Assembling a costume can be a test of patience and persistence. Replica Props Forum (RPF) user MaXer has poured a lot of time (years) into putting together a screen accurate costume of Jim Carrey’s The Mask. It’s one of his favorite films of all time so he took the time to do research and find vendors to work with on everything from the suit to the teeth. He worked with Magnoli, Baron Hats, and Immortal Mask among others. He documented the progress of the costume at the RPF and it’s worth reading to see what it’s like to work with others on costume pieces rather than making it all yourself. For example, here are some of MaXer’s notes on figuring out the suit:
I finally found some yellow fabric that matched pretty well in color. Not perfect at all, still too thin, but it was the best I could find. I found some dotted lining with dots in different sizes as well. Not as accurate as I’d like, but pretty good. And it only took three years… I asked Magnoli about maybe printing onto some fabric if I came up with the pattern, and he said he could do it. So off with me to get caps showing the lining and designing a repeatable pattern from scratch. I finally finished it, sent it to Magnoli, who helped making it repeatable, and sent him the outer fabric for the suit.
Given the challenges with the not-so-suitable-suit-fabric the jacket turned out very well! There were a lot of problems getting the pants right because apparently some of the tailors didn’t know how to take directions, and I had to send new fabric because they messed them up so bad. Magnoli has been real good and helpful about it, so in the end I got some pants that were satisfactory.
Read more about the making of The Mask costume and see additional pictures at The RPF.
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