Costume #36: Monsters
I had to go with a classic, here: Frankenstein's Monster. Very fun costume to do, though the fun was unfortunately diminished by the fact that I woke up that morning with the beginnings of a nasty cold. I had to adjust the makeup a little bit from what I'd planned so that I wouldn't smudge it every time I blew my nose.
The clothes were pretty simple: brown slacks and a purple shirt. I borrowed a brown XXL men's blazer from the store for the photo, but it was a little too warm to wear for the whole shift.
For the makeup, I started out by dividing my skin into sections and coloring them-- most of my face was normal colored, then I had a section that I used a bronzer to darken a little, and then on my neck and one side of my face I used green eyeshadow to make the skin look sickly and dead. The main idea was for my skin to look mismatched, like it didn't all come from the same source.
The stitches were kind of complicated but quite fun: I started out by using red lipstick to make the dotted lines (like tissue peeking out from underneath the skin) then used some brown and white eyeshadow to give it kind of a 3D effect. Then I added the stitches in eyeliner. Up close you can see that I made a lot of mistakes, but it looks fantastic from a few feet away.
The neck bolts were a bit of work-- I had my Dad help me cut the threaded tops off of a couple of plastic water-bottles (this was the hardest part), then used fun foam and hot glue to make and attach the bolt heads. These were all attached to a piece of wire clipped from a wire hangar, which I bent around the back of my neck. Then I painted everything with metallic acrylic paint. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and doing it this way was much more comfortable to wear than if I'd tried to glue the bolts on somehow or tie them on with elastic. The only downside was that I had to be really careful about turning my head from side to side or else the bolts wouldn't turn with it.
Time: A couple of hours prep, One hour day of
Unexpected or Notable Reactions: I had a bunch of customers tell me I looked like I'd had a rough weekend.
Now, by the time work was over I was actually feeling pretty miserable-- you know how a bad cold starts, you get achy and sore and fuzzy-brained and your throat hurts. We didn't have any cold medicine in the house so as soon as I got out of work I headed over to the pharmacy at the grocery store to pick some up. Still in costume. Which was kind of gratifying; out of the thrift-store insanity filter, I got a lot of odd looks from the other customers. The cashiers, though, didn't even bat an eye-- which probably says something about the kinds of people you deal with as a grocery store cashier.
Would I Actually Wear This for Halloween: Definitely! I really want to break this one out again sometime when I'm healthy enough to really enjoy it.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: The obvious choice has to be The Monster Mash, by Bobby Pickett. Honorable Mention goes to I'm Alive by Strawberry Traffic Jam and to the Munsters Theme Song.
Costume #37: The Wizard of Oz
Here's the thing. On Tuesday I was feeling pretty miserable. On Wednesday I was barely functional. So I borrowed a lion hat from my Mom's costume bin and called it good. But by the time I'd been at work half an hour, I knew it wasn't going to work out-- I was having to stop every two minutes to blow my nose or hack up a lung, and I was pretty much dead on my feet. I left early and spent the rest of the day-- and the next two days-- in bed, trying to sleep it off. Thank heavens the school I teach orchestra at was having their fall break.
Time: 1 minute
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: If I did a lion costume for Halloween, I would do it much better than this.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: The most accurate would be The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens. Alternately there's The Wizard of Ahhhhs by Pentatonix and Todrick Hall, or you could just break out some Pink Floyd. But for my main choice I have to go with gem of a deleted song from the old 1930's movie, "The Jitterbug" by Harold Arlen.
Costume #38: Flies (kind of)
Saturday I was finally feeling well enough to go back to work. The costume theme, though... it's a pretty lousy one. I thought so as soon as I saw it, and everyone I mentioned it to agreed. Still, I did my best to come up with a suitable costume. Apparently while I was home sick, however, someone convinced the managers just how dumb the theme was, because the theme was changed (without my knowing) to "Animal Kingdom". Which made my costume a little less funny, but oh well.
Venus Fly Trap!
For the clothes, I just went with a lot of pink and green-- a pink blouse, layering pink and green skirts, pink and green striped socks, pink shoes.
The traps I made out of fun foam, basing off of the look of my own Venus Fly Trap. I had one I held in my hand, one I pinned to my shirt, and then I used bobby pins to anchor the big ones to my braid so they'd fit around my head.
The makeup is toned down a little form what I had in mind because I needed to be able to wipe my nose, but it's mostly pink and green pastel chalk. (I keep doing this because I have it, but it's probably a bad idea. I haven't looked up any health warnings or anything, I just try to be really good about washing my face. But probably when I'm fifty or so I'll be in the Doctor's office and they'll say, "We're terribly sorry-- usually this only happens to factory workers and street artists-- but I'm afraid you have chalk poisoning. You will have toxic multicolor zits for the rest of your life.")
As a final touch, I added some green lipgloss, a heavy sprinkling of green body glitter, and a big toy fly that my Mom had hanging around. (Though I left the fly in the breakroom until the costume fashion show)
Time: About an hour
Unexpected Reactions: I got a lot of compliments on my costume-- despite the fact that nobody could figure out what the heck it was. Most people settled on guessing I was a butterfly. (Weird looking butterfly...) The announcer for the fashion show on the other hand... just had no idea. "And next here we have Jennifer, a lovely... a... she's a... she made this costume herself, ladies and gentlemen, let's give a hand for Jennifer!"
Would I Actually Wear This For Halloween: Maybe? It was kind of fun, but people didn't really seem to get it and I don't like having to explain my costumes-- too many times I've seen people's eyes glaze over. If I did this again, I'd get more fun foam and make more traps, try to make the look a little more extreme.
Most Appropriate Halloween Song: I was thinking I would have to do something from the Soundtrack of Little Shop of Horrors, but then I discovered this strange and surreal song that I'm rather taken with: Venus Fly, by Grimes.
Phew. This has been a weird week, and I am so behind on my to do list. And still a bit sick so I keep falling asleep when I sit down to work on said to do list. Oh, well. at least I'm doing better. And just one more week of costumes before Halloween!
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