OK, Indykid (my 14 year old) wants to dress as the character “River” from Firefly/Serenity for InConJunction this year. I have one week to come up with a dress for her. However, I’m not a fan of the show, so I can only get sketchy pictures of what she looks like from Google Image.
She said something about a plain, dark colored dress, either long or short-sleeved, but from the pictures I’ve seen it seems to be slightly more involved than that.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can help her put together, for not very much money or in not a very complicated fashion?
I really want to help her out, she thoroughly enjoys the masquerade & wearing a hall costume; I was expecting her to go with a character from the anime she likes (Naruto) but she picked this instead, I believe thinking it would be easier.
Y’know, you could not have gotten off easier. River Tam = sundresses and big boots. Washed silks and swirly batiks or rayon would be just fine. I’m sure you can find something at a thrift store or Dots or other discount store. OTOH, you could get away with getting something your daughter will wear again to school or church, it’s not weird stuff. Pretty much anything from Coldwater Creek would definitely work, if you want to spend the money.
The premise of the show is that it’s set in some way off future where the Chinese and the American cultures have melded and spread worldwide (solar system wide, actually). The costuming reflected that, with some characters (Inara) in Indian inspired geisha wear, and others (Wash) in Hawaiian beach wear. The rest are sort of somewhere in between. Almost everything looks purchased, not built, so they’re easy costumes to replicate.
Here’s another. That top piece is a little eccentric, but could easily be another dress with the belly cut out. Heck, you probably don’t even need to hem it - this is a rag tag girl on the run.
She’s a young girl (16), seemingly naive and innocent, so don’t go revealing with the tops. If your daughter has long hair, down and wavy is the way to go. If not, put it up in a messy bun with a couple of chopsticks.
I just flipped through our Serenity RPG book looking for pictures of her. Most were from the movie. She’s in dark sleeveless dresses that fall a little bellow the knee and combat books. There is more than one scene where she had these funky aviator type goggles. She’s always got her hair in her eyes, as well.
The problem with a ‘river’ costume is that it doesn’t really look like a costume. It’s just a dress. So to make it look distinctly like a River costume, you have to go for a look that’s out of the ordinary.
One way would be to wear a regular sundress, but wear knee-high combat boots with it. I think anyone at a fan convention would get that right away, especially if it was a purple sundress which was most commonly associated with River.
Failing that, I’d try to make the costume with leggings she’s wearing in the scene where she’s propping herself up on the ceiling with her legs and the fire nozzle. Get green leggings, a green sleeveless top, then make that plastic ‘bib’ for the front of it.
If your daughter has the long black hair for it, or can wear a suitable wig, then she’ll nail the look. If your daughter has short hair, it’s possible people won’t ‘get’ it, even if she’s wearing the right outfit. River’s clothing alone is just not that distinctive, so she needs the details to be right to pull it off.
I think the simplest way around this is the props: Give her a Reaver sword and axe and she’ll be more recognizable. Any really nasty-looking prop weapons you can find will work for this: A girl in a sundress dual-wielding nasty blades will be recognizable as River, even if they’re not exactly the same blades she used in the movie.
Here’s the thing: River shows up naked in the series premiere. Therefore, all of her clothes are gifts, hand-me-downs, or cast-offs. She ends up wearing a lot of stuff that’s too big for her small frame. The clothes are shabby, well-worn, and mis-matched. She layers a lot of things, probably because the ship is a bit cold. Heavy boots or bare feet because the only one with pretty shoes is Inara, and she’s probably hording them.
So, hit the Goodwill. Buy long, drapey sundresses a couple sizes too big for the Indykid. Dye them new colors, if you like. Put patches on them. Jewelry is possible, but it has to be found item stuff - buttons and shells and things.
Thanks everyone for your help. I found a deep forest green dress w/ cap sleeves at the local thrift store, which Indykid approved (so far - she is 14 and that could change…) and we’re still working on the boots. She doesn’t have long enough hair, and she wants to use some of the wash-out hair color to darken what she has - but thanks for the suggestion on putting it up with chopsticks, as that should work.
I’m not sure I can do anything about the swords, but she does have a staff she can carry, and another friend said that might work.
After the convention, I’ll try to remember to post a link to a picture of her in costume.
Thanks again! Stuff like this is one of the reasons I like the Dope so well!
If you’re putting her hair up anyway, you can easily color it with a colored mousse or spray instead of a temporary hair dye. It should totally wash out with one wash, instead of 8-10 for a temporary dye. You can find them at most beauty supply stores or a good costume shop.
Y’know, a staff might work, but it would also be a pain in the @ss to carry around the Con site all day. I thought of something else, which is even more of an insider thing - a stick. That is, a branching stick about 12 inches long without leaves on it. In one great episode (the best episode, IMHO) of the show, River finds a stick lying on the floor of the cargo bay. Entranced, she picks it up and marvels at its beauty (and we realize ourselves that we’ve not seen nature for quite a while, so where the hell did it come from?) Suddenly the rest of the crew is running at her, arms out, shouting at her to put the stick down. The camera pans down, and we see that the stick is not a stick at all, but a gun. We’ve been seeing things through River’s (mentally ill) eyes, and she’s hallucinating.
I think she’d get major geek points for bringing a stick to Con, and everyone who’s important would get it right away, and be delighted at the reaction of those who don’t get it. Everyone who gets it, you see, is automatically seeing the world through River’s eyes.
Thanks for the pic, lisacurl! I couldn’t find one, and a picture is definitely worth 1000 words when describing a stick.
(If I may brag a little, here’s my son’s Wash costume from last Halloween, all purchased from the thrift store. **SPOILER ALERT! These pictures spoil a very big spoiler from the Serenity movie, which may also affect your viewing pleasure of the Firefly series. Don’t click if you don’t want to be spoiled! **View 1View 2. - note the toy dinosaurs in his pocket! )
The big thing for your daughter to do to get everything to know she’s River is to learn to walk and act like River. It’s her most distinctive trait. She’s always sort of tiptoing along with a look on her face like she’s listening to some distant conversation the rest of us can’t hear. She’s got a bemused, distracted manner. She glides through crowds like a dancer. She finds wonderment in everyday things.
Or, your daughter could just kick some ass. She does that too.
Stuff like this is one of the reasons I like the Dope so well!
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