Realistic Costumes
Steven Borhand's brother Chris told us about the Chewbacca costume shown below:
- His
costume is all real human hair, every bit of it. 84 yards of human
hair. Got a fur undersuit first, combed it back, the hair stitched
under it and the fur combs over the hair to hide the seams...We made a
life mask of his face. It's got springs and hinges in it so when he
forces his jaw down, there's a piece that goes under his jaw and it
opens it up. The hair's all glued onto the mask. He's even got blue
contacts to match Peter Mayhew's eyes, because his eyes are really
green.
 Steven Borhand as Chewbacca. |
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Stacy's Aragorn costume features approximately 60 pounds of handmade chain mail. Stacy purchased wire from Home Depot and made a crank that allowed him to twist the wire into rings. He cut the rings apart manually and then made a shirt and leg armor from them. You can learn more about making chain mail at The Chain Mail Connection.
 Wade Finch as Captain Jack Sparrow. He drafted his own pattern for Jack's coat, since all the commercial patterns had the seams in the wrong place. |
Once you've researched and built your costume, you're on the home stretch. But the finishing touches are what can make your costume really stand out from the rest. Read on to see how some costumers have added details to their costumes.
Left,
Duine Jefferson and Theresa Kelley as Mrs. Brisby and Nicodemus from
"The Secret of NIMH." The masks are foam covered in fur with eyes made
from sunglass lenses. The photo on the right is of the same women --
this time as badgers from "The Wind in the Willows." 
