• Ada Lovelace

    Ada Lovelace

    Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852) was one of the most remarkable visionaries in the history of science. Her friend Charles Babbage invented the Analytical Engine to crunch numbers; it was Ada who ...

  • Amaterasu

    Amaterasu

    Amaterasu is the Japanese sun goddess, the principal deity in the Shinto pantheon. (And yes, we know she's the ancestor of the Emperor of Japan.  So don't wear this costume if you're going to a ...

  • Amina of Zaria

    Amina of Zaria

    Amina (ca. 1533-1610) was a brilliant warrior queen of the northern Nigerian Hausa state of Zaria. She is remembered in song as "a woman as capable as a man," which is rather understating the ...

  • Anna May Wong

    Anna May Wong

    Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was Hollywood's first Chinese American movie star. In fact, for several decades she was Hollywood's only Chinese American movie star, such was the pervasive racism of the ...

  • Asase Yaa

    Asase Yaa

    Asase Yaa is the earth goddess of the Asante people in Ghana. She created human beings and receives them back into her body when they die; she is also the mother of the gods. There are no temples ...

  • Athena

    Athena

    Athena is easily the best-known and most popular Greek goddess. Yet none of the so-called "Athena" costumes for sale out there look remotely like her. Come on, people! She's Athena! Helmet! ...

  • Audrey Hepburn

    Audrey Hepburn

    Dressing up as Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) is easy, since there's a licensed costume that perfectly duplicates her fabulous ensemble in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Her role as Holly Golightly was ...

  • Bila

    Bila

    Some sun goddesses are motherly types. They shed their nurturing light on the earth, helping the plants grow and the people thrive. Not Bila. She preferred to burn people up. Every day she would ...

  • Boudicca

    Boudicca

    Boudicca (first century; died around 61 CE) was one tough lady. This British queen fought a war of resistance against the Romans, and though she lost, her heroism has echoed down through the ages. ...

  • Brighid

    Brighid

    Brighid was one of the most prominent Celtic goddesses in the pre-Christian era. Fundamentally a fire-and-sun goddess, she was also associated with springtime and fertility; with poetry, healing, ...

  • Carlota of Mexico

    Carlota of Mexico

    Empress Carlota (1840-1927) is one of the most intriguing and tragic figures in Mexican history. Born Charlotte of Belgium, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria when she was only seventeen ...

  • Chalchiuhtlicue

    Chalchiuhtlicue

    Chalchiuhtlicue, whose name means "She of the Jade Skirt," is the Aztec goddess of rivers, lakes, seas, springs, and all running water. She is traditionally depicted as an elegant woman in ...