Worst Costume Experiences?

[indianabric]

So me and my sister are designing a creature costume trying to make it as disturbing as possible, aiming for something that's actually difficult to look at.
I've been collecting rather creepy and scary reference images for the project, to the point where I legitimately don't want to go through that folder at night.

When I told my sister about this, she was all "That's your decision to look through, but as far as I'm concerned, we're doing this tomorrow in broad-ass daylight"

 

[funkster]

My girlfriend took me to my first Con last May in London. Not having been before, I didn't dressed up. She went as Storm and then said "You're so boring, you need to get a costume next time"
I then tracked down this amazing Minion costume in South America (I''m in the UK) which I then wore to the same convention in October. My girlfriend again as Storm
I hadn't fully realised the popularity of the minion, as I couldn't move more than 10ft without being stopped for photos.

I was loving this, my girlfriend, not so much.

After about 3 hours she got so annoyed we ended up having a full blown argument, me as a 7 ft minion, her as Storm and still with people, including some kids asking for photos.
It's still a bone of contention in our relationship and me pointing out that it was all of her making doesn't help.....
This year, I was "allowed" to wear it for the morning only

It did however, create this great photo

 

[joshvanrad]

I would pay to watch a minion and storm have a heated argument in public. I think my favorite though would be one between The Hulk and Rainbow Brite.

 

[irononreverse]

That's the thing with cosplayers. A lot of them say they do it because they love the character when really they want publicity and photo opportunities.

It's pretty galling being the unpopular ones.

I'm pretty honest and cosplay for internet fame, mostly

 

[DRG]

My girlfriend took me to my first Con last May in London. Not having been before, I didn't dressed up. She went as Storm and then said "You're so boring, you need to get a costume next time"
I then tracked down this amazing Minion costume in South America (I''m in the UK) which I then wore to the same convention in October. My girlfriend again as Storm
I hadn't fully realised the popularity of the minion, as I couldn't move more than 10ft without being stopped for photos.
View attachment 350150
I was loving this, my girlfriend, not so much.

After about 3 hours she got so annoyed we ended up having a full blown argument, me as a 7 ft minion, her as Storm and still with people, including some kids asking for photos.
It's still a bone of contention in our relationship and me pointing out that it was all of her making doesn't help.....
This year, I was "allowed" to wear it for the morning only

"Don't be boring, but don't be more interesting than me, either!!!!"

 

[funkster]

"Don't be boring, but don't be more interesting than me, either!!!!"

She was like "I didn't mean get a huge foam costume!!!"

 

[Pattyk77]

Tried to make masks better only to ruin them. But I had a Predator costume that I worked on for months, spraying latex, airbrushing, foam and glues, etc. Then I put the sucker on and the waist ripped, way too tight. I didn't use a duct tape dummy. I still could've salvaged the suit but I never finished it, had one foot to go then got burnt out with it all. I recently tried to make a batman costume out of the body suit with gray plasti dip, it looked like **** so I tossed it. Gone. See ya.

 

[AnyMakeupArtist]

The worst costume experience I remember is when I wore “indian saree” at an event. Everyone was just starring at one. Terrible.

 

[joshvanrad]

Wearing a Rubies costume once.

 

[ThwipBlazez]

made a spidey noir costume for ny comic con, and I bought some amazing vintage leather boots from etsy. However I did not add insoles nor anything to soften the back of the shoe against my heel. I wore them for so long that my feet bled and black dye from the leather had soaked through my socks.

 

[Grimwood]

I do charity work for fun, but sometimes the popularity of the character can be dangerous when you can't get away. I visited a children's ward in a local hospital as Donatello to the delight of many of the sick kids there. I had a handler since my vision was subpar and I often had to be turned to face whomever I was addressing. As time went by, lack of fresh air, enclosed in heavy foam latex and restricted movement really started to affect me. I had hydrated well before the event and had planned on an hour in costume before leaving, but I was really starting to feel nausea and dizziness. I kept trying to exit gracefully, signalling my handler that I really needed to take a break, but all these poor sick kids kept coming up to me asking for photos. Who could say no to that? So I stood, swaying on my feet a bit, outwardly as stoic as a ninja turtle can be, but internally, really close to passing out. My legs were heavy as I trudged towards the elevators and was stopped three more times, patiently waiting while families of the sick kids readied their cameras, re-took photos, oh wait, can we do one more? that one didn't turn out... I escaped into the elevator.

At the end, I was drenched in sweat (under all that latex, you can imagine how hot it was), the room was spinning, I was sick to my stomach and had serious cramps in both legs. My turtle arms (rubber to the elbows) were literally full of sweat and had to be poured out.

Word to the wise. ALWAYS have an exit strategy.

 

[Takanuva]

Sweat stories are the worst. I wore my Link cosplay to a Halloween dance a few years ago, except there's two problems: My costume is made entirely from fleece, and the air conditioner didn't work. I couldn't walk or move or do anything because I was too sweaty and exhausted, and I got in trouble for removing my costume to cool down after I got sick.

 

[GoblinCityCosplay]

All of my worsts happened at Dragon Con this year. Worked on a Cinderella costume for six months prior to the convention, zipper on the outer corset split and I couldn't wear it. Worked on a Scarlet Witch costume for the better part of a year from the Civil War movie.... car got wrecked and had to drive home two days early so I couldn't wear it. The costume gods were cruel this year.

 

[mdb]

Okay... so to update this as new information has come to light!

In hindsight.. each case of me having a "health crash" at conventions was me creeping ever closer to an adrenal crisis so.... yeah winding up in an ambulance in the US (from NZ, so healthcare is very different) just thinking I had run out of energy when in fact I was probably close to being on a drip with steroids being pumped in.

Actually.. was probably a kidney stone! One that had been scanned and recorded in my medical notes and would have been a pre-existing condition! Which I didn't know about. I would not have traveled internationally had I known. I didn't make the connection at the time, though should have, but one of my medications was known to cause them. We were a bit more concerned about liver functions I think.

Recently I have had a fairly severe allergic reaction to epoxy. My epoxy allergy is long standing but this time I got exposed to uncured epoxy on some scratches so wound up having steroid cream and high doses of antihistamines every few hours to damp it down for two weeks. The scratches also got infected which made it take even longer to heal... Technically one scratch still hasn't...

I am not allowed to epoxy ever again. At all. Osteomyelitis is high risk and I'm not going to lose my hands! Also, those scratches? Turned into nodules which are spreading over my finger leaving really deep scar tissue, they may need surgery or they may be too late. I am on Rituximab as mentioned at the end so hopefully it will control them.

Anyway, so sneaky long term health implications, please be careful out there!

Stay hydrated.
Keep up electrolytes and energy too.
That goes for making and wearing- Dremel tools come with warnings for a reason.
Seriously keep safe.
Wear all the safety gear at the appropriate times.
Don't feel bad if you have to tell a parent you can't hold their child for a photo, or to ask that people don't touch your costume.
Have fun but remember future you!

 

[Angelus Lupus]

Wow, tough break on the health mdb! Also good advice on staying hydrated. I remember the advice we were given back when I did historical re-enactments (with regards fighting in armour in the hot sun): if you feel tired/woozy, get water and a snack, peanuts are good (if you're not allergic) because of the protein and salt. Of course, in a battle you always have the option of 'dying' if you need a break

 

[Alkatraz]

Mine would have to be from wearing the Halo Spartan armour I made, it was initially designed for short term use in a live action film so it looked nice but wasn't overly comfortable.
I decided to wear it on a convention parade and it was extremely painful due to the weight of the armour and some bad design choices. Added onto this was the fact that I forgot to put batteries into the helmet fans that morning so I couldn't really see much through the visor fog. And then like icing on the cake my chest undersuit armour split open a few days earlier so I had to create a makeshift replacement which also broke on the parade day.

Definitely learned some good lessons from that experience...
At least I packed some water bottles

 

[GenionRay]

Yeah, my first horrible outfit I have tried to make myself, I ended up making a Gundam outfit free style, except I was getting annoyed with the constant "If I were you..." opinions from people when I was working on it and then when it was time for Central Canada Comic-Con, I put on my outfit and trying to make it to the elevator, my outfit fell apart after spending a month from making it from cardboard and straps....

Everything, and I also didn't make it to William Shatner's autograph booth before 3 PM.

 

[SpartanBricks]

I work at an apple orchard, and at the end of the season, they held a "pickers party". It was only a couple of days after Halloween so it was obviously a costume party. I decided to make my first cosplay for this party. That being a Vault Dweller from Fallout. I finished the costume a matter of hours before the party started, and when walked out the door I felt like I could take on anything in the wasteland. Being a vault dweller I had made myself a PIP-boy too... that's were the problem was. Later in the night, my friend suggested we play dodge-ball. To this we all agreed. So the game commenced.
As you might have guess, you have to move around quite a bit in dodge-ball, which we were all doing. Oh, did I mention it was dark? My friend was running to pick up a ball, just as I slid to the left to, well, dodge. As he was straightening up he ran his face right into the PIP-boy! The PIP-boy was surprising not damaged, though we couldn't say the same for him. The PIP-boy is made entirely out of cardboard, except for the spot that he hit. Which was apoxy sculpt, that I had sanded to a sharp 90 degree angle. He had a gash in his forehead which bled for a little, and quite a bump had formed before we left.

It's not the worst thing that could have happened, but I still felt pretty bad about it. Though at the end of the night, we all laughed about it.

 

[Eel]

I tried to make a Winter Soldier arm more flexible by sewing- yes SEWING- foam pieces to a pair of tights that I cut to make sleeves. I ended up staying up until almost 3 am the day of the convention to finish the arm, only to realize at the convention that the shoulder pieces were attached completely upside down and my arm looked awful.

 

[Zinger]

For me, I spent 3 days sculpting an armor piece out of styrofoam for my plo koon wip, when I applied bondo to it the bondo melted away the foam! Now I have to rescuplt it get some smooth cast 300, then bondo it.

I just said today, "You can watch all the YouTube you want. If you don't screw it up with your own hands, you won't learn."

Been there. Done that.