On 18 March 2017, I went to a party called Slut, You Better Shine. As you might have guessed, it was an celebration of all that is shiny and camp. Going against all of the wisdom of experience, I figured that it might also be a good opportunity to impress some single ladies with my creativity. I knew that one of the attendees was a fan of hip hop, like me, and this inspired me to make the theme of my costume "gangstas n space." I had a lot of fun making a costume that took the bling of the musical culture I love to a whole other level — space level. It took me about a week, and several rolls of double-sided tape, to create my outfit from a thermal blanket that I found in my basement.
The above logo was the first element. I had been playing around with words that I could put on a New Era hat, to advertise what I was about, and suddenly, I had the idea to take the NASA logo, and make it say NASTY. I made this vector in a few hours, and proceeded to put in on a t-shirt and a backpack (see photos below.) For my hat, I edited NASA's older logo:
At the party, my costume initially fell flat. No one really got it. That said, I took third place in the unofficial costume competition, just because of how much shine I had. I had much more success on social media, where I believe that the NASTY NASA imagery took on another meaning. A lot of my female friends were excited about the "meatball" logo, presumably because of the newly empowering connotations of the word "nasty", following the US 2016 presidential election. It probably also helped that the film, Hidden Figures, had just come out, showcasing some of the contributions of African-American women to the first lunar mission.
The Hat
my beloved LA Dodgers fitted, wrapped in foil
The Shoes
a pair of YSL Rolling Sneakers, wrapped in foil (do NOT try this at home!)
The Backpack
An old Marc by Marc Jacobs bag wrapped in foil
The Shirt
an iron-on special
The End Result
space level swag
No comments:
Post a Comment