Concerning Hobbits

Special Note: While Lucy Jane is predominately a lady of Regency England influence, the costuming and artistic creativity under her name spans all manner of time, history, imagination, design concepts and inspirations.  I'll try to make it easy to keep up, but understand, I'm a tad bit all over the place!! :)

It's hard to believe that it has been 12 years since Peter Jackson dazzled us with his vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  If you have somehow been living under a rock and have not seen these films, I'd like the mailing address to your cave dwelling so that I can issue you an engraved invitation to get your hands on the DVDs and enjoy the goodness that is Middle Earth.  Afterwards, I'll send you another invitation: to see the upcoming 'prequel' to what happened before Frodo and Sam took the Ring into Mordor.  That's right!  The Hobbit, also being made by Peter Jackson and the magical people at WETA, is being released this Christmas!!!

LOTR geeks, Rejoice!!! :D

Here is a trailer to further drive home how excited I am about this! More costuming news after the break...

Isn't the excitement contagious?! :)
So a decade-ish ago when each of the LOTR films came out, I did what any normal (read: over-the-top) fantasy/fiction fan does when a wildly popular book is made into a blockbuster smash:  I went to the theater IN COSTUME.  Oh, my skills have vastly improved over time, and I'm not saying that my Elf get-up was anything much to crow about. (I will try, try, try to find a long lost photo!)   But it was such fun!  I kept my prosthetic ear tips on for work the next day, just to mess with people, and that was fun, too! ;)

Now, I am aware that technically, I'm not tall enough to be an Elf.  Numerous sources, not the least of which is this End-All-Be-All LOTR Wiki Site, state the average height of a Middle Earth elf to be between 5'5" and 6'.  Conversely, the average height of a Hobbit of the Shire is 3'6" or so.  Hmm.  To my knowledge, there are no female human characters in The Hobbit.  One of the only LOTR human females is Eowyn, a Shieldmaiden of Rohan.

And so, for the December release of The Hobbit, my choice has been either a very short elf, or an unusually tall hobbit!  Drawn up to my full height, I am all of 5'2".  Having been teased for much of my adult life as being "the short one", I decided to embrace my small stature and dress as the latter option.  (The release of the film still being eight and a half months away, I don't consider it beyond the realm of possibility that I will, in fact, create an elf costume in addition to the hobbit one, and see the film 2 nights in a row... we shall see...!)

In the following months, I'll take you through the process as I create a hobbit outfit.  (All the while praying for one of our 60 degree Georgia December days for the premier, as I will be barefoot!)  I'm just putting some finishing touches on the concept board now, so look for that in the next fortnight or so.

Who is your favorite LOTR character?  Whom could you most convincingly dress as?  What do you think of over-zealous fans who are as comfortable in a robe/corset/suit of armor/wings/whatnot as everyone around them is in jeans and t-shirts?