Carbon Costume

This past weekend, the 2024 Oscars were more than memorable thanks to Ryan Gosling bringing the Kenergy to the awards with his explosive live performance of ‘I’m Just Ken.’ Although Barbie didn’t win best picture or director, Ryan truly made a lasting impression by flooding our screens and the stage with pink. He was accompanied by a large ensemble of Kens supporting him as background dancers. The look of the performance was inspired by the iconic scene featuring Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Of course in this case, Ryan is the iconic blonde and the ensemble wear costumes inspired by the men in the ensemble from the film. Choosing this classic film as inspiration is also fitting as Greta Gerwig took a lot of inspiration from large sweeping sound-stage musicals from that time. The I’m Just Ken scene in Barbie is actually inspired by Singin’ in the Rain, from the dream ballet sequence with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly.

To dress like a backup dancer from this performance, wear a black tailcoat blazer, white pocket square, white vest, white shirt, white bow tie, black pants, pink socks, and black dress shoes. Pair this with a black cowboy hat and don’t forget to create the pink sash. This can be made by wearing a hot pink 3.5 inch wide sash and either gluing or sewing a 2 inch light pink ribbon down the center. The sash is worn over the white button down tux shirt, but under and tucked into the white vest. This would make for a great duo or group costume with your favorite Kens, and one of them being Ryan’s Ken in the all-pink suit.

Timmy is the youngest member of the McDoodle family trying to survive a nuclear explosion in the indie game 60 Seconds!  He is the brother of Mary Jane and the son of Dolores and Ted.  Timmy has curly ginger hair and freckles.  He wears a blue and yellow striped shirt, olive shorts, suspenders, socks, and slippers.  If you can’t find an exact match for his shirt, choose one that has similar cut and colors.

Keith (voiced in Japanese by Hiroaki Hirata and in English by Ray Chase) is one of the main characters in the Netflix original anime series, B the Beginning.

He is a genius detective that came out of retirement to work with the R.I.S. in their efforts to catch the serial killer known as ‘Killer B’, which launches him into a much deeper investigation involving the case that made him quit in the first place.

Keith has dark teal eyes with a long thin scar underneath his right one, and he wears thin framed glasses. His hair is blackish-brown and worn in a short, shaggy cut, and his beard and mustache are much the same. The outfit he’s usually seen in is a loose-fitting off-white button up shirt, with a matching set of dark grey suit jacket and slacks, with a simple brown belt. It’s finished off with dark brown shoes, which he wears seemingly without socks.

Tamaki (voiced in Japanese by Yūto Uemura and in English by Aaron Dismuke) is one of the secondary main characters in the anime/manga My Hero Academia.

He is part of the Big Three at UA along with Mirio and Nejire, but vastly prefers to stay out of the focus of attention, as he is highly anxious. His Quirk comes from the foods he eats, which allows him to emulate various animal traits while in battle.

Tamaki has spiky indigo hair that’s very reminiscent of Sasuke or Noctis, similarly colored eyes, and his ears are pointed. He has the bulkiest hero costume of the three, with it being a basic black bodysuit underneath, a white skirt-like wrap over top, and several gold banded accessories. He wears a purple tactical vest with several pockets in it for aid in fighting, a hooded gold and white cloak with a metal neckpiece, and it’s finished off with a purple visor with gold trim.

Enid Mettle (voiced by Mena Suvari and Ashly Burch) is a main character in the animated series OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes.  She works as a cashier at Gar’s Hero Supply and Bodega alongside her friends Kaio Kincaid and Radicles X.  Enid has purple hair she wears in a bun.  She wears brown booties, black compression shorts, and a blue crop top with longer white sleeve-like bandages on her arms.  To build your costume, you’ll need a white shrug and then a blue sleeveless cropped shirt over it along with a purple wig, black bike shorts, and brown boots.

Sandy is one of the iconic characters from the 1978 musical film Grease, and is played by Olivia Newton-John. Grease follows the life of high school students in the 1950s, specifically the story of Sandy and Danny who had a romance over the summer before the school year. Sandy is a sweet new student from Australia and in the end of the film, transforms into her very recognizable all-black and leather costume.

To dress like Sandy from the film, wear a yellow pastel sweater and skirt, a white collared blouse, white ruffled socks and white sneakers. For her look at the end of the movie, wear a black cropped leather jacket, an off-the-shoulder fitted top, black leather leggings, a black waist belt, and red heels.

Aubrey is a character from the 2012 film Pitch Perfect, and is played by Anna Camp. Pitch Perfect is a comedy that follows Beca, a college student that joins the all-girls singing group at her school called The Bellas who take on the rival all-male group in competition.

Aubrey is one of the co-leaders of The Barden Bellas. To dress like the first look we see her in, wear a hot pink midi short sleeve dress. To dress like the iconic stage uniform of the Bella’s, wear a navy cardigan over a white button shirt, navy pencil skirt, and a yellow printed scarf worn around the neck.

Olette (voiced in Japanese by Yuka Hirasawa and in English by Jessica DiCicco [KH2]) is one of the main characters that appears in Twilight Town in the Kingdom Hearts game series.

She is one of Roxas’ friends in the simulated Twilight Town, as well as a major character in the real one, and is part of his group with Pence and Hayner. She’s one of the more level-headed ones of the group, as she’s more often than not trying to get the others to behave.

Olette has chocolatey brown hair worn spiked out to the sides and with two long tails reaching down to her shoulders, and her eyes are a bright green. For her KH2 outfit she wears an orange tank top with white borders and flowers patterned across it, and possibly either a black undershirt or sports bra underneath. Her pants are a soft toned creamy yellow pair of capris, which she pairs with orange and white socks that match her shirt, and white, gold, and black shoes. The look is finished off with a teal beaded bracelet and a matching single bead black corded necklace.

Andrew is one of the characters from the iconic 1985 film The Breakfast Club and is played by Emilio Estevez. The Breakfast Club is a comedy film that follows five students from different backgrounds and each with unique personalities as they all endure Saturday detention in High School.

Andrew is a typical student athlete/ jock character and his wardrobe definitely reflects that. To dress like Andrew, wear a blue letterman-style jacket over a blue zip-up hoodie, a blue tank top, blue jeans, and sneakers.

A new TV series has been going viral online for its spot-on live action adaptation of the video game franchise Fallout that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. This series depicts the aftermath of The Great War of 2077, where survivors take refuge in fallout shelters or Vaults, which are actually all created as different experiments on the people who live in them. It follows a woman named Lucy who leaves Vault 33 to find her father in the dangerous wasteland of what is left of Los Angeles. She runs into a Ghoul bounty hunter, originally named Cooper Howard. He was a film actor before the war. In this guide I’ll be covering Cooper Howard’s cowboy costume in Episode 1.

Although this costume looks complicated to make, this guide is doable for an artist of any level. Starting with the iconic blue and gold western shirt, use a blue western dress shirt or just western-style shirt as the base to build off of. For the gold/ cream section on the top portion of the shirt and the sleeve cuffs, cut either a jacquard patterned or brushed twill fabric to the shape of the top of the shirt and either glue it down (the edges will be covered by the fringe trim but iron and fold edges for a cleaner look) or sew the fabric on top. If you’re skilled in sewing and want to take it even further, seam rip the top section from the collar and sleeves and use the removed blue piece as a pattern for the gold fabric, adding seam allowance to sew back in place. You can also add cream piping/ bias tape along the collar and front button panels.

Next, along the edge of the gold fabric you added, either sew or glue on gold fringe trim, following the edge across the front, over the shoulder, and to the back.

Now for the details on the gold fabric: if you choose a printed jacquard fabric, you can keep as is. It gives the same effect of having variety to the surface. However if you have more time to add detail, choose the solid brushed twill fabric and paint and/or embroider a similar pattern of line drawings of scorpions similar to the photos. Doing a combination of both flat painted and 3-D embroidered icons gives it the same variety as the one from the series. You can also paint or embroider (or both) the icons on the collar.

For the rest of the costume, wear brown pants like these western-style Wrangler pants. Bootcut works better to cover cowboy boots like the ones linked below. On top of those, wear a brown cowboy holster belt. More accessories to complete the look include a cream cattleman’s crease style cowboy hat, a sheriff’s badge and a gold neck scarf. To be even more screen-accurate for the scarf, take a solid cream or white bandana, and tie-dye it yellow.

If you have a kiddo that can match with you, you can also follow my guide for Janey Howard’s costume. Even further, I’ve also created one for Janey’s mother, and Cooper’s wife Barb Howard.