At Utah’s FanX, costumes are serious business — and fans spare no effort

There are no costume slackers at the FanX comic convention in Salt Lake City.

Jordan Hagen, for example, started on his Gandalf the Grey costume, a character from “The Lord of the Rings,” roughly six months ago.

After searching across the internet for an authentic-looking Gandalf costume, Hagen failed to find anything pre-made that matched the quality he had in mind. So he hired a professional local costume maker to hand make one for him.

The costumer, who is highly selective about her clients, first interviewed Hagen, to make sure he was serious enough about Gandalf to make him worthy of her devoted efforts.

Hagen told her how he has been “super into wizards,” particularly Gandalf, since he was a kid. He even refers to the character as “uncle Gandalf.”

The costume, which cost Hagen $2,200, is made from hand-dyed wool imported from Scotland. Before handing the replica Gandalf robes off to Hagen, the costumer washed them in the river, “Because Gandalf washed his robes in the river, according to the lore,” Hagen said.

After attending FanX three previous years, this is the first time Hagen dressed up. Seeing everyone else’s costumes, Hagen said, is one of the best part of the event.

“It’s cool to see what people come up with and the costumes and the booths and the art,” he said. “The (FanX) environment, the people, everybody’s kind of like minded. We’re all nerds.”

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Hayl Daugherty, who dressed as Lady Dimitrescu from “Resident Evil,” also hired someone to make her costume — she paid her friend “some money” and “snacks” to create the look.

The most striking part of the costume, is how Daugherty lifted her 5-foot-3 frame to 7-foot-6 with stilts.

“I am a professional stiltwalker. That is a real job that I get paid real money to do,” Daugherty said.

So when Daugherty saw the character concept for a 9-foot tall Lady Dimitrescu, she thought it offered her the perfect opportunity to leverage her stiltwalking skills. “I was like, ‘Wow, I can get pretty close.’”

Daugherty and her husband drove from Phoenix, Arizona, to participate in FanX. They have been coming for the convention for five years now, because the comic convention back home is, “so busy and so uptight and so expensive,” she said.

“FanX is really laid back. It’s wonderful, it’s reasonably priced as far as conventions go. And the weather’s great,” she added. “So it’s worth the drive.”

For fans on a tighter budget, a little creativity carries them a long way.

It took Sushi Preysz and Octavius Stephen somewhere between 30 and 40 hours, and about $60 to build their matching Yarn Creatures costumes, characters from the video game, “Unravel.”

Using several balls of yarn, cardboard, a little stuffing, hot glue and thrifted shirts and pants, the pair constructed their costumes. The process took, “a lot of trial and error,” Preysz said.

In just 10 minutes, the pair was approached by about a dozen other convention-attendees asking for photos. They didn’t mind. For them, meeting people who share similar passions is the best part of the event, Stephen said.

“I just really enjoy how friendly everybody is, and how everybody is just supporting everybody else,” said Preysz. “You see cosplayers of all skill levels getting pictures taken, talking to people and it’s just really exciting to see.”

FanX is a family affair

Dave Johnson has been driving down from Pocatello, Idaho, to attend FanX with his son, Kelly Johnson, since the convention started in 2013.

On Thursday, they were dressed as “Lord of the Rings” characters — the older Johnson wore a Gandalf costume, while his son dressed as a Nazgul. But they wear a different costume everyday, all handmade.

Their costumes are an ongoing work in progress. Kelly Johnson has been building on his Nazgul costume for three years now, and has put an estimated 300 hours into it.

Both Johnsons enjoy the costume-creating process, but the best part of the event is spending time with each other.

“Its something we do as a family,” the younger Johnson said. “We enjoy being together and celebrating our geekiness.”

For 40 years now, Lydia Mead has been a fan of the sci-fi series, “Doctor Who.” She introduced her daughters to it, and now they enjoy the series together.

With David Tennant, an actor who played Doctor Who, on the roster for the convention this year, Mead and her two daughters, McKenzie Mead and Brandy Tuutau, decided to dress up as characters from the show.

The trio dressed as weeping angels, characters featured in multiple episodes of the show.

Mead and her two daughters have been dressing up and going to FanX together since 2017. When asked why they keep returning to the event together, Tuutau said it’s an opportunity to “just be ourselves and have a lot of fun together.”