How hot glue and guts got me cast on a television show that led to this company.
Imagine a computer geek dressed as a warrior woman on an all-female wrestling television show, getting body-slammed by an even taller woman in a Lakers-like costume. Live. At the famous Forum in Inglewood.
Yeah. That was me.
I'm Tanja, an old-school graphic designer, illustrator and costume maker. Years ago, while working at the special-effects company Digital Domain in Venice, California, I made a Xena costume for one of their enormous Halloween parties. It was made from hot glue, a brown bra, kids' craft foam and acrylic paint. I almost won the costume contest, but lost to a giant robot.
Years later, that ridiculous homemade costume somehow helped get me cast on Women of Wrestling. I wasn't an actress or a gymnast, but I had a freaking blast getting thrown around the ring - and even winning a pay-per-view match with my signature back-roundhouse spin kick.
I still didn't know how to sew.
But I was hooked on costumes. I made my own for my vignettes, and eventually for some of the show's other characters too. Then I hand-painted a gargoyle bodysuit as a second persona - one built to survive the ring.
Nobody at the show ever saw it. They didn't come back in time for me to pitch it. So the gargoyle went to Halloween parties and to Bay to Breakers, the 13k costume race in San Francisco, instead. Other people wanted one. Each took more than 40 hours.
Then one morning at Peet's Coffee, I had an idea. I'd spent years creating digital texture maps for imaginary worlds and characters. Why couldn't I map artwork onto an actual human body?
That idea became ShapeShifterZ.
WHAT MAKES SHAPESHIFTERZ DIFFERENT?
Every ShapeShifterZ suit starts with anatomical body maps I developed myself - male and female bases designed around the contours and musculature of a real human body. I then create the character artwork that wraps around that body: skin, fur, stone, bronze, aliens, monsters, comic-book characters and whatever weird thing I dream up next.
The muscle shading is intentional. It's one of the things that makes a ShapeShifterZ costume a ShapeShifterZ costume.
Built on muscle. Wrapped in character. Fit to you.
AND YES, I CAN CUSTOM FIT YOUR SUIT.
Send me your height, weight and measurements around your chest, waist and hips, and I'll adjust the suit on my computer before I print, cut and sew it. No extra custom-fit charge. No shame about the numbers. I need your actual measurements - not your goal measurements.
I love getting reviews that say "Best fit ever!"
Duh.
(Custom fitting applies to suits. Gloves, masks and accessories ship in general sizes - just ask if you need one made to measure.)
I use premium 4-way-stretch, sweat-wicking performance fabric because these costumes are made to move - for everyday people, dancers, circus performers, stunt performers and anyone else who wants to become something else for a while.
MADE BY ME.
I design the artwork. I send it to a local Los Angeles print house to be sublimated onto the fabric. Then it comes back to my studio, where I cut, sew, finish, inspect and package every suit myself.
For large costume runs, I bring in extra sewing hands.
And probably some food delivery.
ShapeShifterZ may look like a big company from the outside.
It's not. It's me.
And that's actually the point.
Every suit still passes through my hands.
Whatever you're becoming, I'd love to make the costume.
Message me and tell me who you're becoming.
