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Fancy Dress, Cosplay & The Paranormal

MrRING

Android Futureman
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Aug 7, 2002
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The Ghost Evolution thread has reminded me of a vague idea that I wanted to post about here.

I've been interested in the history of sci-fi fans and fandom and other such geeky stuff, and there have come to light many resources about the costumes that people wear at them and how they have changed over the years, like this:
https://www.cosplaycentral.com/them...world-science-fiction-convention-1966-cosplay

I would have thought that it had begun more recently than even 1966, but it can be traced back to 1939's Worldcon at least:
http://www.fiawol.org.uk/fanstuff/then archive/cosplay/cos01.htm

What struck me about the early costuming was how close they appeared to be an extension of the way the classic "fancy dress" ball outfits would look, a little like a mix of the antiquated and the futuristic all at the same time.
https://www.mimimatthews.com/2016/0...ll-popular-costumes-of-the-late-19th-century/

So how does this related to ghosts and other phenomenon involving manifestations? It's just this minor notion: the evolution of looks in fancy dress ball costuming as it continued to be a relatively common human experience, where there were nods to an idealized past for whatever era (say the folks of 1585 by dressing in a medieval style), and how for people in later eras those pasts were part of what became the fancy dress for them (say in 1685 the clothes of 1585 became their costume, and for the folks of 1785 would see the normal dress of 1685 as a costume, but a swindling few might still dress like 1585 still).... A similar trend seems to follow the visualization of ghosts as being from an earlier era and rarely their own, yet with a sliding timetable where really older ghosts seem to fade away in reports over time and are replaced by more ghosts from more recent times. And taking somebody like Springheel Jack, who seemed both ancient and futuristic at the time, he'd likely be just seen as old-fashioned in terms of his described dress now.

And in the way that in cosplay (and normal modern clothing) there are slighter and slighter differences between what people wear these days, so few fashions of the recent past look so outlandish that you'd look strange. And it seems like more people report ghosts just slightly out of touch with modern outfits, or in more vaugue terms than that (shadowmen etc).

Is this atomic half-life of ghosts and other fiends related to how we see the past and it cloaks whatever the phenomenon is with this human trait of keeping the near past with embellishments of the future (or strangeness), while the much older stuff fades away?
 
I have met re enactors claiming they were mistaken for ghosts
This post reminded me of the famous Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain incident where they magnificently and unusually travelled back in time... or experienced a cosplayer:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/554109/edwardian-women-who-claimed-travel-back-time
On October 5, 1789, Marie Antoinette dressed in a casual, low-cut dress and a wide-brimmed hat and arranged a campstool on the grassy terrace of her chateau, the Petit Trianon, in Versailles. She was perched there sketching some nearby trees when her quiet repose was interrupted by a breathless page, bringing news that an angry mob was on their way from Paris.

These were the events of the French queen’s last day at her beloved Trianon, and the beginning of the end for the French monarchy. Or at least, these are the details alleged by Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain in their book The Adventure. The two women claimed that when they toured the royal palace in 1901, something extraordinary happened: They were transported back to the 18th century, where they glimpsed the queen on what may have been the last happy day of her life.
 
What struck me about the early costuming was how close they appeared to be an extension of the way the classic "fancy dress" ball outfits would look, a little like a mix of the antiquated and the futuristic all at the same time.
And it seems like more people report ghosts just slightly out of touch with modern outfits, or in more vaugue terms than that (shadowmen etc).
I find this a really interesting connection—that people would design a costume as "a mix of the antiquated and the futuristic all at the same time" and also perceive ghosts/phantoms as "slightly out of touch with modern outfits." There is a logic in what is perceived as out of touch with one's own time. Regardless of the origin of ghosts, the imagination perhaps has an expectation of how something/someone looks if from another time or reality, and since each generation grows up with a different "current" look, the perceived appearance of of ghosts would shift as time passes and fashions change.

Assuming ghosts are "real"—whatever real means—we are perhaps the ones who clothe them, which is why clothes have ghosts . . .
But ghost monks always look the same, since monks don't follow fashion . . .
 
Hmm i just don’t get the cosplay thing adults dressing up and stuff but it’s harmless fun innit.
Bit like re-enactors I suppose. I now expect getting such a kicking from any re-enactors on the forum so I profoundly apologise now
 
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