TinaFromNY - re:costumes

Ever since you posted about designing mass-market costumes and the interesting ways the companies evade trademark issues, I have been enjoying looking at costume names...

Had a blast in Spirit Halloween - every thing from "Capital Girl Wig" (for Effie Trinket/Hunger Games/Capitol Characters) to "Crazy Cook Wig" (Guy Fieri) - What a blast and funny to boot. "Strawberry Girl" (Strawberry Shortcake), "Sexy Wizard Girl" (Hermione Granger, Hogwarts uniform - but, no uniform Hermione would EVER wear) - we were wandering the whole store reading them aloud.

So, when you design them, do you do everything? Choose fabrics and fastenings and the rest? Or do you do the concept art and they make the decisions regarding how they are put together?

~Doe

LOL, Doe...I just saw this post!!! You're right, some of the names are ingenious, they almost SAY what it is without saying it!
Yes, I do everything for the costume. I think them up, then I draw and color them (india ink technical pens with guache like watercolors called "Hydrus". Then I have to write "specs" for China - I write every type of fabric and trim I want used and point to the area. If there's a special sewing technique I write that in too. They have to follow what I write in China, but sometimes they change it to a cheaper fabric depending on the price point the client wants it in. But usually they tell me the price point ahead of time and I have enough experience to know what I can use. I don't have to attach fabric/trim samples, China knows what I want by the name I give the fabrics and trims etc. and they match it best they can. If you want to see both my drawings and finished costumes on the models or from the catalog pages, click or paste the link below.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QZsmThu3bKK2o

Wow! You're so talented!

Tina that is so incredible!

Thanks Lizzie & Lynne! I LOVE the business and what I do, but hate the attitudes in the industry, thats why I'm trying to switch my business to face painting!

Tina, you are incredibly talented....I have purchased costumes that may be yours! lol I love the whole baby line you have going (especially the bat girl)...they are so stinkin cute!!

Thanks Tina! You may very weol have purchased my costumes for your kids! I have tons more than is on this link and they're in Walmart, Target, Party City, Spencers, all the online costume stores and all the "pop up" seasonal halloween stores. Yes, the baby ones are some of my favorites too! Did them just last year and they're selling very well, we are expanding the baby line. Plus the quality is not costume, it's baby clothing quality. My most fun one is the KISS baby license I did (see pic below). Gene Simmons OK'd it, then he loved my drawings so much he asked my big client for the ORIGINALS for his "private memorabilia collection". They sent me back the originals to sign! A week later I got an envelope from Gene Simmons and he sent me a pic of him in his original costume and signed it "TINA, You ROCK!!!!". I framed it and put it on my office wall, lol

THAT is cool!!!

*speechless* So mega cool!

Congrats on all your success!!

wow, thats amazing Tina!!!! What a cool job!

Ohmygoodness! Those are amazing! I love all the fairys and winged costumes! The little ones look so adorable in your costume!

A special thank you for designing such beautiful creative costumes (and not doing the racial stereotype costumes one of my pet peeves at Halloween http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/10/25/were-a-culture-not-a-costume-students-launch-poster-campaign-against-racist-halloween-costumes/ )

I especially love the "rubies" booties!!!

Thanks for the nice kudos everyone!!! :-)
To Leilani - Toddler designs are my favorite, thanks for the complements, I LOVE doing fairies, etc. And NO!!! I would NEVER do racial costumes, lol! Wish I could have seen that link you posted, to that article, but it came up as an error.
Two years ago, there was an article on MSN, around Halloween time, about costumes that were "too sexy and slutty" for teens. Above the article was a long picture of different costumes from different manufacturers...one of them was mine, lol...OUCH! Since then, I've made my teen costumes better, however, unfortunately, that's what my clients want, cause that's what sells - the teens are looking for that today - even though I'm totally against slutty teen costumes, if the parent's didn't allow their teens to go to school and out looking like that, they wouldn't be looking for that type of Halloween costume either, you know? But I HAVE refused to do a few types of costumes in my time lol.
CNET did an article on one of my costumes this month, but it was a cute article. See below link!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57505294-1/darth-vader-onesie-luke-i-am-your-baby/

Tina, thank you so much for your response! My daughter and I had a blast looking through your designs. She is so excited to "know" a designer like this.

Thank you for sharing.

Can you do something about what is NOT out there for the larger woman...

The only costumes that are out there are sexy ones that I wouldn't wear in a million years at my weight or my age or the one size fits all long ones with billowing gossamer sleeves that no face painter can work in...

I'd like to be able to pick out a costume that really lets me portray a character with dignity and actually fit.

Doe - I'm so glad your daughter enjoyed looking at my link!

Miss Ronnie - our industry has been trying to do a better job the last few years on the plus size costumes. I know years ago, it was insulting how bad the plus costumes looked, like tents, which is ridiculous. Bigger woman can look great too! I'm a size 14-16 myself and I want a nice costume!! There ARE some better fitting costumes now that aren't all super sexy - look for company names like "Rubies", Fun World" , "California Costumes", "In Character" and "Cinema Secrets". Some of these companies have websites that reguar people can access, although you can't buy directly from them - but if you have a name and stye #, you can find the costumes on the internet. Leg Avenue and the lingerie companies (which are popular in the halloween popup stores, usually only have sexier costumes and they're more expensive. Even at a 14-16 (which isn't real big) you usually have to buy a 1X from the companies. Under that, the biggest size is "Standard", which always says up to about a 14 on the package, but that's a crock. ALL Halloween costumes are cut very small to save costs. Very few companies match real sizes in their numbers. A good place to buy plus costumes is www.buycostumes.com There are other online stores like it too, with large selections of plus size. Sign up and wait for them to send coupons or free shipping offers, which they'll do almost right away. There's nothing much you can do about the long sleeves on some. If you're handy, cut them shorter. Some have fabric sleeves that won't fray, so some won't even need hemming. If you (or anyone else) has a particular TYPE of costume in mind that you're looking for, like a princess or something, let me know. I have all the companies catalogs here at home and I know all the companies work...I'll locate it for you.

PS - here's how the drawn KISS costume above turned out!

@ Tina - I teared up a little when I read your reply. As a Person of Color who experiences racism and inter-generational pain from the genocide of my ancestors, thank you so much. There's so much stuff out there that people just don't think about how the imagery and costumes are harming sometimes the very people that the costume wearer admires (I say that also as a bellydancer who works really hard to make a positive difference rather than create more racist steretypes.)

I'm not sure why the link doesn't work but if you google "were-a-culture-not-a-costume-students-launch-poster-campaign-against-racist-halloween-costumes" it'll come up but I should never read the reader comments like I've done in the past there's alot of icky stuff in there midst the positive.

Yea, the sexy costumes thing for teens... I see teens all the time dressing waaaay too sexy for my tastes but if it's what teens want so not offering it isn't going to fix the issue. I feel like it's a parenting issue (I say that as a parent:)

Plus size is a big issue for me. ha! pun intended! As a 18-22 size depending on the item - I've just given up on any ready-made costumes for now - I tend to go with etsy stuff if I want something special. Interestingly enough sometimes it's not that expensive to have something made for me and then it's just the right height too as I'm under 5' (nothing off the rack fits me haha!). Just because I'm a bigger gal doesn't mean I don't think your costumes are fabulous!

I love the most recent picture you shared that little costume is adorable!!

Tina! I am so impressed!! That baby KISS costume is the cutest ever!!

Here's a few more new ones I just got pics of .....for the "music lovers", lol

Awwwwwwwww!!!

Just look at the bottom of those Elvis shoes!!
You're amazing!