About the Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a body of achievement in the costuming art and service to the costuming community. Candidates for the award:
- Shall have been active in the costuming community for at least 10 years.
- Shall 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.
- Shall have made significant contributions in service to the costuming community.
The ICG President oversees the nomination and election process. Nominations can be made by any ICG member, chapter, or SIG in good standing, and are due no later than 60 days before the annual members meeting. ICG chapter presidents and the five elected officers vote on the nominations. Send nominations to laa-nomination@costume.org with “LAA Nomination” as the subject line.
Preparing a Nomination
Preparing an effective nomination takes time, so we strongly recommend starting as early as possible. Past recipient citations were based on information provided in their nominations.
Here are some tips for preparing a nomination:
- Not all chapter presidents and officers who vote on the award are familiar with the person you are nominating. Give them a good understanding of your nominee’s qualifications and accomplishments.
- Start with a one- or two-paragraph “executive summary” that addresses all the qualifications for the award. This is your best chance to make your case, so spend some quality time on this.
- Follow that with some notable accomplishments that support what you said in your “executive summary.” A few well-chosen examples are usually enough.
- If you are describing costuming skills, include a couple of URLs to photos in the ICG’s International Costumers’ Gallery or other photo sites as examples.
- Nominations typically run from several paragraphs to a full page (200-500 words). Quality is more important than quantity.
In 1988, costume fandom presented an award for lifetime achievement to Karen Anderson at the World Science Fiction Convention, Nolacon II (New Orleans). This was the first such award, ever. It is a forerunner of the ICG Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lifetime Achievement Awards
The highest honor the International Costumers’ Guild pays to costumers is its Lifetime Achievement Award. Beginning in 1990, the following costumers have received the Award for their contributions to the costuming community.
2024 – Jeanine Swick