Customer Reviews

Star Trek Fans and Costume Art (Folk Art and Artists Series)

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As a trekkie who has been costuming for years, I did not feel that this book accurately represented costumers. I am always improving my craft. Each costume gets better and better and yet the ones in this book seem very amatuer. There was not much attention given to details. I am ecstatic that a book was done on trekkies in costume. I just think better costumers could have been found and perhaps a little less detail given to the woman's bosom.

I always wondered how and why star trek fans get involved in making costumes and what types of events they attend looking like Starfleet or an Alien. Heather Joseph-Witham answers those questions and much more in this fanstatic book about Star Trek Costume Art. The photos are great, and really show how these wonderful fans create their works of art. A good read - A great collectable!!!

"Get a Life" is the derogatory dismissal often aimed at the
Star Trek fandom. As Heather Joseph-Witham discloses in her
fan-friendly little book, Trekkies usually do "have a life"
outside of fandom, and most take "fan-dumb" not too
seriously. That costumed Klingon or Starfleet Officer is quite likely
an environmental engineer, a college professor, a parent and
homemaker, a Kung Fu Master, a computer wizard, a police officer, a
priest, pastor, or rabbi, or even a technician at NASA! For these
people, the creation of costume art is a diversion or a hobby, and the
"professionalism" of the costume is much less important than
the wearability and pure fun of it. The "hall-costumes"
featured in Ms. Joseph-Witham's book are that kind of art, their
wearers those kinds of fans. These costumes are often whipped
together out of fabric remnants, leather strips, thrift-store fur
coats, inexpensive polyester or vinyl, crepe hairpieces. The fan
interviews conducted by the author reveal that many Trek enthusiasts
are attracted to the archetypes embodied by the series' various
characters and alien species. Thus, a fan chooses to role-play a
Klingon warrior, a Vulcan science-officer, or a Bajoran priestess
based on his/her affinity with that archetype. And although all the
convention-goers in this book are members of a tightly-bonded
community, the relative annonymity of costuming allows them the
opportunity to portray themselves in a manner which they otherwise
might not attempt in public.
@

This book is really like a kid's picture book than an adult reference book. It shows some good pictures (maybe that will give ideas for your costumes) but that's about all it does. It appears that this was some grad-student's project that just happened to get published. As long as it cheap though, it wouldn't hurt to add to your collection if you want to see some examples of cosplay.

Star Trek Fans and Costume Art (Folk Art and Artists Series) This book while interesting does not contain any information about construing costumes.