Basic costume hygiene

[bradford174]

Hi all,

I've been working on my first costume (Shepard from Mass Effect - it's a popular choice) and I've finally got to the part where I'm wearing pretty much all of it. I'm using a spandex undershirt with EVA foam armour, and while it's light and I have a relatively good range of movement, it's still like walking in plate armour.

In particular, I'm discovering that I'm sweating like crazy when I've got it on - it's occlusive and I don't generally walk around wearing synthetic fabrics. I'm a little concerned that I'm going to run into difficulties at my first Con in just under a month's time. I'm medically trained so I doubt I'm going to dehydrate or overhydrate. I'm just concerned that I'm going to sweat profusely the whole time and end up stinking. And nobody wants to whiff, least of all when you're trying to dazzle with your homemade design.

Just wondering if this is a common concern, and whether anyone's worked out a neat way to deal with it? I'm going to obviously shower before I go and heap on a lot of antipersperant and talc, but beyond that I'm not sure if there's any way to handle this particular issue?

 

[Stark Cosplay]

One way, I know to keep cool is to instead of having the spandex under armour style stuff on under neath is to cut panels into your under suit or shirt and sew in a large preferated mesh fabric. it'll breath way better and help with the sweating some. I know Darth Vader under suits have this built in, and its a way better option than a compression shirt. the only other secret I know is Gold Bond and Women's Deoderant. It works way better than the dudes stuff.

 

[clonesix]

Rather than plain spandex, which is 100% polyester, go with Underarmor wicking top and bottom. It will wick moisture away from you, and actually cools you.

Aside from that, the sweat, itself, is not the odorous part, it is the wearing unwashed tights that get odorous.spelling

 

[HIGH5orDIE]

Just a thought... What about the disinfectant spray they use for shoes at the bowling alley?

 

[ahoudini]

The old theater tradition is to spray the costume with vodka after each performance to keep it from smelling…


Um, go with the UnderArmor wicking.

 

[NavMidn]

The best option is to make sure that parts which cannot be washed can be removed from the parts of the costume which touch the skin and replace, via large snaps, straps with Velcro, nylon webbing, d-rings, buckles, etc. If this is not an option you can always try hand washing with detergent in cold wate and hang drying. Beyond that and in the vein of spraying with vodka, spraying with 90% isopropyl alcohol is very effective and a technique used to clean some particularly unwashable mascot costumes. Just buy a plastic spray bottle and fill with the alcohol. Also, EndBac spray is used for sanitizing things like mascot heads and such which cannot be cleaned by any other conventional means.

You can also hang the costume on a rack outside and spot clean with some water, detergent, and a scrub bush, and rinse with cold water from a spray hose. Simple green added in small amounts to the detergent helps a great deal with this. Additionally there is a product known as Body Odor Blockout (B.O.B.) spray which is often utilized for these applications.

 

[mdb]

Plain spandex is a misnomer: Spandex is no more than 15% of the fibre of any stretch fabric. The majority of the stuff that looks like it is for swim wear, yes it is either polyester or nylon. But dance specific fabrics can be found and I usually hoard unusual fabrics just in case. My Maria Hill fabric is a very cool double faced fabric designed for sportswear so even though it is a heavy synthetic it is designed for sweat.

And yes, I have myself got in to a lot of trouble because of bodysuits as artists tend to forget women need to pee and to do so requires a lot more removal of costume than they account for. So I wind up not drinking enough so I can avoid having to remove my gear in a public restroom.....

My Maria Hill costume though is a really wonderful piece of kit and I am so copying it for all my future "this looks like a catsuit" costumes.

Basically it is a pair of waisted fitted stretch pants. They are shaped with multiple panels so you can get a close fit in even a slightly stretch fabric and also avoid holding everything up by the waist. The tunic then comes to to upper hip height and the belt loops through the tunic at the back and pants at the front, the belt hiding the bottom of the tunic at the front, and the back looking like a small flap across the upper hip. I am going to put some extra snaps in as well. It is seriously the best designed functional women's garrment I have found that still maintains that sleek catsuit look.

For Maleficent's battle outfit I'll be doing something similar. Using the hip decorations and wrap over fabric piece to disguise the join.

 

[ahoudini]

NavMdn and mdb: thanks for the great info!

 

[charades]

You've already built the undersuit, so unless you're willing to take scissors to it again, it's what you have to work with for now. Talc/baby powder all over before you get into the suit. Antiperspirant just for this occasion. Regular use of antiperspirant is not really good for you (you should just use deodorant for everyday, which doesn't inhibit sweat glands and rather just makes your underarm sweat less stinky and more like a cologne or perfume), however I keep one stick of antiperspirant just for costumes and use it only at cons to prevent sweating. I actually even just get someone to help me run a line down my back as well, because the spine dent tends to collect sweat.

 

[Yrien]

You can also look into buying underarm shields, which are absorbent pads (usually with an adhesive back) that you can put inside your costume to absorb sweat before it gets all over the costume. Obviously they're made for your armpits, but I can't see why you couldn't use them in other strategic spots as well (e.g. along your spine, where as charades said you also tend to sweat more).

 

[fallimar]

Yrien mentioned the absorbent pads - the most absorbent kind you can get are sanitary pads. The lady kind. In all seriousness, they'll absorb a metric bollockload of liquid and still feel dry, and you can get the ultra thin ones that won't show up at all. They also deal with odour pretty well. Damn good products if you can get in on the idea.

... no, seriously. The mesh panels are good but don't always solve the sweat problem if you don't go around with your arms raised all the time. I'd still go with the pads!

As for preventing bacterial growth and lingering smell, glen 20 is a decent solution. That or the anti-germ febreeze. Smells a bit odd at first but if you spray after wearing then air it out it'll stay nice and fresh.

 

[Yrien]

Thanks for the info, fallimar. I'm familiar with the "lady kind" of pads, but have never tried the ones intended for sweat so I have no idea how well they work. Maybe I will just save my money on ordering the underarm shields and go with what I already have at home!

 

[fallimar]

They're annoyingly effective
Might be good to do a side-by-side test. One side each!

 

[Marconnez]

Try the nighttime high flow ones. Your armpits, spine and other areas will be desert dry all day long. I used these inside a furry Adventure Time Jake costume in my local convention (I live in Brazil, and it was hot as hell), and started regreting "Why I didn't stick one of those in my forehead?".

 

[bradford174]

Thanks for all the advice. Bit of a grody topic, but I guess that's the life of a cosplayer!

I'll certainly look at the antiperspirant and maybe pads. Cutting the costume isn't an option, unfortunately; I'm using sewn on velcro strips to mount the chest pieces and I don't want to jeopardise the fabric structure.

 

[charades]

Yrien mentioned the absorbent pads - the most absorbent kind you can get are sanitary pads. The lady kind. In all seriousness, they'll absorb a metric bollockload of liquid and still feel dry, and you can get the ultra thin ones that won't show up at all. They also deal with odour pretty well. Damn good products if you can get in on the idea.

... no, seriously. The mesh panels are good but don't always solve the sweat problem if you don't go around with your arms raised all the time. I'd still go with the pads!

As for preventing bacterial growth and lingering smell, glen 20 is a decent solution. That or the anti-germ febreeze. Smells a bit odd at first but if you spray after wearing then air it out it'll stay nice and fresh.

Yes! When Yrien mentioned the sweat pads, I thought about maxipads too. I have actually used panty liners on the underarms of clothes during photoshoots when we had a model with overactive sweat glands and hadn't been able to get her botox shots before the shoot. It was for a client who had to lend out the collection for us to photograph, so I had to find a way to protect the clothes and my emergency solution was to literally just take pads from my purse and stick them in the blouse. Worked like a charm.

Thanks for all the advice. Bit of a grody topic, but I guess that's the life of a cosplayer!

I'll certainly look at the antiperspirant and maybe pads. Cutting the costume isn't an option, unfortunately; I'm using sewn on velcro strips to mount the chest pieces and I don't want to jeopardise the fabric structure.

Antiperspirants can be difficult to find sometimes, depending where you live, just because of the "it's bad for you!" thing. Read all the labels.

 

[efarley]

Has anyone tried the under suit cooling vests they make for mascots? Basically a vest with a bunch of ice packs around it. I've been considering buying one but they're kinda pricy. Worth it?

 

[fallimar]

efarley - They're good but bulky. You can get thinner ones but as the bulk goes down the price goes up. You can make your own on the cheap though - use thermals for a base, sew cotton fabric pockets for cold packs on the inside that close with velcro at cooling points (lower back, back of neck, wherever else you like that wont show too badly). If you can get very thin cooling packs you can even stash them under your arms.
The problem with those is that if you're not wearing it in searing heat or if your costume isn't sealed in like a mascot suit, you'll just get freezing at those points and still sweat everywhere else. If it's a big mech suit or somesuch it might help, especially in conjunction with computer fan cooling to circulate the cool air, but for a pieced costume it won't do a lot. Will keep you from overheating but not so much reducing sweat.

 

[Zombie Hadouken]

you dont get sweat smell out of certain things.
I played goalie for years in hockey, and my leather pads were disgusting. no amount of lysol, febreeze, or even leather cleaner got the smell out, I just had to shower extra long after practice and games.
If your looking for a way to keep cool, wrap a Cooling towel around you if theres room. (my punisher war zone is really hot with the sweater and vest, so i wrap a blue cooling towel around me before i put my shirt on. works for a while, but not for hours on end.) Ive tried using ice packs in the vest also, but they did little to no good.

 

[efarley]

I was considering making my own ice pack vest, but worried about wet spots showing through the fabric. One trick I learned when working outside all day during summer is that putting an ice cube on your wrist will cool your whole body down rapidly. The principle behind that is that you put ice one an area of the body where an artery passes close to the surface such as the wrist. As blood flows over this area the blood will be cooled and then as it flows through the rest of the body it cools the areas it runs though. So rather than putting ice packs where I sweat I'd be putting them in places like wrist, neck, inner thigh, and inner bicep. Combined with putting pads in areas where I sweat to absorb it I think that might work well to both keep me cool and dry.