On Fanlore, users with accounts can edit pages including user pages, can create pages, and more. Any information you publish on a page or an edit summary will be accessible by the public and to Fanlore personnel. Because Fanlore is a wiki, information published on Fanlore will be publicly available forever, even if edited later. Be mindful when sharing personal information, including your religious or political views, health, racial background, country of origin, sexual identity and/or personal relationships. To learn more, check out our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Select "dismiss" to agree to these terms.
Masquerade (costuming)
This article is a stub. Please help us out by adding more content. |
| Synonyms: | Fancy Dress (British/Australian term), costume parade |
| See also: | Cosplay, Morojo, hall costumes |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Masquerades, or costume parades, are costume contests or parties held at science fiction conventions. Contestants are often divided up into junior costumers (kids), novice, journeyman, and master categories, (defined by the International Costumer's Guild). More casual hall costumes are not generally entered into the Masquerade, which is a formal display of costumes. It is a somewhat older term, with the more descriptive "costume contest" being used in more recent times. Masquerades have also been known as "fancy dress contests", "costume shows", "costume balls", "costume competitions" and "costume parties".
The hobby of making elaborate costumes based on fictional characters or universes is also known as cosplay. Cosplay is an extremely popular aspect of many fandoms, especially anime and science fiction fandom. There is even an an annual convention devoted solely to costuming, Costume-Con.
History
Masquerades are almost as old as organised conventions - almost, as there were no costumes at any of the four Eastern Science Fiction Conventions or the three British Conventions which took place between 1936-1939. There were some individuals in costume at the first Worldcon (Morojo and Forrest J Ackerman), but no formal competition was held until the next year at Chicon I.
...Sunday night was the masquerade and there were too few in costume. Beside those already mentioned were Cyril Kornbluth as the Invisible Man, someone else as Johnny Bear, Widner— with a pillow in his shirt and a bottle in his hand --as Giles Habibula, and Lowndes came as a strange character. Judges Smith, Rocklynne and Tanner rendered the decisions and fine pieces of artwork were awarded the winners...[2]
At the party, the costumes were colorful but not so plentiful as had been hoped. Dave Kyle won first prize as Emperor Ming of Mong, Doc Lowndes took second prize- in a pale orange robe (but the character he represented is still a mystery to me), and Ackerman copped third with a modernized version of his last year's futuristic costume. George Tullis made a hit as Johnny Black, several fans later copping the bear head to prance about. Speer, Korshak and Reinsberg were 3 editions of Buck Rogers. Honey Smith in nurse's uniform, while Rothman was the average scientist in long white smock and mad expression. Morojo in crimson futuristic dress plus cheesecake, Pogo in flowing lavender robes more befitting a Greek princess than a girl of the future, Elmer Perdue as Jurgen, plus wild hair, Doc Smith as Northwest Smith, with a tiny compass fastened on the rear of his belt, Tanner was simply "All ben Yogi" in red turban and crystal ball -- the latter a blue balloon. Cyril Kornbluth making a visible impression as The Invisible Man, concealing bandages and all, and as for myself, a brown Chinese coolie outfit with Pong in orange written across the back.[3]
Chicon set the example, with subsequent masquerades increasing in participation and in complexity of the costumes worn. It should be noted, however, that not every Worldcon had a masquerade - Philcon, Torcon and Cincon did not schedule the contest in their programming, for example.
This article or section needs expansion. |
With the science fiction conventions providing a structural template, comics conventions and early Star Trek conventions also included costume contests. One of the first recorded comics masquerades was at the 1965 Academy Con[4]. The first British Comic Art Convention in 1968 also included a "fancy dress contest", with only seven brave contestants appearing in costume. Star Trek fans were less shy and conventions such as Star Trek Lives!
Meta
- Worldcon/1941#Costumes - reports on the masquerade held at Denvention I [1941]
- Costume Recreation by Susan Parsley [1984]
- Reminisce With Me/Costuming - More Than Just a Simplicity Pattern by Nancy Kippax [2008]
- "Discovering Worldcon: Masquerade, Costuming and Cosplay" by Vincent Docherty, Glasgow 2024 Worldcon bid website [2024]
Further Reading
- Costumer’s Quarterly Magazine [1987-2001]
References
- ^ photo is from the Forrest J Ackerman Collection, sold on eBay in 2012 after his death, photographer and photo subject unknown. Ackerman spent a lifetime amassing the world's largest personal collection of science-fiction and fantasy memorabilia and who coined the term ‘sci-fi’ in the 1950s.
- ^ Dale Tarr: Things I Saw and Heard There. Le Zombie, issue 34 pg. 6. (November 1940)
- ^ Bob Tucker: The First Chicon, pp. 9-10. Tau Ceti Reprints no. 2, May 1965. Paraphrased from his own reports in Milty's Mag, Fall 1940 issue.
- ^ 1965: The first recurring conventions - Wikipedia