Previously we posted about Flight of the Conchords and the zany costumes they come up with for their music videos. But they’re not the only band that dresses up for fun!

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with wizard rock. It’s a genre that promotes literacy and fighting evil by rocking out to Harry Potter-based music. There’s much more to wizard rock that I can really cover in a pithy sentence, but what I’m really here to talk about, of course, is the costuming. Part of what makes it so awesome is that everyone can dress up. The bands dress as characters from the books, the fans dress up as witches and wizards, and even the instruments get costumes!

Music, Harry Potter, and costumes—all in one! It’s too good to be true!

Brothers Joe and Paul DeGeorge wear Harry Potter costumes for their band, Harry and the Potters. The two of them created their band, and wizard rock, in 2002.

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Sometimes, a costume is more than just the clothes you wear. Sometimes, a costume is less than just the clothes you wear.

Makeup is something we haven’t talked too much about around here. That’s because makeup is usually an accessory to the costume, something that finishes the costume to make it more complete. It’s not often that a costume is defined by the makeup alone—but sometimes, it can be.

The brilliance behind zombie costumes is that you can wear whatever you want—or just whatever you normally wear. If you had really turned into a zombie, that’s what you would be wearing. As far as costumes go, it’s about as simple as it comes. It’s the makeup that’s really the costume.

To be a zombie, you’ll need pallid, sickly-looking skin. Maybe with a bit of a greenish tint to it. You’ll need at least one wound—that’s the zombie bite that turned you. And if you want to be really dramatic, blood splatters are the way to go.

Fake blood can be easily made by mixing corn syrup with red food coloring. Adding a little cocoa powder to the concoction will give it a darker blood color and ensure that when it dries, it will look just like dried blood.

Making your wounds takes a little more work, but it’s so much more fun. There are plenty of recipes for this kind of thing. I’ve done it with cotton balls and gelatin. I have a friend who made amazing realistic-looking zombie wounds with marshmallows. You can experiment with other textures too, like tissue or corn flakes. The wounds can be glued on with latex (the kind they use in theater to attach fake beards and the like), and painted with makeup and fake blood.

You don’t have to wait until Halloween to do this, either. Grab some friends and make a fast and fun zombie film. Or better yet, participate in one of the many zombie walks that occur every year across the country! Zombiewalk.com is a good resource for finding one, or organize your own in your neighborhood.

Most people don’t think of Memorial Day as a great costuming event. What are you doing to do, go to a graveyard dressed in black? But if you’re a Civil War re-enactor, you feel a little differently about this holiday!

At Greenwich Village in Michigan, there is an event this weekend called Civil War Remembrance. It’s an awesome opportunity to learn more about this tumultuous time in America’s history. There are events and exhibitions regarding all facets of life at the time, as well as concerts and re-enactment shows! But what caught my eye, of course, was the costuming.

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Obviously we like any new take on costumes and the fun associated. Earlier on we reviewed Project Rooftop, our totally favorite superhero costume blog. Dean Trippe really has the system down, and his work is fantastic.

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Since our last Steampunk article, we noticed some focus and attention. The Steampunk lovers are true to the spirit of DIY and costumes.
Now bloggers are uniting to bring them up to status with a recent Steampunk blog carnival. In essence, a blog carnival is when a chosen topic focuses on bringing all the blog posts on the subject into one place for a time. It also inspires people to get writing, creating, sharing, and motivating. This is perfect for the Steampunk community.

Walking the Berkshires hosts a great blog carnival every month or so called “Cabinet of Curiosities”. In this fifth edition, they are highlighting Steampunk in all of its clever details. In fact, it’s better than anything we’ve ever done on the topic, and we can admit it. It’s worth a look.

While there are some great links, we’re mostly interested in the Steampunk costumes and where to go to find out more about them. Here’s what we gathered from the carnival…

• Aether Emporium has an excellent page on Steampunk fashion, where to find it, how to do it, and all the in betweens.
• They also share The Heliograph, a blog with some great Steampunk fashion inspiration.
• The carnival features these gloves mapping London, suggesting a fine point of fashion for Steampunk ladies.

And a few links of our own…

• Social shopping site Kaboodle has some suggestions for Steampunk fashion, always necessary for the costume basis.
• Here’s a great link with some full Steampunk costumes, showing the ensemble look.
• If you’re having a hard time finding a place to get some Steampunk gear that you don’t have to make from scratch, Buysteampunk.com is a good start. Eventually, you’ll want to make it your own though.

Now I know what blog carnivals are good for. It’s nice to know that there’s enough people out there interested in Steampunk to participate in a gathering of good info like this. We’ll dive in more as time goes on, but hopefully that’s enough linking to keep you at your computer for awhile.