Ageing and distressing

kings dominion

The next step after creating these beautiful garments, is to age and distress them. It is absolutely terrifying to see your work shredded, bloodied, and dyed, but the end result adds a layer of realism and depth to these costumes, It helps them tell a story. When ageing and distressing I use a wide variety of tools and materials, such as, foam clay, silicone, fabric scraps, beading, hand painting, airbrush painting, dyeing, and a lot of fake blood.

The top 3 photos are from a scare zone called Masquerade, the inspiration for their distressing is Haute Couture Gore. Each “gore patch” is attached to the costume with snaps so it can be removed for laundering. The “gore patches” are created using fabric, beading, silicone, foam clay and polyurethane based fake blood. Each bone was sculpted and painted, then they were added to the removable patches.

The bottom 3 photos are from different mazes within Kings Dominion. The first 2 are from Corn Stalkers: Blood Harvest, and the last one is from Grimm Woods. The middle photo is of our flayed bungee scare actor, the suit is a purchased garment that I painted and poured silicone over to add a 3D realistic muscle effect to. The suit only has the silicone in specific places because it adds a lot of weight and removes the stretch from the fabric. The last photo if of a woods witch, the cloak is comprised of 2 pieces, the under cloak and the over cloak. This was done to help with the laundering and repair process. The overcloak is made to look like vines, moss, and fungi that would be growing on the fauna in the forest. These materials were chosen so that the costume could be laundered. The mushrooms on the over cloak are made from fabric that is stuffed and painted.