Costumes Are Awesome!

One of the great perks of participating in puzzle events is that there are often opportunities for dressing up. Most recently, La Roja and I attended Guillotina's birthday hunt as Strike Force Pink, in accordance with the James Bond-like theme and assigned team color. In the photo we're delivering a Top Secret communique (actually a birthday card and puzzle for Guillotina) upon our arrival.

Prior to this event, we also had the opportunity to dress up for our roles in the Microsoft Intern Puzzleday event. Annoyingly, we didn't end up with any photos, but you can catch glimpses of us occasionally in the Puzzleday videos (see the Los Jefes links page).

Also, part of the fun of costumes is getting to go shopping at places like Display & Costume. The hard part for me at least is resisting the temptation to buy loads of cool stuff, regardless of whether or not I need it for satisfying the costuming needs at hand.

However, I'm not sure that the rest of Los Jefes always shares my particular love of costuming. Every time I start talking about how freakin' awesome it'd be if we were to show up at a Puzzlehunt kickoff in full wrestling regalia (mask, capes, boots, tights, etc.) I get more eye-rolling than enthusiastic nods. However, I understand that El Topé actually owns a mask!

When daydreaming about awesome Mexican wrestling costumes, I often find myself wondering how difficult it'd be to actually make one myself. I like the notion of having complete creative control over the design, but there's also this unfortunate fact that I have zero sewing skillz. Perhaps I'll start on a small project to see what's involved and if it's something I might enjoy.

Note that I do have some experience with the textile arts. For example, check out this cross-stitch I finished during my vacation this week. I just need to go out now and get an appropriate frame; I'm thinking ornate and gilded. Oh, and the design's from Julie Jackson's book Subversive Cross Stitch - highly recommended!