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Oct. 7th, 2011 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupagreenwolf(This entry is public; please do feel free to share the link around to others, as I would love this to get some good exposure! It's by far the most complex and involved project I've done, and I'm all proud of it 'n stuff ;)
So here's that costume I've been working on for what seems like FOREVER--
May I present to you...Lady Red Riding Hood:
So...last Halloween, although I ended up going as Catwoman, I had really wanted to do a re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood. Okay, so what feminist folklore geek with a degree in English doesn't want that? And there are plenty ofreworkings of Red's place in the story (I totally own that last shirt! It was a gift :)
But none of them would be mine. And while I found a few costumes that had fursuit-style wolf heads and tails and paws, no one had done a full-on dead critter version, with fur and leather and bone. So I decided to give myself the challenge of doing a more elaborate sustained project than I've ever done before.
See, I've done plenty of totem animal costumery with partial and whole hides--masks, tails, headdresses, etc. I've made lots of bone and antler knives with fur and leather sheaths alike. I've made jewelry, and pouches, and other random artisan crafts. But other than a few small costume sets like masks + tails, I hadn't done a full conceptual arrangement.
In addition to this raising the bar for me as an artist, I also was dealing with the constraints of A) limited resources, and B) an increasingly limited amount of time to work with. I mean, it really felt like there was some enormous Fourth-Dimension Pac-man chomping away at my time from every corner (especially impressive given that these were the corners of a tesseract). So while I love the end result, there are some things that, had I had more time to hunt down better resources, I would have changed.
Still, did I mention I'm really happy with this?
Anyway, as I was making the various components of the costume, a backstory began to weave its way together. Not surprisingly, it had elements of animism, nature deities (okay, so I went the uber-easy route and did the whole "Lord and Lady of the Wilderness" thing), wolves-aren't-evil, GRRRRLZ RULE, and a whole bunch of other cliches.
But I had FUN while I was doing it! And that's the important part :) That and I figure I can't be the only person who'd also have fun wearing it!
I'm not going to reproduce all the backstory here; there's a ton of it, and you can read what I don't post here over on my deviantArt journal.There's also a better inventory of everything included for sale over on Etsy (yes, it is for sale as a costume set).
But here's the heart of it all:
So--yes, this is a take on Little Red Riding Hood, in a retelling of the story that more matches my feeling about the mythos, and with more of my own personal cultural experience, rather than that of my various European ancestors (to include French, among others).
We've all heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the cautionary tale scaring girls--and women--into staying away from anything remotely dangerous, and teaching that we have to have men to save us from the bad things. The forest is a scary place, wolves are evil creatures, and the sexual undertones of the story illustrate a fear of female sexuality.
I say, f**k that.
This is Lady Red Riding Hood, a reimagining of the little girl grown up. Leather skirt and tight bodice aside, this is no sexy little pinup like most "grown-up" Red Riding Hood costumes, but a Huntress in her own right.
She wears a red cloak with removable hood and elk antler toggles; the leather is tougher than the hood she wore as a girl--as she has gained in strength as well. The hood is open in the back that she may let her hair hang down freely--or to drape over her mask...
...a mask made of real wolf hide, reshaped and detailed, with added teeth to emphasize ferocity. She does not fear the things she is told she must fear simply because she is a woman, but instead has learned like the wolf to be both a fearsome thing, and a well-balanced one, for wolves do not only hunt, but also play, and raise young, and drowse in the sun on long, summer days.
Her skirt, like her cloak, is adjustable to fit most women's body sizes, for there is no one right way to appear. While she is small, for now, should she gain weight as she ages the two-part wrap skirt will gently shift to accommodate her maturing body.
Around her neck she wears a necklace with the wolf at the center, flanked by bone skulls, sap red wood, and deep black beads; the wolf howls to a blood moon overhead, showing that she earned this through her efforts as a successful huntress.
On her braided leather belt she carries a small leather pouch, where she keeps her most personal items, medicines, coins, and mementos.
On the opposite hip rests a horn-bladed knife whose handle is made from a wolf jaw bone, and whose hilt is wrapped in wolf fur. It sleeps in a sheath made of leather and a wolf paw, waiting until the moment it is needed. The stag and moon pendant on the sheath represents the Lord and Lady of the Wild to whom she is dedicated.
At the small of her back hangs the tail of a wolf, symbolizing her root connection to the wilderness and to her totem animal.
In her hand she carries, not a basket, but another, larger pouch, suspended from an elk antler. This pouch is for larger items, both gifts to give and hunted game to bring home. Before the pouch hangs a small jar carrying strange, luminescent herbs found deep in the forest; their light lasts for weeks.
....and pictures! Here's the best out of a set thatsmcinpdx took today, before the rain started up again. You can see all the pictures here.
This shot was taken at one point aftersmcinpdx told me to spin around a few times so he could try and get a shot of the cloak all billowed out. Now, I get dizzy really easily, and I was doing this on a mostly empty stomach, so I had spun a few times, and my stomach was getting unhappy.
But then he said "Spin around again", just once more, and I tried, and just about fell on my ass. This shot was right after, while I was trying to get my head back on straight while simultaneously laughing my ass off AND flipping him the bird on top of it. (Yes, it was a fun shoot!)
This is the best shot of everything. Okay, you can't see everything in detail, but it's the best shot with the mask, the hood, the skirt, and some accessories.
I really loved the moodiness of this shot.
Now without the mask.
Another really good full-body shot.
....aaaand ACTION!
smcinpdx tried really hard to get this angle, so I made sure to include the shot.
I like to think it's my magical wolf-girl powers that make me glow! :D
Another day, another myth retold.
ETA: Here are photos of individual accessories:
The wolf mask.
The wolf tail and red and black leather braided belt.
The wolf jawbone knife and wolf paw sheath.
The necklace.
The belt pouch.
The lantern.
The "basket".
Again, here's where you can see more pictures.
This costume IS for sale on Etsy--you can find the listing here.
So here's that costume I've been working on for what seems like FOREVER--
May I present to you...Lady Red Riding Hood:
So...last Halloween, although I ended up going as Catwoman, I had really wanted to do a re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood. Okay, so what feminist folklore geek with a degree in English doesn't want that? And there are plenty ofreworkings of Red's place in the story (I totally own that last shirt! It was a gift :)
But none of them would be mine. And while I found a few costumes that had fursuit-style wolf heads and tails and paws, no one had done a full-on dead critter version, with fur and leather and bone. So I decided to give myself the challenge of doing a more elaborate sustained project than I've ever done before.
See, I've done plenty of totem animal costumery with partial and whole hides--masks, tails, headdresses, etc. I've made lots of bone and antler knives with fur and leather sheaths alike. I've made jewelry, and pouches, and other random artisan crafts. But other than a few small costume sets like masks + tails, I hadn't done a full conceptual arrangement.
In addition to this raising the bar for me as an artist, I also was dealing with the constraints of A) limited resources, and B) an increasingly limited amount of time to work with. I mean, it really felt like there was some enormous Fourth-Dimension Pac-man chomping away at my time from every corner (especially impressive given that these were the corners of a tesseract). So while I love the end result, there are some things that, had I had more time to hunt down better resources, I would have changed.
Still, did I mention I'm really happy with this?
Anyway, as I was making the various components of the costume, a backstory began to weave its way together. Not surprisingly, it had elements of animism, nature deities (okay, so I went the uber-easy route and did the whole "Lord and Lady of the Wilderness" thing), wolves-aren't-evil, GRRRRLZ RULE, and a whole bunch of other cliches.
But I had FUN while I was doing it! And that's the important part :) That and I figure I can't be the only person who'd also have fun wearing it!
I'm not going to reproduce all the backstory here; there's a ton of it, and you can read what I don't post here over on my deviantArt journal.There's also a better inventory of everything included for sale over on Etsy (yes, it is for sale as a costume set).
But here's the heart of it all:
So--yes, this is a take on Little Red Riding Hood, in a retelling of the story that more matches my feeling about the mythos, and with more of my own personal cultural experience, rather than that of my various European ancestors (to include French, among others).
We've all heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the cautionary tale scaring girls--and women--into staying away from anything remotely dangerous, and teaching that we have to have men to save us from the bad things. The forest is a scary place, wolves are evil creatures, and the sexual undertones of the story illustrate a fear of female sexuality.
I say, f**k that.
This is Lady Red Riding Hood, a reimagining of the little girl grown up. Leather skirt and tight bodice aside, this is no sexy little pinup like most "grown-up" Red Riding Hood costumes, but a Huntress in her own right.
She wears a red cloak with removable hood and elk antler toggles; the leather is tougher than the hood she wore as a girl--as she has gained in strength as well. The hood is open in the back that she may let her hair hang down freely--or to drape over her mask...
...a mask made of real wolf hide, reshaped and detailed, with added teeth to emphasize ferocity. She does not fear the things she is told she must fear simply because she is a woman, but instead has learned like the wolf to be both a fearsome thing, and a well-balanced one, for wolves do not only hunt, but also play, and raise young, and drowse in the sun on long, summer days.
Her skirt, like her cloak, is adjustable to fit most women's body sizes, for there is no one right way to appear. While she is small, for now, should she gain weight as she ages the two-part wrap skirt will gently shift to accommodate her maturing body.
Around her neck she wears a necklace with the wolf at the center, flanked by bone skulls, sap red wood, and deep black beads; the wolf howls to a blood moon overhead, showing that she earned this through her efforts as a successful huntress.
On her braided leather belt she carries a small leather pouch, where she keeps her most personal items, medicines, coins, and mementos.
On the opposite hip rests a horn-bladed knife whose handle is made from a wolf jaw bone, and whose hilt is wrapped in wolf fur. It sleeps in a sheath made of leather and a wolf paw, waiting until the moment it is needed. The stag and moon pendant on the sheath represents the Lord and Lady of the Wild to whom she is dedicated.
At the small of her back hangs the tail of a wolf, symbolizing her root connection to the wilderness and to her totem animal.
In her hand she carries, not a basket, but another, larger pouch, suspended from an elk antler. This pouch is for larger items, both gifts to give and hunted game to bring home. Before the pouch hangs a small jar carrying strange, luminescent herbs found deep in the forest; their light lasts for weeks.
....and pictures! Here's the best out of a set that
smcinpdx took today, before the rain started up again. You can see all the pictures here.This shot was taken at one point after
smcinpdx told me to spin around a few times so he could try and get a shot of the cloak all billowed out. Now, I get dizzy really easily, and I was doing this on a mostly empty stomach, so I had spun a few times, and my stomach was getting unhappy. But then he said "Spin around again", just once more, and I tried, and just about fell on my ass. This shot was right after, while I was trying to get my head back on straight while simultaneously laughing my ass off AND flipping him the bird on top of it. (Yes, it was a fun shoot!)
This is the best shot of everything. Okay, you can't see everything in detail, but it's the best shot with the mask, the hood, the skirt, and some accessories.
I really loved the moodiness of this shot.
Now without the mask.
Another really good full-body shot.
....aaaand ACTION!
smcinpdx tried really hard to get this angle, so I made sure to include the shot.I like to think it's my magical wolf-girl powers that make me glow! :D
Another day, another myth retold.
ETA: Here are photos of individual accessories:
The wolf mask.
The wolf tail and red and black leather braided belt.
The wolf jawbone knife and wolf paw sheath.
The necklace.
The belt pouch.
The lantern.
The "basket".Again, here's where you can see more pictures.
This costume IS for sale on Etsy--you can find the listing here.
no subject
on 2011-10-07 03:35 pm (UTC)And I really like your take on the story, though I usually thought of it as "don't be naive" rather than "you, as a woman, are automatically weak".
no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:47 pm (UTC)And thank you! I can see your interpretation as well, though the feminist in me has to pick out the details ;)
no subject
on 2011-10-07 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 09:27 pm (UTC)And just awesome with the rest of the awesome!
no subject
on 2011-10-07 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-07 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2011-10-14 06:29 pm (UTC)I'm scratching my head at why you wish to sell a costume that is so perfectly you, honestly, but hope it finds an equally deserving wearer.
Is the term mythpunk your creation? I adore the idea more than I can express and now hope the idea catches on.