![\"Elaine](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/costume.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/elaine_mami_laa_headshot.png?resize=176%2C182&ssl=1\")
When Elaine Mami passed away in 2025, the Sick Pups lost one of their founders. Elaine and her husband, Carl, were among the eleven weird but talented costumers who banded together to create the Sick Pups, more formally known as the New Jersey-New York Costumers\u2019 Guild, Inc. Elaine served for many years as our founding president, and later as our corresponding secretary, a job she loved because it gave her little to do that would keep her from costuming.<\/p>\n
Elaine\u2019s house in NJ was the Sick Pups most common venue for meetings and workshops, until she and Carl moved to Arizona. And she didn\u2019t just costume at cons; she and Carl were also involved in her local theater group, as costumers and prop manufacturers. For at least a couple of years, their garage shared a lot of space with the huge Egyptian sarcophagus they created for a production of \u2018The Man Who Came To Dinner.\u2019<\/p>\n
She was one of the members of the Royal Court of Amber, an entry in the masquerade at Torcon III, the 2003 World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto, which won Best in Show for both workmanship and stage presentation.<\/p>\n
Elaine ran all the masquerades at Costume-Con 5! She was director of programming at Costume-Con 7, in charge of exhibits at Costume-Con 17, and director of the Single Pattern contest at Costume-Con 33. She chaired Costume-Con 30. She ran the costume exhibit at Noreascon 4, the 2004 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. Over many years, she participated in panels and made presentations on a broad range of costuming topics.<\/p>\n
In addition to helping found the Pups, after moving to Tucson, Arizona, Elaine went on to found a second International Costumers\u2019 Guild chapter, the Lower Arizona Costume Enthusiasts (LACE). Yes, she costumed the ICG in lace! At the time, she was the only person to found not one but two ICG chapters.<\/p>\n