Monday, July 05, 2010

Skullduggery Band Launch - The Aftermath...



Well yes...where to begin? Where to begin?

Last night was the launch of the much anticipated and much hyped new mas band, Skullduggery.

Now being part of the initial group of volunteers, we had seen beforehand some of the illustrations and prototypes. Of course we saw that the illustrations were fantastic and I remember telling my friends at the time that I hoped those costumes were tweaked before they hit the stage cause some of them looked very umm...not completely up to par, especially with all the plastic type elements they were using.
Fast forward to the launch last night and a lot of the same elements were seen. Plastic strips, caution tape, plastic chains.

My feedback:I did not like the overall look of the band last night. While it may look all together on the road as my dad pointed out, I want my costume to look SO good on me that if I was walking by myself on the road, I would still be stopped to ask to pose for pics...and not stopped to ask me if my band won Jouvert Band of the Year.

My suggestions: (from a totally never design a costume in my life standpoint)
The sections with both male and female in most instances have the same style. Make the females standout. Scrap all the pants like elements from the female costume and replace it with tulle a la Skettle-ton, Jagabat and Soucouyant. (which is probably why these costume have been getting the best feedback).



Eliminate the cheap aspects of the costume, which for me is to remove all those strips of plastic in between the costumes and replace it with some fabric elements instead. Some nice plain cotton would be fine I think.

I would also offer a 3/4 pants option for the men, cause I doh think all men would want those long pants.

Make those costumes road and winery ready...I still eh sure bout that barbwire skirt nah, cute but will inflict damage on people boy children.

And what was that we heard about it taking 3 people to dress the models? I hope that was just in the interest of time.

I would have loved to see more versions of the costumes as we were told there would be. Covered versions of the same costume and skimpier versions of the covered ones. Some individual options would have be great to see as well.

I would have also loved to see the varying Coca-Cola models (bottle, tin, Jaliter) that we were told would be modelling the costumes, that was very much MIA.

I really hope that Skullduggery takes in all the feedback that they have been receiving and asking for to make this band and its masqueraders look great on the road for C2K11.

Photo credit: Skullduggery

6 comments:

phoenix said...

as one of the initial volunteers i totally agree with your review.what i saw (via live streamin)was not as impressive as what those costumes had the potential to be. not even sketelton moved me.i would choose soucouyant if i were to play with skullduggery only because it stayed true to form from the beginning-no tweaking needed whatsoever.

Mazy said...

also one of the initial volunteers... However I think that Soucouyant was different from the prototype! Anyway AC, i really wanted to hear what was your "take"
I myself did not like the overall look, I'm too accustomed to "pretty costumes." AC I am not sure what feedback they will be considering, unless they read Saucy's blog, because their f/book page is saying something else!

Trinidad Carnival Diary said...

I think your points are valid and very constructive.

The designer did contact me and I directed her to your blog as well.

Sonia was very grateful for all the comments and we will see some some changes, not to compromise the integrity of the design however and only the ones she agrees with of course ;)

afro chic said...

Hey Phoenix and Mazy, I'm glad to see that the other volunteers thoughts were similar to mine. There was SO much talk and hype for this band.

I wonder if all the other plans they spoke about are going to come to fruition.

Saucy I do not think we going to see much changes at all, if any.

Mazy said...

I'm curious to know how registration is going and I agree with you AC, that we may not see much changes.
Does any of the volunteers here still feel like they want to play with Skullduggery?

JayJayGhatt said...

excellent review!