Me and My Big Ideas

I've got ideas. Big, huge, breath-taking ideas. I think about starting a variety of business all the time. Although I often think "Wouldn't it be nice if someone -fill in the blank- about technology or other sorts of businesses, the vast majority of the ideas I have and want to implement have to do with something crafty. I have this burning need to create something and share it with the world. Cliche? Sure. Kitcshy? You bet. But I really, really, really want to do something creative and artistic.

My most recent pipe-dream involves creating costuming for LARPs. Not just throwing together a few pirate shirts and wrap pants; but actually creating accurate clothing standards for the different races based on Nero plots. Now there are some players who take extreme effort to make their costumes reflect who they feel their character to be, but by and large, most people are just wearing the same old poet shirts and wrap pants. It doesn't make sense to me from a plot perspective that dwarves, elves and barbarians would all have the same style aesthetic, when they've had such different histories. I was reading a fashion design school workbook, and it talked about historical fashion trends and how clothing is so heavily influenced by economic, political and social trends. I would love to take these psychological factors from the real world and apply them to the fictional history provided by the Nero world to design appropriate attire for all the available races.

Of course, there would be a lot more than just what materials Quentari Elves might have available to make clothing or what colours a Biata might favour. I would have to also design clothing with the rigours of gaming in mind. Most LARP costuming currently available for purchase falls in to one of two categories: beautiful and period-accurate reproduction pieces, and cheap, easy-to-find Halloween costumes. The problems with these are that neither are made specifically for the LARPer. Reproduction pieces may look fabulous, but they are often confining, hot and not well-suited to running around in the woods. They are also exhorbitantly expensive. Halloween costumes are also not made with rigourous fighting and running in mind, and are very cheaply constructed. I've seen many modified pirate costumes fall apart the first time it rained during a weekend-long event, leaving the wearer with the bland and predictable back-up outfit: a pirate shirt and wrap pants (or worse, sweat pants).

I've been thinking all evening about how to construct a cloak that would actually be wearable during a fight. We all know cloaks look cool, and everyone wants to wear one, but you find out really quickly that cloaks are the worst packet magnets known to man. So, I've been thinking of a way to design something that would resemble a cloak from the back, but not flare out to catch packets. Maybe strategic pleating and belled sleeves would do the trick. I also thought that maybe a cape of sorts that's secretly attached to the waist somehow, or weighted at the bottom to reduce flaring might work. These are all just vague images in my head right now, but the over-arching idea is what's important. I really want to do this. I just don't know how.

Ideally, I'd eventually want to have a full line of clothing, reflecting a variety of classes and hierarchies of all 14 races in Nero, and have them Nero-approved. To start, I'd want to create a basic scheme for each of the most popular races and add on as things progress. David thinks I should start by offering to sell customized costumes to our friends around here who game. Most of them either don't care at all about their costumes anymore or make their own, so I don't know if that will work. I'll have to think about my options and see what I can work out.