Marion's Costume Escapades

 A formal evening gown inspired by the design of Marvel's Iron Man.

Don't ask me where this idea came from, because it simply hit me out of the blue. Like the rest of the world, I became completely obsessed with The Avengers after it came out, and Iron Man had always been my favourite. People have been doing genderswapped Superheros since the dawn of time, but I got the idea of not just having them as ladies - but in glam evening dresses.

To date, this is one of my favourite costumes, and the MOST fun to wear to cons. I wore it to Polaris 26 and Toronto FanExpo 2012.

concept artwork

The dress is entirely drafted by myself. It's made from polyester satin, almost all of which is interfaced to make it slightly less of a pain to work with. The lower skirt is split at the front and has two layers of orange and yellow tulle (layered to replicate the gold colour of the satin). I managed to luck out and find a gold zipper with red tape for the centre back.

The gloves are purchased, but I added the gold band across the top.

This was my first go at adding anything electronic to a costume. I had a friend in the States mail me one of the licensed toy arc reactors, but it had more than a few problems.

a) the casing was red, not silver
b) The lights inside were yellow, not blue or white
c) it would only light up for a few seconds at a time, not stay lit up

I re-painted the casing and tried my best to replace the LED lights inside, but an electrician I am not. Eventually I just used the outer casing, put three coiled blue glow sticks inside, and stuck a small LED flashlight in my cleavage. The arc reactor attached to the front of my dress with snaps glue-gunned onto the casing and sewn to the front of the bodice.  The lights in my gloves are good old-fashioned press-lights.

I'm wearing pretty high platform heels under this dress, and I have had more than a few cases of someone completely not recognizing me when I change out again. It's amazing the transformation a wig, a pair of heels, and some spanx can do!






A few more silly pics from FanExpo