WandaVision - "Naughty" 1990s Agatha

WandaVision snuck up on me in a big way. I was glad Wanda was getting more screentime, but I hadn't seen much promo material before the show aired and I had no expectations of getting invested in it, let alone recreating any costumes from it. Then Agatha happened.

It really *was* Agatha all along!

While the show has some issues that really don't sit well with me and definitely spoiled my overall enjoyment, I immediately fell in love with Agatha and the problematic elements didn't damper that. I initially planned to do her 1950s dress from the first episode (and that's in the works), but I quickly found myself theorizing and researching *all* of her costumes (and currently planning to do them all, but we'll see how that goes). On mostly a whim, the first I ended up doing was the most gratuitous—it only has about 30 seconds of screentime, if that—but also the easiest: her 1990s purple velour "Naughty" tracksuit from the opening credits of the seventh episode.

I myself have an edgy velour rhinestoned tracksuit, so it was super relatable. And as I'm still in a costuming rut, something easy to make and comfy to wear was also appealing.

Because the costume felt so indulgent and was meant to be a laid-back project, I didn't want to invest a lot of money in it, so I got a tracksuit second hand and some cheaper (but still beautiful) clear resin rhinestones. The lettering could really be done with any uniform size, and that may be how they made hers, but with only blurry references it's hard to tell. So I got 6mm, 5mm, 4mm, and 3mm to give it some variation.

I made a digital template/stencil of the lettering from screencaps and tweaked it to account for perspective. I don't do much digital work in costuming, so it was fun to use a new tool, even for something basic. I sized it based on standard 8.5x11" printer paper and did some (awkward) mock-up tests, and it ended up being pretty perfect.

Using the template as a stencil, I lightly painted the letters onto the pants with silver Jacquard fabric paint. Referring to both the template and screencaps, I started gluing the largest 6mm rhinestones in the places that looked the most prominent, then went down in size filling in more of the letters. I mostly used the larger sizes for the bulk of the letters, and used the smaller sizes to fill in gaps between them and smooth out edges. This gave the letters a really nice shape. I used E6000 for the gluing based on tutorials by the shop I got the rhinestones from, and it worked great. A wax pencil was also very handy.

This was my first time rhinestoning (?) fabric and it was so much fun. I'm already thinking about doing a second Agatha tracksuit but experimenting by filling in the letters with just tiny 2mm or 3mm rhinestones for a more uniform look. 

There are a few wonky spots where I painted outside the lines or had to remove and reglue rhinestones and left some residue, so I might try to disguise that with some purple paint. The tracksuit I bought also fits a little odd—despite being a matching set, the pants are just this side of indecently tight but kind of perfect that way, but the jacket is a good size too big in comparison. So I may take the jacket in so it fits a little more tightly like hers. But it's completely wearable and overall I'm so, so happy with how it turned out.
 

I already have a white t-shirt to wear under it, and I'll likely improvise the shoes with some generic sneakers (I do have an old pair of Reeboks that might fit the '90s aesthetic). This would be a great opportunity to skip a wig because my hair is the perfect color, but it's also too short right now. I'm in the process of growing it out so I may wait and see if it's long enough by the time I have a reason to wear this.

I have no definite idea when or where that'll be. At the very least it needs a photoshoot. A friend of mine does a wonderful Wanda (in many different incarnations) so when I fell in love with Agatha I told her I'd be her evil counterpart, and she was so excited when she found out I was doing this costume specifically. It would also be fantastic for a lazy day at a con or for staying in costume but being comfortable during post-con evening shenanigans. I may even be bold enough to wear it in Real Life.

As silly as it is, I love this costume and I'm super glad it was my first completed costume build of the year (and of the pandemic!).

Stay tuned!

*Tagging this as "historical costume" feels so... ugh. Not just because it doesn't feel like historical costuming or look like any of the other historical sewing I do, but also because I lived through the '90s and thinking of that as "historical" in any sense is jarring. But for the sake of accuracy and tagging continuity...

San Diego Comic Con 2019

More 2019 recap.

*Sigh* I've honestly been putting this off because I didn't know where to start with it. SDCC was a full year+ ago now, and even at the time the whole thing was a whirlwind and I kind of felt in a fog all weekend. I also didn't take many photos, so there's not much to show. But it was a big event and I feel like it needs to be recapped. So I'll do my best.

I used to go to SDCC every year, which I'm keenly aware was a privilege given how hard it can be to get badges and how expensive the whole trip can be. A few years I was just lucky enough to get badges, and a few years I had a pro badge which helped secure attendance and cut costs, and my friends and I always made the trip on a budget. Back in those days SDCC was also often the only con I went to and one of the only big trips I made all year, so it was more manageable to plan for without a bunch of other stuff to fit around it.

2015 was kind of a dud, with uncomfortably big crowds, problems with event organization, and I think just a general burnout on our part. For the first time I understood my friends in the comics industry who used to go every year and then got bored or fed up with it and stopped. So after that year I stopped going to SDCC and focused on smaller, more local events like WonderCon, L.A. Comic Con, and Labyrinth Masquerade. (In a lot of ways, Labyrinth became the Big Event replacement for SDCC.) Every once in a while there was the thought that maybe it would be worth going back to SDCC at some point, just to get a taste of it again. I did miss the annual trip to San Diego and the big to do over the whole thing. But nothing really came of it.

Then last year, a friend who was going to be on a panel at SDCC invited us to go along. We were able to get badges for just that day and planned to share an Airbnb with her, both of which made the usually difficult and expensive trip suddenly very doable, even on the comparatively short notice (we had a few months to prep, but this is a trip that's usually much longer in the making). Only being at the con itself one day, we only needed one costume compared to the full four-day lineup we'd done in the past. I brought both flight suit Carol Danvers (which I ended up wearing) and Civil War Sharon Carter (which I kind of wish I'd worn) as options, and my friend brought Civil War Natasha Romanoff.

On the drive down, we ended up going right past San Juan Capistrano. I did my elementary school mission report on Capistrano (I liked the sparrows that lived there) and I'd always wanted to go, but I'd never realized it was so close to where I live now. So we took advantage of the coincidence and made an unscheduled pit stop.

Our Airbnb was in the outskirts of San Diego proper, and as a first experience doing Airbnb it was pretty fun. I did miss the convenience of staying at a hotel with a con shuttle (also just the luxury of staying at a hotel) and being closer to the action. But it was also nice being in a private house in a quiet neighborhood, going grocery shopping for whatever we wanted and just generally tootling around in the suburbs. And it was a lot cheaper than a hotel downtown or even on Hotel Row.

We went to the con on Friday, and started the morning with the West Coast Avengers photoshoot. Weirdly, for being a bigger con it was a much smaller group that gathered compared to WonderCon. Maybe just too much other stuff going on and dividing people's schedules. But I loved being part of the Carol group again, and it was fun to see some familiar faces.

We also met this amazing Civil War Sharon! I've never seen anyone do this costume in person, and it made me wish I'd worn mine.

The rest of the day we went to our friend's panel which was so much fun, and then did the exhibit hall. I'd forgotten how hectic the floor can be, and how overwhelming the crowds and just overall scale is. There's also way too much to see in one day, so we scoped out the exhibitor list and floor map to make sure we hit our favorite booths.

Saturday was devoted to tourist-y sightseeing. On our other trips we'd spend most of our time at the con and always hung around downtown, so we hadn't seen much of San Diego. So this time we spent the day in Old Town. We went ghost hunting at the Whaley House, had the absolute best drinks at Nibble Chocolate, window shopped, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere. (I also used all the walking to participate in a virtual 5k for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11!) We went back downtown to Little Italy for our traditional dinner at Filippi's.

Sunday we were back downtown again to see all the outdoor non-badge con stuff at the convention center and in Gaslamp. Some big highlights were the Apollo anniversary stuff, the "Starfleet Museum" (a gallery set up with Star Trek props as viral marketing for the new Picard series), and of course the cosplayers.

It was such a fun weekend, we seriously considered going back to SDCC this year. Until this year happened and everything was cancelled. But we're still looking ahead to next year and beyond.

WonderCon 2019

Continuing last year's catch-up...

__________ 

My friend and I went to see Captain Marvel a few weeks before WonderCon, and we were still putting together our costume lineup at that point, so when we both fell in love with the movie we decided to debut a new set of Carol costumes at the con. I absolutely had to do her flight suit, and my friend did her grunge disguise.

As per usual for me, what would and should have been a fairly straightforward costume had some hiccups. I bought a screen accurate and actual GI flight suit online, which ended up wearable but slightly smaller than I was comfortable with. I have nice wide manly shoulders, but otherwise I'm short and curvy and proportionally that just doesn't work with standardized uniforms meant for Doritos tall fit men. I ended up ordering two more in different sizes but shipping was delayed and I didn't think they would arrive in time (spoiler: they didn't) so I went to a local surplus store literally the day before the con and bought yet another and that's the E! True Hollywood Story of how I ended up with four identical flight suits. Miraculously that last one was a better size, and funnily enough was actually manufactured at the time the movie's Air Force scenes take place (late 1980s), so it was even a little extra accurate.

Tracking down a suit that fits and spending four times more than I intended was the only real hangup, and everything else went pretty smoothly. I also bought a set of patches, and otherwise used stuff I already had: my go-to blonde lacefront wig, vintage Ray-Ban aviators, and black leather paddock boots. (I skipped the black undershirt for the sake of the heat.)

I'd assembled everything else beforehand, but because I got the suit at the 11th hour I was still doing repairs on it and adding the patches the night before the con.

With some thematic background noise. Shocking no one.

The Carols went to the con on Saturday, and we did the big Marvel photoshoot put on by the West Coast Avengers of the Avengers Initiative which was a blast.

This is probably the first time we've costumed something that was still in theaters (we usually do much more elaborate costumes that end up taking months or years of research and construction, or costumes from retro movies that have already been out for years) and we definitely felt the current of interest in the movie. There were a lot of other Carols there, and we had a lot of people stop us for photos and to chat. Looking at photos afterwards I felt a little retroactively self-conscious, as the flight suit was still more fitted than I was comfortable with, but on the day I felt 100% untouchably amazing. Big Flight Suit Energy is real.

A small thing, but it was also my first time fully gluing down the hairline of a lacefront wig and wearing it with a pulled-back style, and I don't remember how it looked in person, but in photos it looks like I just have blonde hair again and I'm still so pleased with that.

Sunday we busted out Jay and Ice, which were already done from a photoshoot the previous fall (which I'll post someday) but otherwise hadn't been worn anywhere. The only changes were different jeans and an alternate plaid shirt, and I finished the spellbook to carry around as a prop.

We did the Disney photoshoot, which was a little haphazard and I don't remember much now. Not many people recognized our costumes, and the spellbook got more attention than we did—though weirdly a lot of people thought it was the Necronomicon from Evil Dead or the book from Neverending Story. Which, alright, but if you know those movies and know those props, how do you mistake them for Hocus Pocus? But the people who did recognize us or the book went absolutely wild, which is always gratifying. And the highlight of the day was running into a Dani! We hardly ever (if ever) see Hocus Pocus costumes in the wild, so finding her by chance was amazing.

Besides the costume highlights, we walked the floor, bought some cool art, ate at our favorite potato food truck, and hung out with some great friends. It was a good weekend, as usual. WonderCon is a pretty reliable winner. It's even more meaningful looking back on it now, with WonderCon 2020 having been cancelled. Looking forward to making it back next year.

Stay tuned!