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Gamer Garb: Costume designers take video game fashion to the next level

(Nathan Koketsu/Daily Bruin)

By Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon

May 2, 2023 8:27 p.m.

Transcending the barrier between the online world and reality, video game clothing is a foundational building block in fan culture and world building. Ever-present yet often overlooked, these virtual garments affect the wallets and wardrobes of gaming enthusiasts and nonfans alike. In “Gamer Garb,” columnist Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon steps away from the keyboard to explore the real-life impacts of digital attire.

(Lucy Chang/Daily Bruin)
(Lucy Chang/Daily Bruin)

Behind every controller is a player, and behind every costume is an artist.

While the role of costume designer is still relatively rare in the gaming industry, with character artists taking on the responsibility, dressing video game characters has always been a necessity. Though costume design and fashion both deal with clothes, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, founding director of UCLA’s David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design, said they are distinct fields.

“Fashion is about you and me, and fashion is about what we buy and how we make our closet or what we shouldn’t be buying because no fashion is sustainable,” Landis said. “Costume design is just about the story, … and it’s the creation of personality one at a time.”

[Related: Video game preview: Latest installments breathe new life into popular franchises this spring]

To further establish the role of costume design, fourth-year theater student and Association for Computing Machinery Studio officer Zoë Chavez said a character’s attire reflects both their personality and the world surrounding them. In the realm of gaming, this can even apply to nonhuman characters such as the axolotls in Minecraft, which were added partly to breathe life into the new lush cave biome. Because costuming interacts with its setting, fourth-year theater student Shoshi Brustin said it is a social art that collaborates with and draws from a multitude of disciplines. Landis said video games differ from film and television because they allow the player to take on the role of a designer.

“As a costume designer for the movies, I control everything you see on the screen,” said Landis, the costume designer for “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” “But what about this ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ – you’re sitting down to play this fabulous game, and you’re in control. That’s incredible. And for me, that’s why gaming is bigger than the movies.”

One way players can personalize characters is through the use of skins, which are usually cosmetic changes to the appearance of a character or object with no intentional impact on gameplay mechanics. Though they have a reputation for their superficial nature, skins are a form of costume design, Chavez said. While skins might not set out to contribute to the world building of the game, she said by equipping a skin, a player is taking action to level up their enjoyment of the game.

Outside of customization, certain predetermined costumes such as Mario’s overalls or Lara Croft’s tank top have become iconic for their characters and franchises, Landis said. The origins of these recognizable garments could be a result of the need for readability in older games, Chavez said, citing the use of high-contrast primary colors in Mario’s 8-bit design. Origins aside, Landis said icons are a product of the audience’s adoration, not the costume designer.

“When a costume gets elevated to iconography, it means that character and costume and that individual personality has become a pillar of popular culture and known worldwide,” Landis said. “That’s transcendent. That’s beyond whatever game it started at.”

Because every costume is created by a designer, Brustin said adequate compensation is an issue often overlooked in the entertainment industry. Although these iconic characters are used in products and advertisements, the designer’s pay does not reflect that, they said. In addition to society’s general disregard for art, he said sexism contributes to the problem of fair compensation.

“The biggest issue right now is pay, especially because costume design is discounted because people think of it as traditionally women’s work,” Brustin said. “No, costume designing is the history and the saving of historic techniques and the creation of things that are worn every single day and loved and mended and cared for.”

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Before making snap judgments, Brustin said the public should keep in mind there are artists behind these time-consuming designs who have researched, tweaked and workshopped them many times. Their work is heavily intertwined with the identity of characters, including in media where characters have a single defining outfit, he said.

“Know your directors, know your game developers, but also recognize the incredible team of people who make their vision a success, because without us, their vision is just words on paper or an idea,” Brustin said.

Beyond the digital worlds, cosplayers bring video game characters to life by dressing up as them. Though it may not have been called cosplay then, Landis said the art form has been around for decades, as seen at conventions. Chavez said fan culture benefits from the identifiability of certain video game clothing items, especially at conventions. For example, she said, genre-bending spins like a post-apocalyptic Mario are still understood by many fans, and less avid video game players can identify some characters without knowing their names. Ultimately, the passion cosplayers have for costuming and stories is what Landis said she admires about the community.

“You don’t become a cosplayer without that passion,” Landis said. “You can’t help it, and I want to just say it’s part of that falling-in-love magic. It’s part of wanting to be close to that story or to that character and to take a part of that personality and merge it with your own.”

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Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon
Cobo Cordon is the 2023-2024 music | fine arts editor. She was previously an Arts reporter. She is also a second-year student from northern Virginia.
Cobo Cordon is the 2023-2024 music | fine arts editor. She was previously an Arts reporter. She is also a second-year student from northern Virginia.
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