I love movies and I love to create costumes that are inspired by movies. Especially for things like Halloween and comic con. Obviously copyright is always an issue when recreating a popular costume or image but I always try to do something new or unique with it to not make it a blatant copy of the costume…..merely my interpretation of it.  I also don’t mass produce.  All of my items are created from the ground up by me by hand. I don’t outsource anything and rarely use anyone to help me sew or cut things.  So while I know that I have no right to truly be mad about my designs getting copied…………well I still am.

I created these two costumes inspired from star wars, the Galactic Lord and Trooper I called them. I used to have them for sale but then decided against doing that because of copyright issues. While they’ve been blogged about many times and had surges of popularity I have yet to ever receive anything from Lucasfilms telling me I broke copyright. I believe the costumes truly are a parody of the star wars and unique enough to not be considered a copyright break….but you still never know and I didn’t want to deal with it so I left them on my webpage as just a personal project that I did for halloween for me and my friend. (which is initially what they were for)

Well a friend showed me this link www.yandy.com and there on the second row are the two costumes that look remarkably like mine.

Now yes theyr’e not exact……but they’re close enough. That and untill I created these two costumes I didn’t really see anything else out there that was similar….especially with the Vader inspired one.

Oh well…..nothing to be done…..but I feel better now.

On an up note….I’m really excited about my halloween costumes! They’re really starting to come together. I can’t wait to get them finished and get pics up!

Also comic con and the labyrinth ball were a great time as well! So much fun! Now that I know how comic con operates I should be more prepared for next year!

So on the up note, I just bought my tickets for the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball in Hollywood along with the preshow tickets for sat and I’m so excited! The new venue looks great and I’m beyond excited about the costumes I’m making for the ball! Last year we went as Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala and it was so much fun. Although I had nowhere to place a camera so we left it in the car which I really regret now because we ended up not taking one picture. Luckily there were a few pics of us out there from other people who I was able to get ahold of though. I still need to take our own pics at home of us in the costumes to show all the detail that went into them.

On the down side….I’m having the worst luck ever with comic con. This will be our first year and while I knew that comic con is  a huge event and tickets and reservations would fill up fast I didn’t know it would be quite so unorganized. Mostly this is referring to the hotel reservation. I don’t know if anyone else is planning on going that reads this, but if you are I’m curious to know if you’ve had the same experience with the bad service regarding the hotels.

On March 18th at exactly 9am pacific time (like the website said) I began calling to make a reservation. I don’t always like doing it online because they always seem to get lost or not go through. After 20 min of not being able to get through on the phone line I finally made a reservation online just in case while I continued to try calling. (Might I add that the initial call ended up having either no hold button or all the hold buttons were full because I never got put on hold to wait my turn, the phone just kept getting cut off and I had to redial the number which sucked) At 9:20am I made the online reservation and around 9:40 I finally got through to someone who then said since I made the filled out the online reservation form that that was better and they’d get to that before my phone reservation so they’d stick to that one after assuring me that the online way of reserving was very good. The website said I’d be informed  in 3 days if there was a hotel available for me and if there wasn’t theyd contact me with info regarding other hotels. Needless to say no one contacted me so after 4 days I called and was told about the abundance of calls and thousands of reservations in the first few minutes and how they were getting to everyone and not to worry because there was still hotels they were just having a hard time processing everything.  So I made sure that my reservation form was still there which they said it was but just pending. So fine…..another few days go by and nothing so I call again and get told the same thing. This time they said I would hear by the end of the week on friday. I asked that if there were no hotels if I would get contacted by email or phone to try for the other hotels or at least informed that there were no hotels and I was told yes.  Friday came and went and the next friday came when I finally called again. This time I found out that my reservation was now nowhere to be found and every single hotel is all booked up now and there is a waiting list. A waiting list that I never got put on and had to ask them to put me on it and am now at the bottom of. I tried to ask what happened to my reservation and how it could have been there for two weeks visible and now all of a sudden it’s vanished. The woman of course had no answers and gave me to a manager who called me back 2 days later. He basically said the same thing. They don’t know what happened and there’s nothing I can do about it and proceeded to explain to me what the wait list meant, basically trying to avoid my real questions. So I then contacted comic con and explained my situation and asked if this was happening a lot or if I just fell through the cracks and if there was any way I could maybe get parking comped to me or SOMETHING for this huge messed up affair and they haven’t gotten back to me and I don’t think they will. I mean I didn’t really expect them to do anything for me as I’m just one person in tens of thousands and I’m sure they could care less if I do or do not come to comic con. But some response would have been nice at least apologizing for the mess that this hotel thing has been.

Oh and I was also supposed to get an email from the waiting list department which was about 4 days ago explaining where I am on the list and that has yet to happen as well.

So now I’m stuck with no hotel and can’t afford to wait for one to maybe open up for me while all other cheaper hotels in the whole of san diego begin to fill up. On top of having a hotel most likely about 5 miles away from the convention (as anything closer starts going into the $300 a night range which is waaayyy beyond our budget) we also have to drive our car and pay for parking at comic con as there wont be any shuttles at any hotel I find. We’re debating whether or not taking a taxi back and forth is cheaper and less stress then driving ourselves and trying to park. Unfortunately for us as well we have to volunteer on sat because the sat tickets sold out around, what was it, nov of last year? I’ve entered the costume masquerade which means I have to be there sat and that was the only way. SIGH……I really want to go to comic con but I have to say that this whole experience has been exhausting and frustrating and really taken any joy at wanting to go. I only hope that when we get there, everything makes up for it and goes smoothly. But I think not as I know the first time to an event like this is usually hectic and spent trying to find your way ect.

So sorry about the rant lol…..it just needed to be said. I’m just amazed that within the first 15 min it seems every hotel room was booked out as that is what has to have happened since my reservation place holder was only about 25 min after reservations opened.

Ending on an up note here are some pics from last years ball!!

So with a new year comes a new determination!

So this blog finds me starting it with Dr. Horrible in the background and my toy poodle Vader on my lap. This is the life of me. : ) I’d like to start off with a little info about my business and how this came to be:

I started learning to sew when I was about 18 (I’m 26 now soon to be 27) while going to school for acting. Since I practically lived at the theatre the new costume professor at the time took me aside and basically turned me into his apprentice. I learned to create costumes for period pieces needed for Shakespeare to multiple showgirl costumes for musicals like Guys and Dolls. While helping sew the costumes I was also usually in the play itself. As life went on I got a job as a dog groomer to help support my dream of becoming an actor. My fiancé and I moved to L.A. for my school and when that was finished I went back into dog grooming. While grooming I realized that it would be fun to make some side money selling costumes on etsy. As my etsy site grew I began to sell enough garments to allow me to quit grooming and turn my costumes into a small business. Now I’m working on having my Evening Arwen business be stable enough to work from home while auditioning for plays and film in L.A.

As a person, I am a huge nerd at heart. I love all things Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Joss Whedon. I play WoW and many other RPG computer games and love to have themed parties. If you notice that there is a consistent red-headed model in all my pics that is because that is me. One of the comments that was made on a blog by someone was that my company apparently never heard of professional models and should hire some as I was awful. Well, all I really have to say to that is if I could that would be great but unfortunately being a business of 1 person plus my wonderfully helpful fiancé (who takes the photos and designed my personal web page) I cannot afford a professional model who would charge me hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a photo shoot better than what I can do. (not to mention a photographer that you would probably want to hire along with the model). I will be the first to admit that I am not a model, though I do enjoy dressing up and taking pictures, but at the moment I’m always available to use and I’m free lol…..and sometimes my friends will agree to put themselves out there to critique and pose with me. Again, for free.  I take great pride that my business has accomplished so much with the hard work of a few dedicated people and I want others to know that I am an individual and not a corporate. When you message me I not only handle the replies, but also the design, the construction, the finishing and the shipping. If ever you wanted to ask me a question about a costume inspiration or what it would take to create something I welcome you to send me a message or contact me through my webpage and ask away. Half of the fun is being creative with others and helping their ideas for a costume come to life. : )

For this year I have a lot planned. I have many costumes in the works that I’m finishing so I can put them up on my website in order to have more diversity on my page of things I can create. I’m also being more organized about some of the events that I will be attending wearing some new creations for others to see in person. To name a few of these events: 

Labyrinth Masquerade Ball in Hollywood

Comic Con in San Diego

Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas (if it’s still going on this year)

Pleasure Ren Faire in Irwindale

As these events get closer and pass I will post pictures and details of what I created specifically for that event and what the reaction was ect. Also some of my costumes will be rather intense and I’d like to have a blog that lays out a bit the order of how I work and what exactly is involved to give those out there that don’t know an idea of what goes into costume making.

I think I’ll end the blog here now as I feel I’ve rambled a bit lol. (my fiancé hates that I type as I think/speak)

I know that a big part of internet business and success is keeping others interested and up to date and just getting yourself out there. I hope that as I get used to blogging my blogs will become smoother, more interesting  and easier to read.  

Thanks to everybody who stops by!

Becky

Given my recent mini-internet fame I’ve decided that I need a place to vent my feelings, my hopes, my aspirations and other stuff that may be rattling around in my head! And when I say mini-fame, I really mean micro-fame. And though micro it may be, it’s still enough to where I could be walking down the street and have someone say “Hey, you’re that pasty white bitch in the Trekkie corset”. Charming as that may be to have happen, I am starting my own blog in the hopes that should anyone like to get to know me as a person/creator/business/nerd/[...], the list goes on, you’ll come to see that I am indeed someone with feelings, dreams and sometimes random thoughts that then get turned into a costume.

I love to create and to try and make something that isn’t common. Some see my creations as sexy and awesome, some as funny and some as just plain offensive and trashy. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion and as much as I’m happy that my creations and I are worthy of discussion either way, I would like the chance to say the same things about myself too! Some of my blogs may be about my next creation and how difficult but also rewarding it was to make, some may be about comments that others have posted - if I think I should explain why something is the way it is – and some blogs could possibly turn into straight up venting about something I thought was completely out of line.

This is a bit more of a personal nature than my facebook or website but for those of you who like to get to know the person behind the company then this is your chance! To quote a line that may seem stereotypical but really is the truth, “I am a nice person!” Lol! And my biggest hope is that out of all of this you will find me to be “That pasty white nice girl in the Trekkie corset” instead.

= )