#trax

Andy Warhol and Mick Jagger at the press party for the Rolling Stones album Love You Live at Trax nightclub in New York City on September 23, 1977.

here is my stex oc isnt he so cool guys right right(≧∇≦)

Ryan you’re so hilarious

First off, thank you for all the costume geekery and knowledge, it's helped a lot and been very nice to look at and inspect :]

I'm still gonna slide in and request two, if that's alright!

I was curious to how the Trax/Marshal costumes come together, and also what GBs costume consists of. While I'm not making a cosplay it's still very interesting to see :D

It's taken me a while to get here, but! Let's have a look at the Traxes!

So the show has always had Marshals - the ensemble doubled as Gang and Marshals as needed, in plain black costumes with a hi-viz vest for authority.

There were times that the show cast specific "Gang" - best I can figure, this was basically an "Onstage swing" role, that the performer was essentially there as a cover for other roles, but they had a small role every show rather than being a swing sitting backstage, and the ensemble having to double up quite so much. The Japan Tour had dedicated gang, but they had such a huge stage to fill, and they had stunt skaters doubling the characters for races!

The first time we saw stunt skaters outside the Japan/Australia Tour, was Todd Lester in a dedicated Gang/Marshal role in Las Vegas. He was Flat Top in the Broadway production, but also a stunt skater. The Trax character came along in the 2003 US Tour - there is literally NOT ONE SINGLE PICTURE OF HIM in the publicity!

Fortunately there's one backstage pic of Ben Tucker Rotundo - but that's it.

For costume reference, here's a US Tour Gang. Ben's Trax costume is very similar - the same belt and codpiece, looks like he might have the same thigh and shin panels and gloves. His chest panel is the most distinctive element, and it looks like it might be modified from a Gang one, or built on the same lines with different proportions. He's got the same sort of soft shoulders, but smaller, and I think the base layer is lighter and more breathable - might be a single layer of black fabric rather than the quilted, padded, textured body.

When the Tour came to the UK we got Matt King as the dedicated trick skater. Again he was really not photographed as part of the cast, but the UK Tour did a fantastic line of character portraits, guaranteeing us a good look at each character!

Matt's base layer is definitely a single layer of fabric, which would have been a lot lighter and more flexible than the Gang costumes, better for tricks.

The UK Tour made creative use of their very small cast - casting strong skaters as Prince of Wales, who doubled as a second stunt skater.

Bochum added the Trax in 2005. There's a notable difference in costumes made by a dedicated on-site wardrobe department - the German Traxes look crisper, neater.

The same basic elements from the US Tour version hold through - the single layer base to give them all the flexibility, the soft shoulders, the Gang-style belt and codpiece. But where the Tour versions feel like black suits that have been painted, the German costumes feel - yellow and black.

Trax makeup is interesting - as they're not Actors, their facial expressions aren't really important. We aren't expecting to be able to tell how the Trax feel about what's going on, so their makeup doesn't enhance facial expressions. Matt King tended to follow facial contours to an extent, but most other examples are just putting some yellow and black and silver designs on their faces. The more recent design, the silver X surrounded by yellow and black, doesn't follow contours - the line cuts across the cheekbones, there's no emphasis on the eyes, the jawline is cut between the yellow and silver. It's fascinating to put next to makeup designed to carry facial expressions across a big theatre. Where you put the lines on the face make a HUGE difference!