One of the biggest problems you might come across in costume design is actually in your verbal communication.  That is because, for the most part, there is not a universal language to describe different pieces of clothing.  Some terms we have in common, but others are dependent on the region the item in question is from.  Maybe you are studying costume history and you have a different text book from what a coworker studied.  This has been an ongoing problem in the museum world so ICOM, the International Committee for the Museums and Collections of Costume has put out a web page that addresses this problem.  Their Vocabulary of Basic Terms for Cataloguing Costume is broken down into women's, men's, and infant's clothing and is available in three languages (French, German, and English).  Clicking on a topic will show you basic terminology as well as a simple diagram of the specific item.

I haven't been watching as many movies as I'd like to lately, especially considering how many are coming out right now that I'd really like to see.  I did get to see ARGO last night, and let me tell you, it was amazing.  It was so suspenseful, that even though I knew the ending going in, I felt like I was about to have a heart attack through half the movie.  I was even holding my breath with the characters on screen.  Every element of this movie worked seamlessly with the others, and in my opinion, it was perfect.  

I have been told that the best costume design is the one you don't notice, because it supports the story without drawing attention to itself. But if you don't notice it, how can it be the best you might ask?  In the case of ARGO, it is based on a true story, and all we have to do is see pictures of the real people and compare them to pictures from the film, (which ARGO does for us during the closing credits BTW.)  Let me tell you, my mind was blown.  If this movie doesn't get nominated for just about everything, but especially costume and makeup design, it will prove there is something wrong with the academy.

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated my blog.  Things have been kind of crazy in the land of TiKi but I will try to catch you up on the highlights.

I have been given a promotion, of sorts, at work and have been very busy there.  I can report that I have finished my hours to get into IATSE Local 705, the motion picture costumers union.  This means that once I have finished the rest of my requirements for membership, I will be qualified to work in film and television, as well as in rental houses. 

After three years living in Los Angeles, I have finally had some celebrity sightings!  Ok, most of them have been through work, so I can’t go into details, but I did end up with a lovely autographed photo of Dita Von Teese.

Despite missing far to0 many events because of a killer cold, I must say that Halloween was a blast this year.  For the first time in several years I made myself a costume.  I was a steampunk saloon girl.  I also helped teach some friends how to distress their costumes so that they could be Zombie Frank Sinatra and Zombie Marilyn Monroe.  They did such a great job they ended up featured on the FOX news here in LA.  It seems that since this summer I just can’t get away from zombies because then I had to help create a Zombie Amy Winehouse for another friend.  They all looked most excellent.

Well, that’s the highlights for the past month or so.  I’m continuing to work on my many different projects and hope to start selling things on etsy very soon.  I’m also well into my classes for collections management which I’m enjoying quite a bit.  Now that October is over, I hope to have some time to get back to updating everything more regularly.