CDG - The Costume Designer

Spring 2019

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24 The Costume Designer Spring 2019 T his year will be the Costume Designers Guild's 14th year at Comic-Con. Firstly, it's important to say that 2018 was a great year for us. The CDG had a booth on the show floor for the first time, having been on the waiting list for ten (yes, 10!) years. We made the most of this opportunity to show off our members' work, with two stunning costume displays from our sponsors, who provided a Dora Milaje costume (Ruth Carter, courtesy of Marvel Studios) from Black Panther and a The Flash costume from Justice League (Michael Wilkinson, courtesy of Warner Bros.). We also had live costume illus- tration demonstrations by Local 892 illustrators, made possible by our sponsor Wacom. Our headline panel, Marvel's Black Panther Costume Designer Ruth Carter: Designing the Costumes of Wakanda, was a huge suc- cess! It featured our members Ruth Carter, Phillip Boutté Jr., Anthony Francisco, and Dorotka Sapinska, as well as two members of Local 705, Douriean Fletcher and Mary Ellen Fields. The room was filled to its 250-person capacity with another 800 people waiting outside. It was thrilling to see the excitement about costumes reaching new heights! Both of our other panels were completely full as well. Our Costume Design for Television and Film Panel had a superhero focus and it fea- tured designers Sanja Hays (Captain Marvel), Amanda Riley (Supergirl), Joseph Porro (The Orville), and Laura Jean-Shannon (Black Lightning). The panel was moderated by longtime friend of the CDG, Joe Kucharski from Tyranny of Style blog, which led to a lively discussion about cos- tumes, and gave the audience a peek into our unique world. The Illustrators panel, Costume Concept Art for Television and Film, featured our members, Alan Villanueva, Phillip Boutté Jr., Greg Hopwood, Luca Nemolato, and Oksana Nedavniaya. They talked about working with designers on bringing their visions to life, as well as how they are all inspired by comics themselves. Comic-Con is one of the best venues we have to raise our profile with the public. Fans love the costumes we design and Comic-Con is a magical time for them. We want to be a part of their costume journey and for one group of Black Panther cosplayers, we literally were help- ing them crowdfund their way to San Diego to provide an honor guard for Ruth on her way to the panel. Our Hall Costume Awards were as fun as always, with our members heading out onto the convention floor to interact with their fans directly and hand out prizes for the most inven- tive and impressive costumes. We also successfully engaged with those fans who couldn't make it in person through our social media presence. For those checking our accounts from the show, we ran four giveaways with the help of our sponsors and these saw a gain of hundreds of new followers. 2019 is going to be a big year, as it is San Diego Comic-Con's 50th anniversary! We are proudly part of this huge celebration of the popular arts, as our efforts in bringing iconic characters to life are increasingly recognised and appreciated. This year, we are focusing on how we work together to get the costume from sketch to screen, and highlighting how many people's drive and passion it takes to get it there. Our booth (#734) will feature a display of the whole costume process, including sketches, fabrics, and the final garment. With all the amazing superhero projects underway, we are planning to have one of our panels be exclusively about super- hero Costume Design. I invite all CDG members to come to Comic-Con, which runs July 18–21. We have a hospitality suite available for members in the Marriott Marquis Hotel, next door to the Convention Center. If you have time, experience the convention to the fullest by taking a turn manning our booth and chatting to the public about the amazing work we do! Comic-Con Preview By Garnet Filo Costume Design Panelists: Laura Jean-Shannon, Sanja Hays and Amanda Riley (L to R). 2018 Comic-Con Booth in partnership with Art Directors Guild 800. Costume Illustrators Panel: Greg Hopwood, Phillip Boutté Jr., Oksana Nedavniaya, Luca Nemolato and Alan Villanueva. Ruth Carter (center) and Cosplayers.

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