Imagine a 13ft tall Werewolf glaring directly at you! Scary right!?  This guy stands tall made from a skeletal structure composed of PVC pipes, chicken wire, foam, and love.  It took over 2.5 months to engineer an easy dismount.  I was dressed as Red Riding Hood inside the mouth of this beast.  It was quite fun staring outside my mesh whole from the belly of the beast! People would point and scream! Imagine their faces when I stepped out of his hollow legs and sprung open his chest to appear as Red Riding Hood that slayed her beast on stage before the audiences wide eyes! It was a SPECTACULAR moment! Worth every minute of blood, sweat, and tears that went into the creation of this costume.  Everything from his body to his hands, feet, and head were hand sculpted and cast into latex to be painted.  This won several costume contests downtown Indianapolis including the biggest at the Alt 103 Ball at the Murat Egyptian Room for Halloween 2015.  His legs are hollow with special built shoes to allow me to walk inside the beast and also move his arms up and down with levers that were built inside.   Hard work never looked so good (and SCARY)! Photo credit to the stellar Sarah Hufford!

Superstition has never looked so good!! This suit is built with reflective fabric that glows immensely under a flash of light. The effect is light shining through all the cracks in the mirrors. The mirrors have haunted faces of “trapped souls” behind them. It is covered with 1000,s of tiny hand laid shattered mirrors that appear to have been broken and trapped the souls of these people. The costume is a split personality of half man vs half woman. Photocredit Sarah Hufford for these stellar shots.

Check out my most famous work of art in Indianapolis!  This handmade costume towers at 7'4" tall and roars from his moving jaws.  I created this costume for GenCon 2016.  He quickly became a local celebrity for fans across the state of Indiana.  My Chewbacca inspired costume was featured in the Indy Star, Channel 8 News, Channel 13 News, Fox 59 News, and Channel 6 News.  I will admit this was a great turning point for Jess West Costumes.  These media publications gave me the recognition I needed to be in the spotlight as one of the best costume makers in the state.  My business has been booming since the release of these publications.  My Chewy inspired costume was also part of a promotional commercial for Nissan Rogue.  There are a few pictures of the creative process behind making the monster.  Fun facts: 

* Chewy has over 900 feet of human hair extensions hand sewn to his body and head.  

*I wear dry wall stilts in order to acheive a film quality height of 7'4"

*His mouth was designed to move in sink with mine so he can roar.  He has a custom made sound box and speaker to let out his classic Rawwwwrrrrrrr. 

*I had to custom make ice packs to wear under this costume during Gencon 2016 as it was a scorching 90 degree temperature outside while wearing this 65 pound furry costume. 

*Yes I make birthday party and event appearances! Please contact me for inquiries, Thank you!

Top 5 photos were taken by Sarah Hufford! www.instagram.com/sehufford/

These wild costumes were built for ComiCon 2016!  It was quite amusing to hear people shout at us when we walked past.  Most thought it was really cool to have 2 sided costumes of their beloved 90s Batman villains, but when they got a load of us from behind, it was AWESOME! You could hear them shout, "WOW, no way!! There are 4 characthers in 1!!"  Once again blowing peoples minds with ease haha!  The four part bodysuits were hand made along with the 2 four faced masks from latex casts.  There were LED lights surrounding Mr. Freeze, toxic waste in Bane's head tubes, a prosthetic smile for Joker, sharp crystal metal nails for Catwoman, very realistic eyes on all characters including eyelashes (great idea Sam Gencer, you rock!), and the scariest beak anyone has ever seen on Penguin!  There were 8 characters total including a 9th with a mask prop, created for fans to use during  photo ops! You cant forget Two Face!  This was a huge hit at the Indianapolis ComiCon and we definitely made it on the cover for their website! Winning! Special shout out to my best friend Chelsea Emerson for wearing such a crazy costume for many hours.  She is my rock. She has always been such a supporter during the many years of my self discovery as an artsy, wild, crazy, sometimes bossy costume maker.  Love you to the moon Chels. Honorable mention to my sign guy, JR Dawson.  What a fun loving criminal. Wouldnt have anyone else hold my ducktaped glowing sign, no doubt.

These gorgeous photos were taken by Sarah Hufford! She is a fabulous local photographer in Indianapolis. This costume features a transition from horrifying pirate into a man eating siren mermaid!! The mask was sculpted and cast in latex. The pirate and mermaid costumes were both hand made. The crown was also hand made and constructed with real sea shells and glitzy stones.

Blood Moon Diana and Mount Targon collaboration with a very talented group of artists! Photographer @letstalkphotography asked me to help on this glorious project. His photography and graphics are out of this world. These photos belong to @letstalkphotography . Costume and accessories were made by Jess West Costumes.

Featured in @nephilim.mag

Model: @isabelle.siva

HMUA: @glameffectss

3D Printing/painting: @saffellbot @letstalkphotography

Nails: @briibriizee

Sonic Inspired costume made for an adorable girl named Anna! Custom made oversize head with plush fleece accompanied by a full suit to match!! These glorious photos were taken by Sarah Hufford.

This costume was made for a VERY talented local actor and film maker, Emmanuel Carter.  He had the creative vision to do a reboot of the Powerline character from Disney.  This costume was featured in his music video!!  The costume features two parts.  The first is a studded jacket with metallic colorful accents, gold metallic hammer pants, and faux leather glove.  The second look features a vibrant yellow suit with tesla coil lights built into the shoulder piece of the suit.  The costume also has light up LED gloves and glasses for that extra electric flare.  

The best monster of my 2018 Halloween season! The BackPack Man by Alex Pardee. A customer of mine attended a costume contest in Denver hosted by the creator of this creature, Alex Pardee. I brought this artists painting to life in a 3D costume! It was a huge success and the artist was also kind enough to share my work with his fans and personally thank me for a job well done. This was a very proud moment!! Everything on the costume is hands made using multiple medias such as EVA foam, pleather, latex casted mask, etc.

The Grinch is one bad dude! Drinking Makers Mark at one of the cities best fundraiser charity events in Irvington Indianapolis!  I was hired by the beautiful Jessica Cooke and her partner Melissa Whitney to create this party starting costume!  He was a whoot in Whoville to say the LEAST!  He spent the evening dancing with guests and popping up behind their shoulders for a little Christmas scare to spread the cheer! Andrew Brown was the actor wearing the green suit, and he wore it well!  The evening was a blast and I was honored to be part of the event helping to assist those less fortunate during the chilly winter nights!  The mask was hand sclupted and cast in latex.  The jacket and furry suit were handmade along with his extra long fuzzy fingered gloves! 

This was the BIGGEST thing to happen to Jess West Costumes.  During the Indy 500 I had decided to make a joking status on facebook about what kind of mens rompers I could make for the race.  During this time the "rhomphim" fad was in full effect and I had decided to try to make a Jess West Costumes "rowdy romper" for all the race fans.  Little did I know that the Indy Star would write an article to be picked up the next morning and on the front of USA Today.  I was an overnight sensation and orders came flooding in across the United States.  We finished all the rompers by race-day and continued to produce them throughout the summer.  This was such an honor and it led me to my next largest success, the Aaron Judge Robes for the New York Yankees.  Also featured in the pictures listed are the Zantra Dancers from Chicago who were rocking the main stage in my costumes for the Indy 500 Snakepit performance. 

This was a BEAST to make and the results were EPIC!!!! Check out these pics of the process. My customer and I made an appearance at DragonCon as Spawn and Lady Spawn. The entire costume was sculpted and cast in latex, hand painted, hand crafted EVA spikes/armor, custom burned leather capes, sexy leather bodysuit and mask for the lady spawn!! 

Mash up costumes are my absolute favorite thing to make!! Here is a mask I made for GenCon 2017.  Fox 59 wanted to do an interview with me for the GenCon 2017 kickoff on opening day! Its always an honor to be on the news for Indianapolis.  In order to be different, and showcase my costume making skills, I decided to do my interpretation of Alien vs Predator in one mask!  It is a latex mask, hands, split jump suit, and handmade alien tail!  Cover photo by Sarah Hufford!

Talk about a stroke of luck and skill combined!  I was referred by the wonderful Chris Beaty and James Waldon to take part in one of the largest events in Indianapolis history.  The running of the 100th Indy 500 took place in May of 2016.  Maxim Magazine and Karma International hosted the biggest nightlife party featuring a stellar atmosphere and Tiesto as the headliner at the PanAm Pavillion building downtown Indy.  I had 2 days to put together 30 bodysuits for bottle service girls with checkered flag side stripes, a sexy neckline, and promotional patches. Alongside stood the host racing suits with matching patches!  Julie Stein was a delight and such a pleasure to work for while scrambling to finish before the big event!  I had also made myself a checkered flag ball gown for the evening!  I put together matching garments,for myself, to rock the entire race weekend! They were a hit!  I had a stroke of genius and decided to put 3M reflective fabric, from a caution vest, on the trim of my garments.  When flashes of light hit my dresses, they illuminated very brightly!  Talk abut eye catching! Huge success!! 

I vote this the wildest costume Jess West Costumes has made so far in my career as a costume maker.  Weekman (Bud) is a 7 foot tall creature made from leaves, stems, and faux bud created by Jess West Costumes.  He features dreadlock bud hair with light up faux blunts wrapped in gold paper.  The mask was hand sculpted and cast in latex (copyrighted design by Jess West Costumes).  He has a friendly smile with shiny gold plated teeth. The costume features jumping stilts for excellent mobility.  His gold smoking jacket finishes his look.  He is planning on making appearances at smoking festivals out west in the United States this year.  I'm sure he will be turning heads!

Two of my favorite 80s horror movie characters. Gizmo and Greta the big red lip Gremlin!  This costumes starts with a cute fuzzy Gizmo who dances around but suddenly finds himself splashed with blue glitter water and eating chicken after midnight! Poof! He transforms into the love struck Greta who is searching for her next kissing victim for her evil Gremlin heart!  So fun!  Both faces were hand sculpted and cast with latex.  The body suits were also hand made from painted mesh and faux fur.  Funny little fact, Gizmo's eyes are made from an old coconut bra that I painted from a previous costume!  Up-cycling at its finest!  This costume won the costume contest at Mask Fest Horrorhound Convention in Indianapolis 2015.

New Years Eve 2018 costumes for 2 of the largest parties in the city!  The Carnival themed feather costumes were for the Ciroc NYE party at Regions Tower.  These costumes were made of lavish gold fabrics, hand laid stones/mirrors, and over 500 colored feathers.  The Mirror LED light costumes were created for Downtown Indy Inc for the Georgia Street NYE Ball drop count down party.  These costumes were custom wired with multiple colored LED light combinations as well as masks and top hats with over 1000 hand laid mirrors.  The white feather costume was an elegant take on Moulin Rouge themed party at the Pavillion PanAm NYE celebration for a cocktail server!

In 2017 Aaron Judge had his rookie season for the New York Yankees.  I was honored to be asked to produce the judge robe costumes to be worn in the judges quarters during his first season in Yankee stadium games.  I received this dream job after an article was written in the Indy Star about my patriotic racing rompers.  
The article was then picked up by USA Today.  The article in the national news paper was recognized and later landed me in the position with the Yankee Robes. I am proud to say that in 2018 I am a return vendor for his second season of robes. 

This helmet and armor was made for GenCon 2017.  It features armor and helmet made from EVA foam.  The horns and hand wrapped and constructed from EVA foam as well.  The helmet was textured with a Dremel tool and hand painted to perfection.  My dad tried on the helmet with his patriotic shirt and beard. Needless to say, it was epic! He looked like a true viking!!

This is Solaire of Astora inspired costume from the video game Dark Souls.  He is a knight with complete armor suit, helmet, shield, and he loves to "Priase the Sun"  This costume also features faux grass on the shoulders with realistic moss.  The costume is made from EVA foam, mesh, organic cotton, faux leather, and a faux hand made feather.  He is a true warrior with "jolly cooperation".  It was so fun making this costume and the photoshoot was great!! 

This costume is inspired by the Witch Doctor from the video game Diablo to be work at GenCon 2017.  It features a wicked hand painted mask with faux crocodile skulls and faux fur.  The faux bone armor was made from EVA foam, sculpted with a Dremel, and hand painted.  The paints were made from faux black leather.  The photoshoot was done on the canal downtown indianapolis.  That was the best day! You should have seen the looks on peoples faces!!! It was priceless! 

This costume holds a special place in the creative heart.  It is my first transition costume every made!  I have always loved to make costumes but in 2012 in dawned on me that shocking the HELL out of people is what HALLOWEEN is all about! So I came up with this really creepy sculpt and latex mask of an ancient dusty mummy.  His layers of dusty gauze were pieces of gauze fabric shredded and soaked in a bath tub with coffee grounds over night.  I then took it outside for a roll in the mud and put a coat of baby powder on right before the costume contest! It was the perfect! When I slapped my arms dust (baby powder) flew into the air.  The best part of the night was an attempt to be kicked out of a woman's restroom.  I was instantly mistaken for a man in this scary mummy getup.  I thought to myself, PERFECT!!! So I wore the stunning hand made eguptian costume underneath this mummy for hours! It is a ton of work to wear two costumes simultaneously but when it comes to reveal time it is amazing!  So as I walk onto stage everyone is already gazing and pointing to how scary this mummy is! Then I flipped the mask off to reveal my gold dusted eygptian underneath.  I thought people were going to loose their minds!  As I shed the layers of gauze to reveal the sexy Egyptian underneath people just started cheering and looking at me like they had just witnessed shear MAGIC.  It was a moment of a life time, let me tell you.  Right then and there I KNEW, this was it!  Since 2012 I have been producing some of the wildest transition costumes that anyone has every seen and have since been deemed the Queen of Halloween!

What's better than 2 Genies? Nothing!  This giant master Genie towers arount 13 ft tall and is carrying a beautiful golden lamp full of wishes and one big surprise!  When the lamp lowers to the ground, a beautiful Genie Goddess appears to grant more wishes!   She has been stuck in the master Genies lamp for centuries!  As the lamp lowers a cloud of smoke comes from the spout as the lid is lifted to reveal the beautiful Genie tucked away.  The mask was sculpted and cast in latex to be hand painted.  The lamp is composed of several circles of light weight foam and then rasped to take the shape of the magnificent lamp before being dusted in gold leaf paint and of course lots of GLITTER! LOTS! Still finding glitter years later! His eyes were lined with blue LED lights for his majestic stare at the audience.  This costume won several contest in Indianapolis for Halloween with the biggest being at The Vogue in Broadripple 2013. 

Spooky Halloween Party at its FINEST in Irvington of Indianapolis.  The famous halloween festival and party had some interesting guests thanks to Jess West Costumes.  These costumes were inspired by all the classic MGM vintage characters.  I made the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Bride of Frankenstein.  The creature mask was sculpted and cast in latex with custom hand paint.  His suit was made from a scaly reptile faux leather and decorated with realistic moss.  His hands and feet were latex as well.  The Bride of Frankenstein was one of my personal favorite costumes!  This was my first costume featuring the tesla coil globes on her shoulder to give her the extra electric flare!!!  The dress was made from antique up cycled lace.  We were featured on FOX 59 representing the Irvington Halloween festival.  Here are some behind the scene shots of the news.  Also check out the Creature in his street clothes downtown Indy right after filming on Fox 59.  That was a GREAT time!!!

This is a collection of Grid Girl gear that I have made over the years for local and international racing companies!  It was always awesome to see them on the track, Speed TV, and the fan walks!  As a bonus, I actually got to be a promo model and wear most of my designs for these amazing races! My favorite was the summer of 2012.  I was flown to California for Laguna Seca!! Such an awesome time with Starworks!  A special thank you to Jessi Nace for these special moments! She is a rockstar and I couldn't have accomplished any of these without her!

Such an awesome project!  The Black Hat Society is a non-profit charity organization based out of Irvington in Indeianapolis .  These lovely witches are a great group of creative women.  I had the honor to make this beautifully creepy woodsy witch costume for a Michelle Roberts, member of the Black Hat Society.  This costume features vintage fabrics shredded to perfection, a whimsial hood, faux furs, and charm belt.  

This classic duo from Dr. Who was a huge hit at GenCon 2012 winning the costume contest and providing the "wow" factor that every fan was looking for.  The Dalek was made from wood, metal mesh, foam, dry wall light weight Spackle, white paint,  and a toilet plunger.  It took over 2 months to build.  The top was a separate piece from the bottom.  The base was on wheels to navigate easily through the halls of the Indianapolis Convention Center for GenCon 2012.  A small child operated this Dalek and shouted "Exterminate" from inside with a tiny megaphone! He had the time of his life as fans surrounded us to take photos.  I accompanied him with a Tardis dress that was handmade with a mating hat.  They were both illuminated with blue LED lights.  

These gorgeous Egyptian costumes are two faced!  They were designed for customers going to the Electric Forest Music Festival.  The masks were worn on the back of the heads to give a wild presentation from the front to back.  They wowed the crowds with these hands sculpted masks and custom made metallic costumes.  The masks were sculpted and cast in latex, then hand painted. I love making festival clothing and costumes!!

Here is a collection of images of work I have completed throughout my career! This is a collection of costumes on my social media pages, submitted photos from customers, and some of my progress pictures from my years of design! Enjoy!