That Guy with the Horns, the Fur and the Spear

[Anne Davenport]

I know I'm a costumer because I just had to review this costume here; I think it is too incendiary for the newsletter.

To start, I am only interested in evaluating what amounts to a hall costume (we certainly don't have any conventions to wear them at for now) -- I'm talking about the guy in the red-white-and-blue-face-paint, fur hat with horns and tails, shirtless and carrying a spear. The news cameras saw him; he was committing a felony with a bunch of his pals on Jan 6th in the US Capitol building.  There are so many issues for that day and they all need to go on some OTHER place on the internet. This is just about the outfit.

Yes, I am shallow.

In general, it was a decent costume with a few serious drawbacks:

(1) Horns?  In a crowd?  Nooooooooooo. Bad idea for a hall costume. You WILL poke someone in the eye with them. Not a good choice.  Horns are for stage costumes only.

(2) Spear?  Same problem. Plus, it's a weapon.  Security would be an issue.  Or it should be.

(3) Bare chested in January in Washington DC?  Not the most sensible choice when looking at being comfortable in the costume.

Otherwise the outfit projected 'shaman' pretty well.

- Shoes matched the outfit, plain dark boots with the cuffs of the loose tan pants tied at the ankle. Good choice for climbing a lot of stairs.

- Dark gloves matched the shoes.

- He had a dark pouch on a cord around his neck - appropriate for a shaman. This shaman does know how to accessorize.

- Body art also projected 'shaman' but my only response to it is the same that I have for anyone else's tatoos; "Ooouch!"

- The fur hat looked like coyote, especially with the long tails. Or maybe it was made from really huge raccoons since there was some striping pattern on the tails.

- The pants looked comfortable enough, leather I assume. They looked like drawstring pants and hung a little low. But he was doing a lot of running around and I didn't hear anything about them falling off (that certainly would have made the news), so it looks like they were fitted well.

- Beard and body hair also project 'shaman' and the face paint was a quick easy-to-apply pattern (though the stars on the blue side were just white smudges) and the colors matched the flag attached to his spear.

I saw multiple photos of him online posing for the camera in a fashion that is so disturbingly familiar to anyone who has posed in costume for the camera.  And finally, I will say that I truly, honestly hope that I never, ever see this outfit again.