The costume blog

The costume blog is where the shorter, more particular pieces live: a holiday explained, a community worth knowing, a quirk of costume culture. The big guides cover the broad subjects. The blog follows the odd corners that come up when you spend time with costumes.

What the blog covers

Posts fall into three loose groups.

Seasonal guides. Dressing up follows the year, so the blog covers the holidays and events that invite a costume, what people traditionally wear and how to prepare in time. The costume calendar gives the full year at a glance, and the blog goes deeper on single occasions.

Build notes. Short, practical notes on materials, techniques and small projects: how a particular fabric behaves, how to fix a common problem, what to try when a first attempt goes wrong. Longer, step-by-step builds sit in the DIY guides.

Culture and stories. The people, places and ideas around costume: where customs come from, how fan communities share their work, and what a holiday really commemorates.

How posts are organized

Every post sits under one of those three headings and links back to the guide that covers its subject, so a short read can lead to a full guide. Titles say what the post is about, and each one is written to be read in a few minutes.

Where to start

• For the facts behind holidays and their customs, read the holiday trivia post.
• For a respectful look at one holiday and its traditional dress, see Cinco de Mayo outfits.
• For places where makers share their work and trade advice, read the guide to costume communities to follow.

A quick way to choose what to read

Start with the date on the calendar. When a holiday is a few weeks away, open the post that matches it first, because holiday guides are written around the time people actually have: a weeknight, a weekend, an afternoon before a party. If no event is close, the questions below usually point to the right place.

• Need an idea and have no plan? Try the costume idea finder. It asks for a budget, the time you have and who is wearing the costume, then suggests a match with materials and steps.
• Making something for a child? The kids costumes guide sorts looks by age and build time, and the safety notes on masks, capes and face paint apply to every post here.
• Want to build it yourself? The DIY costumes guides explain each step and the reason behind it, so you can change a material when the one in the list is not in your house.
• Curious where a look comes from? The costume history guide traces how dressing up developed, and the costume safety guide covers makeup, flames, heat and small parts before you start.

Each post links onward to the guide that covers its subject in depth, so you can start anywhere and still find the full build.

How the blog fits with the rest of the site

The site has three layers. The big guides cover a broad subject, such as kids costumes, mascots or horror characters. Themed pages and build guides cover one idea or one build from start to finish. The blog sits between them and around them, picking up the single occasions, curiosities and community questions that do not need a whole guide. If a post makes you want to build something, follow its links to the matching guide, and if a guide leaves you curious about the story behind a look, the blog is where that story usually lives.

Posts are written to be checked as well as read. Facts about holidays, films and history are researched against published sources, and anything that cannot be confirmed is left out. That keeps each piece short, and it means the details you take away, such as a date, a tradition or a safety tip, are details you can rely on.

New posts are added over time.