What LotR Costumes/Clothes Have You Made?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Ever so many years ago -- about 1979 or 1980, I think; probably 1979 -- my husband, a bunch of friends, and I went to an SF convention in Minneapolis. Three of us decided to do Three Keepers of the Elven Rings for the masquerade. The woman who did Galadriel did her own outfit. I designed and constructed my husband's outfit (he was Elrond). With over four hours spent doing makeup and hair, I was Gandalf the White; the costume was based on a painting I had done of the character and sold in the art auction at that convention. I don't have any photos of the painting, nor do I have any of all three of us, but I do have one mediocre shot of myself, which was taken by one of the convention attendees who came as an Elf and wanted a photo done with me. The outfit was done on an extremely tight budget, and with the constraint that everything (except the staff) had to be packed into our baggage and carted on a train (a friend who was driving kindly toted the staff for me). I have many strange memories of that occasion, since I was coming down with a dreadful head and chest cold, and my voice, which is already low, dropped about an octave in time for the masquerade. There was so much work done with the hair and makeup and underpinnings that strapped me down, that with the deep voice, there were a lot of people unwilling to believe I was a woman underneath it all. I was given reports about this from other friends the next day, and I laughed myself silly. This is the grainy old image (and don't worry, I'm hotlinking to my own website, so it's okay):



Since then, I have designed and constructed a LOT of Middle-earth character costumes. Since a bunch of my friends were into costume history as well as SF and fantasy (and I studied costume design in college as well), we've had some very interesting costume parties. I wish I had pictures of some of them, especially of my younger brother in his Melkor outfit (based on a sketch of the character I had once done) and my hubby in his Aragorn get-up, but alas, I can't find any, nor anyone who has them. Perhaps someday. *sigh*