Dear TRIBE: I am NOT Impressed

I do believe that I may get some flack from TRIBE loyalists for this post, but I have to be honest with myself here. TRIBE disappointed me this year. I don't think that asking for some creativity or something 'out of the box' is too much. Last year TRIBE delivered everything I wanted and more and actually stayed true to their warrior theme. Silly me believed that this year would be similar.

My first issue is with staying true to the theme. Honestly those costumes are so run of the mill that they could be from any section in any band and for any theme. So the majority of the costumes look more or less like versions of each other in different colors, except for South Beach and Dubai which are the same colors in different designs -_- . Let me explain that statement. Its not that I am saying the costumes are exactly alike, but because they all have the same bikini, beads, feathers basis other than the colors there's little else to tell them apart. I also saw some repetition and similarities with 2011 presentations, See below for Exhibit A.

Gabrielle's Costume

This basically looks like YUMA's Scorpio version 2.0. Its like they took his leg and arm pieces...

and then the rest from this costume

tweaked it a lil and voila!

Now to all those who are saying TRIBE copied YUMA. Please recall that as I pointed out previously the designers who did Scorpio also did the very similar Spangled Cotinga, so if you want to go that way TRIBE copied YUMA who copied TRIBE :S

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South Beach looks a little Charmeuse meets Amazon/Amazonia.

South Beach pictured below

When I first saw this costume I was drawn to the wire bra, because its really well decorated. Then I realized it looks just like Amazonia's frontline bra. Strangely enough I cannot find a pic of anywhere on the web, hence the use of Amazon's frontline pic. The bottom is also essentially the same as Amazon's down to the triangle it forms on the back, however I was unable to get a back view to show you guys. May I take a guess that Lana Nobrega designed this costume?

Even Sandra Hordatt's Cyprus is bringing back memories. Take a look at YUMA's Leo frontline. See the uber naked back view. This post will be updated as soon as i can locate a back view of Cyprus, but again....very similar

This costume reminds me of TRIBE 2009 when it appeared that either a shipment of embellishments was lost or they were trying to cut costs with under decorated costumes. And of course the colors remind me of Osage.

Fiji is pretty but hypothetically speaking if I were to get this costume I would probably get my own backpack made, as for some reason this costume looks kinda naked. Maybe its that I'm not a fan of these mohawk headpieces, I prefer the more full ones that cover the entire head.

I wasn't interested in any of the other costumes other than Santorini and I couldn't find a pic of that on the web as yet.

Mention must be made of the lack of backline costumes. Firstly if the backline costumes are scaled down versions of what I saw last night then I am not looking forward to seeing them lol. there's barely anything to scale back! Secondly, how on earth do you have a band launch sans backline when the majority of you customers will be playing backline??? Don't get it at all.

Overall I do agree that that the costumes are pretty but they just don't get me excited like Way of the Warrior did. There's nothing there that looks 100% original and never before seen and I guess I had TRIBE up on a pedestal as it pertains to costume design. As I told a friend last night, next year just may meet me jumping up in an Angry Birds costume :P