From the President’s Desk — December 2025

by | Dec 19, 2025 | From the President's Desk

Seasons Greetings!

Amidst the chaos of my work location shutting down (all but a scant few dozen people have now retired, been laid off, or relocated to the Silicon Valley Lab site just south of us, there has not been much bandwidth for costuming or ICG business — but there has been a little.

 

The Paws that Refreshes — Fursuit Frenzies

I DID finish my Qubit fursuit project in time for PawCon. I even managed to add a tail to the “partial” so had head, paws and tail ready to go for the convention, and got out in him to visit the dealers room for about an hour. That was my limit, in part because I discovered the head was still shedding some fur pile from the edges and it kept getting into my eyes.

MANY MANY gory details of the construction are documented in my Twisted Image build diary

I also had a very fun mission for LACon 5, which was to find a vendor and commission a partial fursuit of their mascot, Fuzzy the Channel Island Fox (named in honor of Fuzzy Niven). I knew I didn’t have time to build it myself, but found a great Etsy artist who delivered on time for Fuzzy to initially appear at LosCon Thanskgiving weekend. It was a super fun commission and I can hardly wait to see the pictures of Fuzzy in action.

New explorations:

Andy and I will be visiting Portugal for the first time in early January. Who knows what costume inspirations may strike?!!

LAA Nominations

It is never too early to submit (or update/reactivate) nominations for the 2026 ICG Lifetime Achievement Award. I’ve already received one.  To quote from last year’s post:

Any ICG member, chapter, or SIG in good standing may submit nominations for the ICG Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations may be submitted at any time (see below for deadlines) to laa-nomination@costume.org

The Lifetime Achievement Award, the ICG’s highest honor, recognizes a body of achievement in the costuming art and service to the costuming community. Candidates must have been active in the costuming community for at least 10 years, have achieved significant recognition for their costuming skills (which may be in the form of, but not restricted to, competitive awards, professional accomplishments, teaching of skills, and/or media recognition), and have made significant contributions in service to the costuming community.
Full nomination criteria are posted on the ICG website at

I will post next month with the exact timeline for nominations, but expect it will be similar, with an early February deadline for the 2026 award.

Happy Holidays

In this time of year when (Northern Hemisphere) days are short and nights are long and especially dark, and as we navigate our current sometimes gloomy world, many solstice-adjacent celebrations encourage us to join together and shine our light for all to see — to celebrate life, each other, and the good around us, with an eye to building a brighter and better tomorrow.
I wish you joy, love, comfort, and security during this season and those to come. I intend to keep burning bright; I hope you will join me.

Kevin Roche
President, International Costumers’ Guild

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