Happy Halloween!
The Art of Costume Design: Halloween 2023 Special
October 31, 2023
Happy Halloween everyone! This season is full of wicked surprises, trick-or-treating, and even fun costumes! It is definitely my favorite time of the year! In honor of today’s spook-tacular occasion, the creative people at Amethyst Studios have decided to showcase some of our best and favorite aspects of our productions: Costume Design.
What is Costume Design? Well, the basic definition is the creation of clothing and costumes for the characters to wear in a movie or TV show. It's an above-the-line production job in the entertainment industry that is not only a lot of fun, but is a very creative one. The design of the character’s clothes depends on the setting and world of the movie/show. What time period is it set in? Where in the world do the characters live? What kind of characters are they?
A lot of research and effort is put into making the costumes, especially when creating period pieces. In our canceled show Goffik Gurlz (later turned into the short film, The Infamous Fallout of Tara and Raven), a lot of time and effort was put into creating the different designs for the many characters in the show, whether they were based off a certain gothic person or an original character for the show. To us, the design down to the very appearance is what really defined who they were, especially when you consider the time period the show was supposed to be set in (mid 2000s). Even further than that, many wigs and props were bought from Party City, to help enhance the feel of the characters. They really helped distinguish each of the characters, really defining who they were, based on their social groups. We have a good collection of wigs stored, and whether they were used or unused, they can prove to be very beneficial when it comes to creating film productions.
Today, in this article, we will be picking out some of the top 6 best costume designs and wigs from our collection, especially from Goffik Gurlz, going into detail as to what they are, why they are like this, and what makes them unique about the character.
#1: Raven Acidbath
One of the most main and iconic characters is Raven the Acidbath Princess of the Darkness, played by Kan Seamount. She is based off the YouTube character (from the xXblo0dyxkissxX channel) and the My Immortal editor of the same name. This wig is one of our favorites, as it’s a very gothic-like wig with a cute hairstyle that fits the character so well. Her wig is actually based off the hairstyle of the real-life Raven Acidbath, who is now all grown up and has a very beautiful hairstyle and appearance that really makes her unleash her inner goth!
We knew that this fit her character well, so that’s why we went for her present day look.
In addition, we knew that her clothing style had to look very goth-like for the time period. In the videos, she was always introduced as the “Acidbath Princess of the Darkness” while her best friend was just simply “Tara”. Raven was always the one with the most gothic-esque personality, so we knew that it would fit to give her the most gothic-looking clothes, socks, and shoes you could think of.
We actually looked at real-life photo references on how mall goths in the mid 2000s looked, and they would typically wear the black combat boots and the striped socks you see in the picture. It fits both the time period and the style perfectly.
#2: Azer the Mime of Darkness
Next up, we have Azer, one of Raven and Tara’s friends and the third person of the trio. Keep in mind that just like Azer’s actor, Rynn Brown, the real-life Azer also identifies as non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns, so please refer to them as such.
Like Tara and Raven on YouTube, Azer is a goth character created for the sole purpose of the xXblo0dyxkissxX channel. They have appeared in only a few of their videos, though. In the show and channel lore, they are part of the goth subculture at the school, but they have also met Tara and Raven “at the anime table at lunch”, and was said to be a prep who went to Hollister instead of Hot Topic, where goths always go.
That means that not only is Azer a poser, but is part of the anime prep subculture group, another group of friends that have a heavy presence in the series, and even the short film. They are also outcasts, though Raven and Tara despise them for being preps.
For Azer’s design, we wanted them to have both a goth and an anime prep appearance. In our lore, anime preps usually have casual and cute designs, with colored hair that is kind of based on the aesthetic and clothing of anime. And since Azer had blonde hair, we had to buy a wig, since Rynn Brown actually has dark hair.
In the picture, you can see that while Azer is wearing a black jacket and hat, you can kind of see their preppiness shining through, what with the bright pants and shoes. And the jacket is not completely black. If you look closely, you can see that Azer is wearing the Hufflepuff jacket, the Hogwarts house from Harry Potter, which according to Tara, is a preppy house while Slytherin is considered the gothic house. This represents the balance of Azer’s personality between the mall goths and the anime preps.
#3: Rose Amethyst
She is not part of the YouTube nor My Immortal character lore, but is actually an original character created solely for the series, in terms of world building. She is actually played by Ashley Adamian, who also plays Tara Gillesbie.
As you can tell, she is sporting a bright purple wig. This is one of our favorite aspects of creating the series, because characters like her really delve deep into the very separate lives of the anime preps, with their specific friend groups, that remain separate from the mall goths. It gives the audience more to look forward
to, in terms of how big the school is and the extensiveness of the many social groups of the teenage students.
While the mall goths were wearing all black, the anime preps are a different story. As stated with Azer, we based their styles off the modest hair colors and appearances that are inspired from anime. In this case, Rose Amethyst has purple hair, and there are anime characters who have different colored hair like her. This expresses who she is, down to her cute little style.
Had this series been a thing, we would’ve had a whole lot more cute designs for her. Thankfully, we have other costumes for other characters.
#4: Britney
Britney is another anime prep character who stole the spotlight in the short film as pretty much the bright and confident leader of the anime prep friends. It’s no wonder that she was able to teach Tara some Japanese words, and even help resolve the conflict between her and Tara, thanks to her connection with Azer.
In the My Immortal fanfiction, she is mentioned in the Author’s Note in Chapter 16, where Tara thanks Britney for teaching her Japanese words. This is what made us expand her character into an anime fanatic, and from there, branching out and creating the anime prep subculture group for the series.
What we love about Britney is that her actress, Alicia Celestine, is an anime fan in real life, so she already had anime-esque outfits ready to go. There was even no need for a wig when her hair was already dyed to fit the character and the type of character she is!
As you can tell in this image and some of her other outfits, she had very cutely-designed outfits of anime shirts, the cheetah
prints, and the colorful colors that fit well with her personality and interest. These clothes are timeless, and don’t need to specifically be from the 2000s, but from any time during the past 30 years (from today).
Britney’s outfits became the fun, prime inspiration for what we wanted the anime preps to dress up as. It was fun, nonetheless.
#5: Cassie Rose (Minecraft: Story Mode)
This is a slightly different one. This is actually a cosplay of Cassie Rose from the video game Minecraft: Story Mode, created by TellTale Games. She appeared in Season 1 Episode 6, titled “A Portal to Mystery”, where she and many other Minecraft YouTubers are in a mansion, and the plot is a murder mystery. Spoiler alert… Cassie is the killer!
A fun fact, is that back in 2019, when Amethyst Studios was very new, there was also supposed to be a web series based on the backstory of the video game episode, how the characters’ drama unfolded, and the events that lead them to this mansion. And
while there were many bright ideas, motivation to finish writing was lost for the series. However, the red wig was bought for the 2021 Halloween occasion, and it was also going to be used for Goffik Gurlz, where Kan Seamount was set to play yet another separate anime prep character, Roxanne Kennedy.
Like with Ashley Adamian’s Rose Amethyst, Kan Seamount’s Roxanne Kennedy had many cute designs thought out for the series, starting with the red wig.
#6: Tara Gillesbie
And last, but not least, the secondary star of the show, Tara Gillesbie! The pseudonym of the author behind the infamous “My Immortal” fanfiction. She is Raven’s bestie and a transfer student at this crazy school, who ends up changing it with her iconic fanfiction through connections and much more.
If you notice, her goth appearance isn’t as exciting as Raven’s. It just consists of black pants with a P!ATD shirt. The reason why this is is because on the YouTube channel (who is actually not the fanfiction author in real life), she was referred to as just her basic name “Tara”, with nothing too fancy. So why, in the show, does she suddenly make this insane gothic fanfiction?
Our vision for the character is that she relies mainly on her imagination to define herself. This is a hint, as she was always notorious for describing the character’s clothing. She always imagines and sees herself as a crazy goth doing cool things Raven would do, but in reality, all she does is wear black clothes. And even though it is a basic representation of mall goths, it is actually kind of realistic and make sense. Not all mall goths are going to dress as wild as Raven, which is fine. But as stated, it is in character for Tara.
To sum it all up, costume and makeup design is one of the best aspects of our productions. It defines a character for who they are, making them stand out in the film/show. It is even fun and fashionable to see it on screen!
Anyway, thank you for reading this article! What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Have fun trick-or-treating and stay safe!
