COSTUMING
| Hall Costume Awards | Masquerade | Costume Repair Station | Weapons Policy | Photography Policy |
Costumes have been a part of science fiction conventions since Forrest J. Ackerman attended the first Worldcon wearing a costume from the movie "Things to Come." This year we are really encouraging Costuming at LosCon. Our Hall Costume crew will be out looking for outrageous and well-constructed costumes to give awards to every day. Feel free to enter our Masquerade or join the crowd watching the wonderful display. To help our costuming public we will have a Costume Repair Station central to the convention floor. Costume displays will be located in our Archive/Riddle Quest room. On Saturday a room next to the Costume Repair Station (New Orleans) is specially reserved for people wanting to take posed photographs in their costumes. A themed backdrop has been painted to provide a unique photo opportunity.
Hall Costume Awards
A hall costume is clothing patterned after, copied from, or inspired by a science fiction or fantasy source. It must be capable of ordinary wear and not fall apart at inappropriate moments. It can be removed without (much) outside aid or risk of being destroyed. One old definitiion is that if you can go to the bathroom without help, it's a hall costume. Every item of the costume should look appropriate to the outfit. This means no pirates or elves with tennis shoes. The over-all effect should be visually pleasant. The outfit should be a complete costume. Just an exotic hat or fancy cloak does not constitute a costume. Every time a person shows up wearing a costume, they can get another award. It's the person wearing the costume, not the one who actually made (or bought) it, who gets the award. It's important that the costume wearer spend some time in the halls or the Dealers' Room or Con Suite or other similar place. Otherwise, there's a very good chance the award staff will never be able to find them.
Costume Repair Station
Have you ever worn a costume and had one of the buttons come loose? The Costume Repair Station is where you’ll be able to sit down with a needle and thread (or glue and duct tape) to fix something that went wrong, touch up your makeup, or take that helmet off and get some fresh air. This is a place that you can stop by for a costume pit stop. If you have a Costume Malfunction and need a safety pin, a black sharpie marker, a hot glue gun, or use of a sewing machine, the Costume Repair Station will be right in the middle of things near our dealers room and the exhibits (see the Hotel Layout Page).
(The Costume Repair Station is designed for quick fixes. If it’s going to take you more than 30 minutes to repair your costume, we ask that you finish your work elsewhere to be fair to the other costumers.)
Weapons Policy
(Yep, that includes your whip Indiana!)Please leave your realistic weapons at home. Remember that we are located extremely close to a major international airport and really do not want to draw the unwarranted attention of Homeland Security. All weapons that are even remotely identifiable as such must be checked with convention operations and peace-bound if necessary. If you are uncertain about the status of your costume prop, please check with our operations crew (located in the Convention Office to the side of the elevators opposite of registration). If you are not willing to have your item peace-bound (usually by a zip-tie), please leave your prop in your room. If you purchase such an item in the dealers room, please leave it within the wrapping until you get back to your room. No brandishing of prop weapons (even for photographs) in the hallways. There will be a room (New Orleans) available for Photographs on Saturday where you can do your weapon poses. Check with the Masquerade Director about specific masquerade related weapon policies. Thank you and have a safe convention experience.
Photography / Videotape Policies
It is permissible to videotape at Loscon as long as you respect people's requests not to and as long as you are polite and unobtrusive. We will be handing out “no photo” buttons that people can pick up at the information desk to indicate to both our official and unofficial videographers/photographers that they wish not to be pictured. If you are intending the footage to be sold and/or shown in a non-private forum we desire for you to register yourself with our Press Liaison in the Green Room. Once registered you will receive a press badge and your intentions may be posted in the newszine so that people will know. There will be Official LosCon Videographers and Photographers roaming the hallways of the convention every day. All attendees should be aware that unless they pick up the “no photo” button they might be included in such pictures or tapes that LosCon will be using for future publicity.