Honestly, it kind of sucked. You weren't expecting that, were you! Being pregnant, and in that awkward place where people stare with that look on their face...the "are you fat or are you pregnant," I didn't even bother with costumes for myself this year. And it kind of killed me. I'm introverted, but a woman, and therefore vain. It seriously felt weird to not have people randomly stare at me in that environment. Bat dressed up as Kefka on Saturday so I took on the mighty job of being his handler that day. He hammed it up, and I made sure his pants were straight (totally true...he had fake nails on, and he's a guy, so he was essentially helpless, but I love him).
Saturday! The busiest day of con. Bat had his heart set on competing in the Masquerade (a first for us both). I was totally nervous about this. The first time one of my pieces was to be judged on an official scale. Which is completely different than the costuming community silently judging my work. This was a big deal for me! As a costumer the only thing I ever want is pride of a beautifully done job and recognition. For people to know that I did all that. (It's that vanity again...it's killer.) I thrive on the compliments, the "ohmigosh that looks so awesome!" or "Best. Costume. Evah!" and the pictures! It all just makes me glow, beam, float with magical prideful happiness.
And I totally expected to walk out of the Masquerade with this feeling. Spoiler alert! I didn't. I left feeling like crap.
The story!
It took 3 hours to get Bat's makeup done because of an unfortunate misbehaving red lip pencil and hormones.
We finally made it to the convention (2 hours later than Bat hoped) where he preened just as much as I ever would have when tons of people asked for his picture. Totally precious. He even let me take one in between his many poses for fans! I'm so special!
We walked the vendor hall. Crashed a Final Fantasy panel and then headed up to prejudging.
Which brings us to the Masque I will never compete in again unless things are seriously overhauled.
There are 3 ways to enter PCC's Masquerade. You can preregister online, sign up before prejudging starts, or show up on Saturday while prejudging is in progress and hope there is space. We missed preregistration, so we made sure the very first thing we did on preview night was sign up to insure a spot in the competition.
Prejudging was scheduled from 1:30 pm to 5 pm (ish...I can't really remember). We got in this huge line at about 2:30 or so and just sat there....for like 3 hours. We didn't even make it to prejudging til after prejudging was supposed to be over with. I kind of figured there would be a line for the preregistration, and a line for those who registered before the day of the Masque and then a line for people who were hoping to get in the day of. Otherwise, what's the point of preregistering?
Now, let me back up a bit and just say that before even entering into the Masque, I checked the rules about 20 times to make sure we could actually do so, as I made the costume and Bat was modeling. We could. HOWEVER! I had to fight to go into the room for prejudging...like they seriously weren't going to let me in to explain how I made the costume my model was wearing. I was mildly horrified in that "are you kidding me?!" kind of way.
After finally getting into the prejudging room, things went as expected. We sat there. I fussed over makeup, made sure there was absolutely no loose threads and everything was completely acceptable to be scrutinized by a panel of judges I expected to be as harsh as Micheal Kors. I am serious...I totally strolled into this thing thinking the judges would be on par with the Project Runway judges.... But we survived and really all I had to do was explain how I did what I did, the materials I used and gave them my reference pictures. The end. Totally worked up over nothing.
We had to line up about an hour and a half earlier than the actual event, for who knows what reason. We just sat there....doing nothing....but waiting...and getting irritated. It was at this time my role in all this was reduced to handler. I was no longer the creator, I was no longer the seamstress; I was only there to make sure Bat didn't let his seriously awesome feathered headpiece get on the big screen. He was introduced and did a fabulous job walking regally across the stage, laughing like the maniac he was portraying and then regally walking off the stage to sit and watch the people we were competing against.
Now. The costume was entered in the novice category, and the way convention masques work, is your competing level depends on how many times you've competed and/or won before. I thought we had this locked up. Kefka was extravagant, and royal, and blingy, and just plain awesome. The others in that category were admirably good for that skill level, because in my brain this costume was not being judged at the novice level.
But anyway. Long story short: We walked away with 3rd place in the novice category. Which, quite honestly, I think is fantastic for the first time any of my work has been entered in a contest to be seriously judged. And after this already lengthy post, I can get to my issues.
The absolute biggest problem I have with this Masquerade is this: When our place was announced, I stupidly walked up on stage with Bat expecting some sort of acknowledgment for my work in all this. Instead there was only mention of blending textiles and that was it. I looked like a huge tool, all fat and half pregnant, mindlessly searching and hoping for just a little inkling that I did something to make Bat look totally awesome.
But no.
(Bat looking totally awesome, me looking totally dumb >.<)
My name was not mentioned ANYWHERE or ANYTIME during this event. And that killed me. Why would you open a competition to people who are going to create beautiful things and have somebody else model them, if you are not going to properly give credit where credit is due. Yes, Bat did an excellent job bringing this all to life, but he wouldn't have been able to do it without the actual costume. I costume because it's fun and I like the challenge. But I love the pride I feel when people admire my work and tell me I did a super awesome job. And for the judges to just blatantly over look this one huge detail of the actual costume creator....it's kind of unprofessional. And I realize I'm asking a lot right there, since this is a convention masque, not a reality TV show. If you're not going to take the time to publicly acknowledge the costume creator when a prize is won, don't put it in your rules that it's allowed. All it does is makes you feel like poop.
My second issue: I, and quite a few other of the contestants were under the impression that this Masquerade was basically a costume contest (i.e. not a talent show). Reading through those nifty rules again, all rules are centered around costume making, construction, and judging with one little bitty rule about how long your skit should be and what can not be included in said skit. Next thing I know, I find out we would have placed way higher had our skit been longer than it was and Bat had done more things.
Um....what?
Dearest Masquerade judges that will never read this. In the future, it would help a ton of people out if you were more clear with what you want in your rules and/or description. Might I suggest a list of judging criteria? Or maybe even subcategories for judging?
I left the Masquerade severely depressed and in tears. I know a ton of people would like to blame it on hormones...and maybe it amplified things a bit, but I completely believe that I would have felt that way even if I weren't pregnant at the time.
Sigh. 7 months later and I'm still seriously jaded about this thing.
I can't shake my head enough.
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