Rachel Petterson was lead costume designer 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt.* Apparently, she was overqualified for that role, seeing as how she was the Judges' Winner at the 2023 Her Universe Fashion Show for fan fashion/geek couture at San Diego Comic-Con for her "Totally Minnie" dress, which is somehow both definitely a fashion-y design-y dress and all about Minnie Mouse.
Her blog post links to a video of the whole fashion show. If you want to see just the fashion-y/design-y parts of the show while skipping over the parts where the emcees raffle off gifts to audience members, then here are some links that fast-forward to those parts:
- first batch of contest entrants;
- second batch of contest entrants;
- third batch of contest entrants;
- audience members stage walk
I recommend that video (well, I recommend it if you skip over the raffle-handout bits, somehow less compelling seeing as how it's after the fact so you can't win); all of the outfits are impressive, and some of them were wild. Like there was this pair of trousers covered with eyes that were unmistakably Miss Piggy's eyes. And watching it, you just get a mental image of a combination Miss Piggy+biblically-accurate angel appearing to Kermit the Frog. Like, she's saying "Be not afraid." And Kermit is of course terrified and waggling his arms in the air and screaming "Aaaaaaa" and she's aggravated and aggrieved and saying "Kermieeee, c'est moi. I said Be not afraid." The designer said, “The Muppet eyes are so iconic—so weird. They’re just silly-looking, but that’s what the Muppets are” so you know she gets it.
These works are all fashionable, fannish, and very personal. E.g., Rachel's dress isn't just about Minnie Mouse, but specifically about this one music record she listened to back when she was a kid in the 1980s, so the dress refers to Minnie, to 1980s fashion, to the record… Anyhow, pretty neat, check the video out and prepare to be impressed.
*She also contributed to a couple of puzzles and an event and furthermore staffed etc., but the costumery seems like the relevant thing to mention.
