to drag those long white sleeves through spaghetti sauce or something...

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  12. I love your adventures and how INTO them you get! The eye of Sauron is such an effective costume because it's so simple but so insanely clever!

    Also, it occurs to me that the NZSO has never done a play-along to the LOTR movies, and that is a shame...

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