The costumes at Flipside were, alas, too much like generic Halloween costumes -- a mishmash of naughty nurses, maids, goth nurses, goth maids, etc., only with even less consideration for esthetics than one would see at, say, a workplace Halloween party. Many of those costumes, I think, would have been disqualified by Kim Kofmel on the basis of "no costume is no costume" rule.
Synopsis from Linucon program book: Wanting to build a costume? Grab a seat for some tips and tricks from those who know.
Panelists: Kim Kofmel, Jay Maynard, Cathy Raymond
My impression. There are several ways you can win a costume award at a masquerade. By making audience laugh, for example. By being original. There is also a fairly self-explanatory "workmanship" category. This panel devoted quite a bit of space to the tips and tricks of how to make a costume, and they managed to be quite entertaining while doing that. Far from being tedious, their discussion was enlivened with all kinds of titillating details from the costume history. The panelists also spoke about the psychology of wearing a costume, and the motivation for making one in the first place. All in all, an interesting panel even for those who, like myself, have only a marginal interest in costuming.
Pictures from Linucon 2004 can be found in my photo gallery.
Read more about The Tron Guy in my blog.