Zira, Planet of the Apes

Glad to see you post this - I saw you at Wondercon when I was there as Vader. I was absolutely blown away by your costume!

I got a pic of us together, but now I can't find the thing anywhere :cry

Anyway, keep up the great work!:thumbsup
 
Was this us? I really hate looking at Wondercon photos because the hairline and hair are so off. Well, it was my first time ever, so I guess I should give myself some slack.

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What a difference a good hairline, sunken teeth, and a good wig make:

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What really helped was Bri from Apemania saying that prosaide should be dry enough for tack. Not knowing this the first time, I had trouble with the hair wanting to fall off from my face and hands at Wondercon. This was a very important lesson. And also the makeup tips from Professor Laffo were extremely helpful. Thanks, gentlemen.
 
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Was this us? I really hate looking at Wondercon photos because the hairline and hair are so off. Well, it was my first time ever, so I guess I should give myself some slack.

Yep, that's it!

Yeah give yourself some slack, it looked great. The fit around the eyes is especially nice.

I made my first (and only) Planet of the Apes prosthetics when I was in high school, back in (garble, garble) - well, let's just say around the time of the TV series. I was in love with the original films, and even read Pierre Boulle's book. I actually sat through a festival where they showed every one of the films back to back. Man, did my heiny hurt by the end of that! :rolleyes

Seriously, I loved what you did, and the improvements only make it better. Wish I saw more costumes like this.
 
Glad to see you lost the 'beard' in your later photos. If I recall correctly (from POTA magazine) 'to make her more human' they left the beard off for Zira. Kim Hunter had lighter color eyes than all the other apes, too.
Also, they purposely made the sleeve seams lower for the slumped-shoulder look, it made the actors walk more ape-like. The shoes had the 'thumb' which helped with the chimpanzee gait, as well.
As to sewing leather, get glove-weight leather and use a leather needle on your sewing machine and you should be fine, just take it slo-o-ow. Any decent sewing center should have leather sewing needles for your machine. I sew way too heavy leather and my Brother sewing machine still holds up after all these years.
You look fantastic!
 
This shows the shoulder seam much higher than what I have sewn together. If I had moved the shoulder seams up, then the arm length of the green jacket would have been shorter. Anyway, that's stuff for the next costume. Probably easier to start over from scratch instead of modifying this one.
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One of these days I'm going to have to make that Escape outfit!! Have found the perfect plum fabric for the vest and skirt, but I have not found the blouse fabric yet.

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Ashton (my four-year old) took this photo of me. I kinda like it. I was removing the appliance. Look how perfectly it fits my face. Always a shame to have to remove it. I think I need to shampoo off the hairspray of the wig and then restyle it for next time...and I think it's something I have to do after every outing. It was just hard to tame the main the way you wanted it to look since it was hard as a helmet from the last time.

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Here is his gorilla outfit that I spent 3 or 4 hours putting together on Friday night so we could see the 1968 movie in costume.
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Something you don't see everyday:
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Not to hijack, but if you took Ashton's outfit, paired it with some tabi boots or sandles and a coolie hat, he'd have a very respectable start on a 'verse outfit...

Just sayin'.
 
OMG. I am so going to make a second gorilla costume and then two gorilla deluxe pullover hoods so my boys can come ape it out with me at the next event. Going to look into either sculpting the prosthetics or just buying them from Apemania. The goal is to complete this for Wondercon 2010, which is in February. Plenty of time from now until then.
 
There's just something spectacular about the face design from those old movies that simply failed to be translated to the new movie - with the female apes.

Still looking great. :thumbsup
 
There's just something spectacular about the face design from those old movies that simply failed to be translated to the new movie - with the female apes.

Still looking great. :thumbsup

The female Burton apes were a huge mistake, they wanted to make them attractive to a human male :eek
Thade and Ari don't look like the same species!
 
I just wanted to announce that Apemania will be baking foam latex appliances to fit my two sons (10 yrs and 4 yrs). I will make deluxe pullover hoods in time for them this Halloween and sew together their outfits including bandolier and possibly a pair of fake wooden clubs. I am one excited chimpette!!
 
Here's a photo of me holding hands with my first love. Thank you Dave B. for such a wonderful surprise. I will treasure it until the end of my days.

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