Costume Parade and Contact Info

I mentioned in my previous post about costuming that I would do a costume parade video on youtube and link it when it was complete. Well, after a long, arduous wait for the alterations on our costumes to be complete, we received them yesterday, filmed the video, did the photo shoot, and now I present the completed video:

I also wanted to throw out my twitter account for all of you to follow me or let me follow you if you intend to tweet about the goings-on at LeakyCon that you find interesting. I promise I do not tweet at all so you won't be bombarded with random and completely useless tweets before or during the con. I vow to only use it to inform others about supermegafoxyawesomehot events occurring at the con that they might not have been aware of (one of which might be a party in our room, woot woot!). So, if you're interested, I'm fleur5787 over there.

Albinism and Harry Potter

I went back and forth about making a post about this topic for a few weeks thinking it was an important thing to put out there since it is controversial in the albinism community, while also thinking it was so ridiculous it didn't warrant an entire post. Obviously the first argument won.

For those of you who don't have albinism or know anyone with albinism, you probably don't realize how important the issue of how albinism and people with albinism are portrayed in pop culture is to many of us. I mean, if you think of all the characters that supposedly have albinism in movies, you'd have Powder, “The Albino” (as he's credited) from The Princess Bride, “The Albino Folk Singer” from Not Another Teen Movie, “Whitey” from Me, Myself, and Irene, “The Albino Twins” from The Matrix Reloaded, Bosie from Cold Mountain, Silas from The DaVinci Code, and several others, each of which is portrayed in a negative, inaccurate, and/or hurtful way. Due to all this negativity produced by Hollywood, a lot of people within the albinism community have become overly sensitive about characters that appear to have albinism and mentions of our condition in pop culture. As a perfect example of this over-sensitivity, I give you a list of supposed examples of albinism in movies; on it, you'll see everyone from vampires (how else are they going to be shown when part of their mythology is that they can't go in the sun?) to Bartok the Bat from the animated Anastasia! Now, I'm not saying that people with albinism have never suffered due to Hollywood's “creative” (is it creative when everyone does it?) interpretation of our condition (I know people have been terrified of me and told me it was because of Powder, I've been humiliated by chants of “Powder” in public, I've had the song from Not Another Teen Moviesung to me, etc.), but the over-sensitivity is not doing anyone any favors that much can be seen by these press clippings over The Matrix Reloaded fiasco.

But what does this have to do with Harry Potter? Well, as you might have guessed (or seen if you visited the links above), there are several characters from the series that many people believe are supposed to have albinism. The Malfoys are a prime example that is used. Narcissa is said to have albinism because it would explain her different coloring in her family (albinism is a recessive condition, so even if her parents and sister didn't have it, she could). That's a fine theory, but what are the odds that a woman with albinism (which is already a rare condition as only one in 17,000 people have some form of albinism) would grow up and meet a man with albinism who just happens to be a wizard. Now, I realize that, coming from purist families, if albinism was in one of their families, it would be in all the pureblood families somewhere, but then why aren't more magical, pureblood children born with it if so many supposed carriers of the trait are running around only marrying people who are very likely also carriers? Keep in mind that there are also several types of albinism (to learn more about the different types, you can go here), and Narcissa and Lucius would also have to carry the same form of albinism to pass onto their son Draco for him to have it as well, as he appears to if we're going with this theory. How do the Malfoys hurt people with albinism? Well, up until book 6, we're to believe that they're just pure evil. That changed after we saw a bit more of Draco and his family in books 6 and 7, though. Other than that, I don't think anyone would have any objections to these characters having albinism. (Oh, and their having albinism would also go along with the idea that they're fascinated by all creatures with albinism and, therefore, have the “albnio” peacock from book 7. Also note that some people with albinism would prefer animal-first language and have JKR used “peacock with albinism”, which I find ridiculous! I mean, I'm all for person-first language and dislike being called an “albino”, but the peacock doesn't know or care that it's being defined by its genetic condition!)

Then, there's Fleur Delacour and all the veelas in the series. Personally, when I read about these characters, I was thrilled! They were shown as the epitome of beauty, and they resembled my coloring...but I've already talked about that. When I ran and told my mom about them, she read the passages I indicated and was livid that JKR couldn't even make them perfect since they resembled people with albinism; she had to add that they turned into horrible beasts when angry. Now really, we can't expect all characters with albinism to be perfect, but I do get what she was saying. They still have a dark side, though not nearly as bad as the characters with albinism that are portrayed as omens of death or have supernatural powers that are uncommon in their respective stories. People with albinism are often shown to be Seers and/or have magical abilities, and this is often thought to be true by people whose only education on my condition is from the movies and TV. As I said, I've had people become frightened of me because they thought I might have some magical ability that I'd use against them (which I would think would urge them not to insult me, but that's obviously not the case because it would make too much sense...), but I've also had other witches ask if my ability perform magic was heightened due to my disability. Really? I always kick myself for not asking if theirs was hindered due to their ability to produce pigment.

And we've left the best for last, haven't we? Lord Voldemort. Oh, Lord Voldemort! He is the most cited case for an appearance of albinism in the HP series. My question to those that argue that he has albinism is this: Does he have vitiligo (which is often not classified as albinism) or is this a new form of albinism that one needn't be born with? It is clearly stated that he had dark hair when he was in school and it wasn't until after he graduated that he became pale, though his eyes had a “red gleam” in many of his memories from when he was in school preceding their complete transformation to red. (It should be noted here that people with albinism do not always or usually have red eyes; they might appear pinkish in certain light, but they are usually blue. Only animals with albinism have very pink or red eyes.) It was the Dark Magic and the splitting of his soul that caused his change of color; he became less human and therefore appeared less human and more like a mutated dead body. Well, while that may be, what does that say for people with albinism? I've just said that he became “less human” as he became paler. Are we less human? Well, no that's not technically what I've said, but it's the argument that is often used for his case. Villains are often pale and “creepy”,just as Voldemort is to dehumanize them, to set them apart. It doesn't matter that their look and limitations often lead them down the road to becoming a villain (as with Silas from The DaVinci Code); the people making most of these arguments don't care about three-dimensional characters, they just want good PR for people with albinism. Can you blame them after all the negative publicity our condition has gotten? Voldemort doesn't quite fit into that mold because his pallor came after his turn to evil, after all his experiments with Dark Magic and postponing death. Those had to take some sort of toll on him physically, one would assume. So, JKR was left with a few choices; she could go with the more used pallor of evil and red eyes, she could severely alter his pigmentation in another way (i.e. make him purple or pitch black but those would lead to comedy when it wasn't intended and racist remarks which would have been more public than anger from the albinism community), or she could have kept him looking the same with the evil lurking unseen below the surface. The last choice isn't very JKR to me, though it does have possibilities in my book. His soul was mutated, so his body must follow suit.

Let's look really quickly at what Skinema calls “Hollywood's Unwritten Rules For Characters With Albinism” and see if Fleur, the Malfoys, and Lord Voldemort fit into it, shall we?
1. Are Evil, Violent, and Make Excellent Assassins: Voldemort is certainly falling under this category as is pre-DH Lucius. Draco, Fleur, and Narcissa are left out. The transformed veelas are violent and might make excellent assassins, but it's never shown. (On a semi-related note, it always tickles me that characters with albinism are made to be assassins. All people with albinism have impaired vision ranging from just below normal vision to being considered legally blind...now that's an excellent choice for an assassin, isn't it!)

2. Are Scary: Voldemort and the Malfoys might fit well here as might the transformed veelas. Fleur never seemed scary to me.

3. Have Silly Nicknames: “Lord Voldemort” isn't very silly to me, and the rest aren't given nicknames to my knowledge.

4. Dress Entirely in White: Nope. I don't think Voldemort or the Malfoys are white-wearing kinds of people. In fact, do we ever see Voldemort in anything but black? The only time we ever see any of the others in white is on Fleur's wedding day.
5. Have Health Problems Beyond Their Albinism: Nope. None of them seemed overly sickly in the books, in fact I don't think any of them had any real issues related to possibly having albinism or not. I mean, Draco was a seeker for crying out loud; clearly he didn't have the visual problems associated with albinism (unless that's why he never caught the snitch first...).

So, take whatever stance you want on the issue of albinism in pop culture, but Harry Potter has no place in it since the only character we know of that had albinism was the “albino peacock” in Deathly Hallows. Perhaps he was an evil peacock that killed other peacocks, was always ill, was utterly terrifying, and was called “Whitey”, though. We'll never know.

Which HP Character Would You Date?

This is a question that comes up a lot, especially among the younger readers of the series. As a lesbian, I think the choices become better, lol! I mean, I'd never in a million years even consider dating Harry, Ron, or many of the younger males. I'd probably go for Sirius, Lupin, Bill, Charlie, or one of the other usual heart throbs if I were straight.

But I'm not, so my choices are more difficult (I feel). I mean, look at all the fabulous women in the series: Tonks, Hermione, Fleur, Narcissa, and Luna!

Obviously I wouldn't ever date Ginny because...well, no one really knows what she's like. I mean, she jumps into the series loving Harry, then we learn little things of no real importance (like that she can do a great Bat Bogey Hex), and then she's all gaga over Harry again. Oh, boy. Can we say two-dimensional? And blah?

Tonks has always been a favorite of mine, and I love that she's so endearing and adorable with her klutziness. There's also something to be said about how she lost herself in love in the books. While that's romantic, beautiful, and all that, it's not necessarily something I'd want in someone I'd date. I'm looking for a much more independent and strong individual. While she normally is all those things, fawning over Lupin (again, while romantic, sweet, understandable, and interesting to read) was not an attractive trait for me.

Let's face it. I'd have no chance with Fleur even if she was a lesbian, so she's pretty much out. Bill got her because he was super hot and all that. While I think I'm pretty, I don't see the “hot” factor in myself, so no hope there.

I'm not sure about Narcissa. I love that she's so caring and compassionate in the end, but there's something off-putting about her in terms of my dating her. I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it's her haughtiness...? I can't stand smugness, so that is probably a condemning factor. There seems to be something else nagging in the back of my mind saying “you wouldn't want to date her because _____”, but I can't think of it.

Ah, Luna! I love me some Luna. You can't say she's smug, conceited, or lacks independence and individuality. That's for sure! I don't know if I could handle going on “romantic getaways” to find the Crumple Horned Snorkack, though. Listening to all her “theories”, I'd probably snap too. So, maybe that relationship wold be short-lived. She does remind me of at least two of my ex-girlfriends (except for the conspiracy theories and Quibbler “news”), so there's no real denying that I would probably be attracted to her.

Hermione would make the most sense. I mean, let's examine for a moment how much I hate the Ron/Hermione and Harry/Hermione ships. I, personally, feel that neither of them deserves someone as great as Hermione. Does this, perhaps, mean that I've fostered secret feelings for Hermione myself? Well, probably not, but it does at least show that I have a great respect for her and recognize what a great catch she is. Given that we're both fairly brainy and reasonable, we'd probably get along well (I mean, if she can handle spending time with the idiots she's usually surrounded with, I'd probably be a breath of fresh air...), but could I handle her bossiness and need to be right all the time? What about her need to get credit for all her “rightness”? And then there's the almost obsessive bookishness. Don't get me wrong, I'm rather a bit of a bookworm myself, but she takes it to a whole new level. Her attitude did go through an adjustment as the series went on, so maybe I could date Hermione from DH (and beyond)...

But would we balance each other out? As much as I hate Ron, his stupidity did balance out with Hermione's intellect. I don't know if we're too much alike, Hermione and I, to stay together too long.

Overall, though, Hermione would be my top choice for a girlfriend.

LeakyCon Costuming

Ideally I would have posted this a while ago when I finally received my last costume piece in the mail. However, due to some sizing concerns, all of my costumes have at least one piece that is being altered. I won't get them back until the end of this month, and I wanted to wait to post this until then so I could just include my costuming video in this blog post. Since I can't make the video at this point, and I didn't want to wait to post it in case people are looking for some last-minute costume inspiration, I thought I'd post it now and post the costume parade video when it's complete at the end of the month.

Last year at Infinitus, I remember marveling at the amazingly accurate and stunning costumes some fans put together and wishing that I could be that creative. Well, this year I went for it. I started out wanting just to put together a Luna Lovegood costume, then I decided to dress as Narcissa Malfoy for the ball on Saturday because I couldn't find anything, and her sense of style has always appealed to my dark side. Then, I found the crowning glory of all HP costumes (in my opinion) right after buying my first Narcissa costume piece. You see, after I read GoF, all I wanted was to dress up as Fleur. Then, I saw the movie, and their costumes captured my heart with their adorable little Hershey kiss hats! I scoured the internet for several years, but all I found were people who had made their own reproductions for themselves and weren't willing to sell them online. I decided last year that I'd have to find someone in person to make one for me. Then, I realized how much that would cost, and I gave up...until I saw one for sale on etsy! So, we'll start by examining my Fleur Delacour costume.

As I said, I found the dress first (note that the seller no longer makes custom Beauxbatons uniforms due to some issues in past transactions), but it didn't come with a hat. Though the hat pictured is sold on etsy by a different seller, I didn't like it as much as I could have. So, I found another Beauxbatons hat for about $100 (there are also other Beauxbatons hats that go up to about $145). I know that seems like a lot (especially since the dress alone is $125), but I knew I'd be happy with it and didn't want to settle just to save some money. Also, the woman who made my hat worked with me a lot to make sure it matched the uniform exactly, even going out of her way to mail me scraps to compare for myself. So, I'd HIGHLY recommend her!

The shoes were a bit more difficult. Luckily, oxford heels are in right now, so it wasn't that difficult to find them online. However, it was difficult to find a pair under $50, in my size, that looked like the ones she wore in the movie, and that I thought I could walk in without breaking my ankle. I eventually found these. I also found this post about how best to paint shoes. We ran out and bought some primer, two shades of blue paint, and some sealer and went about painting the shoes. They aren't quite finished yet, so I won't post a picture since they're not very pretty as of right now with just one coat of paint.

Fleur's jewelry was a bit more difficult since she doesn't appear to be wearing any with her uniform in GoF. So, I decided something elegant but simple would work best. Since I love the fleur de lis and didn't own any smaller silver earrings with it, I scoured etsy again for some cute ones. I found these and fell in love with the design as well as the $5 price tag!

I also bought a little purse since I need to carry so much with me at conventions (pens, notebooks, a camera, my phone, my telescope and magnifier, etc.) and didn't have one that matched as well as I would have liked. I also found that on etsy for about $30.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Fleur Delacour costume. The grand total was around $400 with makeup, stockings, alterations, and everything.

After I made my plan for Fleur, I moved onto deciding what Narcissa might wear to a formal affair. After years of loving Narcissa, studying pictures from the movies, and trying to get into the character's mind, I felt like I had a pretty good sense of her style. It's stylish but refined, Dark but subtle.

That said, I also wanted a corset to be a part of this costume, mainly just because I love them and felt like I'd be able to find one I would wear again (which is my goal for the majority of my costumes...if I'm spending hundreds of dollars on costuming, I will wear elements of them again and again). So, one of my RP characters (Mehren Blair) also served as a bit of inspiration since she never leaves home without a corset. So, that was the first item I found. I spent hours searching for a classy but pretty green corset because I wanted to go with a subtle Dark Arts/Slytherin theme for this costume. I eventually found this one which didn't come in my size. So, I had to have it altered.

Given Narcissa's sense of style, I wanted a more fitted skirt to go with the corset to class it up a bit more. So, I found this skirt in black on etsy.

I knew Narcissa would probably never leave the house in just a corset, so I sought out a bolero to go over it. I wanted it to have a higher neck line to be along the lines of what she wears in the movies. I found a few that I liked that were fairly cheap, but I ended up getting a dress at Kohls for a wedding that came with a bolero. Since my mom had bought the dress, I wasn't going to argue with a free bolero! I tried it on with the corset, and it went just as well as the one I was going to buy online!

The next item I knew I wanted was a hat! Last year at Infinitus, there were the most beautiful witch hats I've ever seen! I knew I wanted a decorated hat for LC this year! I searched etsy for a while, knowing I wanted a smaller hat that was a bit more reserved than the ones I was finding. Through my search, I eventually decided I wanted a birdcage veil as well. I knew finding a green hat was out of the question if I wanted it to match the corset. So, I started searching for small black witch hats (because I just can't see Narcissa wearing some of the over-the-top witch hats out there, and it had to be able to be transported in a shoe box in my suitcase so it didn't get crushed on the way to LeakyCon) and found this one for about $9. I decided that, for that price, we decorate it and still come out cheaper than most of the ones sold on etsy (which range from about $30-$100). So, we bought the cute little cocktail hat, removed the spiderweb netting, and ran out to Michaels for feathers, fabric, glue, etc. This is also still a work in progress, so you'll have to wait for the costume parade video to see it as well!

Jewelry was next for Narcissa. I wanted to go with a snake theme, preferably the ouroboros given its great symbolism and nod to Hydra (a Dark Arts/purist RP group I ran for adults a while back). I found some great ouroboros earrings on etsy for fairly cheap, but I couldn't decide what to put with them. Then, I found the “dancing snakes necklace” and loved it! It went so well with the ouroboros earrings and seemed quite like something Narcissa would wear!

As I said, my goal was to buy only items I would wear again. However, this wasn't always within reason if I also wanted my costumes to be accurate, so if you like the earrings or necklace above, they will be on sale after LeakyCon on ebay for about $7 and $16 respectively, exactly as much as I paid for them originally.

Then, my Narcissa costume was finished, coming in at around $180 including everything but the shoes and a snakeskin clutch which I already had in my closet.

The Luna costume was the one I'd wanted to do for a while. The main reason was because everyone, despite my desire to be compared to Fleur in terms of looks, kept telling me how much I resembled Luna (I guess since they didn't get her “dirty blonde” hair quite right in the movies, the platinum look was cemented in people's minds...don't get me wrong, I LOVE Luna in the movies and in general). So, I thought I'd make them happy and dress up like her for one conference. Plus, I'd wanted a Ravenclaw uniform for a while now.

I already had a uniform skirt from my Slytherin uniform. I bought it from Whimsic Alley because when I was putting my Slytherin costume together, I couldn't find a grey skirt that was suitable (it was winter and school uniforms weren't quite on sale).

I also purchased my Ravenclaw sweater from Whimsic Alley because I couldn't find a cardigan anywhere else, and Luna more often wears a cardigan or sweater vest in the movies.

I bought my tie on ebay because it was cheaper than Whimsic Alley.

Next were the famous spectrespecs! They sell them various places, but I wanted the plastic ones, not the cardboard ones that would fall apart the second I put them on my face. I was torn about buying them because I knew I wouldn't be able to wear them for long due to the fact that they make everything about 100 times brighter than it should be which will probably give me a migraine. I decided I could just put them on my head if I got too tired of it, though. I ended up buying them on ebay for the cheapest price I could find after looking around--$12 (of course immediately after I placed the order, WB sent me a coupon code for my birthday which would have made the ones in the WB shop cheaper, but oh well).

Then I found myself trying to find a set of Luna's famous jewelry to save a bit of money. I found one on etsy for fairly cheap and grabbed it up.

Last year at Infinitus, the main fad was to wear a homemade pygmy puff around on your shoulder. They were everywhere! I wanted to buy one, but by the time we made it to the craft fair to buy some, there weren't really any great colors left. So, I made it my mission to find one online. The crafters from the fair didn't sell them online, so I had a task ahead of me! Around the time I found my Beauxbatons uniform on etsy, I found a girl who made pygmy puffs there as well. We ordered three (one for me, one for Brae, and one for our contest winner), and there were some shipping problems. We received a perfectly sealed envelope with one pygmy puff in it. I contacted the seller to see if she was planning on shipping the three puffs separately. She said she'd included them all in the envelope. She also said she would contact etsy to see what she should do. A few weeks later, I emailed her back to see what etsy had told her; she claimed that they had said she wasn't responsible. I was mad but willing to accept it because I'm a fairly easy customer and just wanted to forget about it. Then, I looked at etsy's policies (because I'm opening up my own etsy shop in the future and wanted to make sure I was very familiar with how things worked) and saw that sellers should reimburse customers that don't receive things in the mail. Hm...So, I contacted the original seller and told her this, saying I'd just email our entire correspondence to etsy (because now I was mad that she'd lied to me) and see what they had to say. She immediately offered to refund our money for the two we hadn't received. Fishy, yes?

Since we still very much wanted our pygmy puffs and didn't trust this seller to get them to us, we contacted this seller on etsy and gave her the same pattern that the original etsy seller used and asked her to make two pygmy puffs according to our specifications through a custom order. She agreed, only charging us about $13 (including shipping). So, after an ordeal online, we did receive our pygmy puffs! (Note: the second seller now sells these without having to place a custom order and my little blue pygmy puff, Asha, is now the model!)

But we weren't done yet! I asked Brae to ask his friend who is a graphic designer if she could make me a Quibbler. It's not ready either, but look for it in the video (hopefully) or at LeakyCon if it's not quite ready when it's time to film the costume parade!

So, my Luna costume is almost complete! It should come in around $160 including makeup, a white button down shirt, tights, etc. except shoes which I also already had in my closet.

And that brings us to the end of our exploration of Kat's LeakyCon costumes! I hope I helped create a bit of inspiration to make your own LeakyCon ensembles and gave a few helpful links to great sellers and crafters. If you have any costuming questions, feel free to ask!