You are going to a Halloween party. You’re supposed to dress like “your” state.
It can be your home state, the state you live in now, or a state that you’ve lived in for a significant amount of time (in other words, not some random state.) Obviously, there will be some states that will be represented by more than one costume.
There will be a costume contest at the party. You will be judged on creativity and cleverness. But your score will be reduced if your costume is so obscure that it requires more than the most rudimentary verbal explanation. And we’ll just assume that all the costumes are beautifully constructed.
For the purposes of this thread:
–The costume actually has to be feasible to create and wear to a party.
–It can’t be too outrageously expensive, or it wouldn’t be “feasible.”
–If it’s not completely obvious what the costume would look like or how you would create it, please describe.
And for the non-Americans out there–You’re invited to this party too! Hopefully your country has “states” or the equivalent. You may not dress as your country. For example, you may go as New South Wales, but you can’t dress as Australia.
I’d dress as a generic Indian (Native American Indian)-- the generic version probably would have a chief or brave headdress, bow and arrow, face paint-- with a shirt with a giant scarlet A.
(Shame the primary Indians from Indiana, the Miami, aren’t known for striking visual displays…)
There are far more evocative things I could dress as-- an ear of corn, or an open-wheel race car-- but considering the roots of the name “Indiana,” I feel the initial costume is the best.
I’m from Tennessee and Davy Crockett was one of our Congressmen. A coonskin cap, and some sort of woodsy outfit would be pretty cheap and easily recognizable, I think.
A southern belle is too generic, could be any southern state.
I suppose I could attempt to dress up as a steamboat, catfish, or magnolia blossom…or maybe a cotton boll…a bluesman?
Hmm. I think I’ll wear a catfish costume and carry a bouquet of magnolias. I’ll also have a guitar slung across my back, and a harmonica around my neck, like my buddy Sherman Lee.
After much consideration, I have made my (very literal) costume decision.
If you look at New Jersey, and if you kinda squint your eyes and tilt your head, you can see that it’s approximately female-shaped. Since I’m also approximately female-shaped, I thought I could take advantage of this and make a New Jersey Map dress.
It would be a sleeveless sheath with one shoulder strap, giving the top a tilted appearance. The mountainous northern region would be aptly mimicked by my own mountainous northern region. The hem of the dress would be asymmetrical, with the lowest point representing Cape May.
The top and middle parts of the dress would be a multicolored fabric with predominant green and tan tones to represent the variegated terrain. The skirt of the dress would be a more solid darker green to represent the pine barrens. There would be an approximately semicircular section on the right towards the top made out of some crazy wild multicolored pattern. The would represent the densely populated areas surrounding New York City. There would be a smaller, but similar, area below the left hip, representing the areas by Philadelphia.
There would be a broad tan stripe down the right side for the Jersey Shore, perhaps with a dark-blue ruffle for the Atlantic Ocean. The left side would have a narrower medium-blue stripe for the Delaware River. The whole thing would be quadrisected by two broad gray stripes–one for the Garden State Parkway, and the other for the New Jersey Turnpike.
And I really wouldn’t be able to resist putting some splotches of fluorescent green glow-in-the-dark paint on it. Gotta have toxic waste!
Now if I really wanted to get crazy, I could start adding little items all over the dress to symbolize bits of history, mythology, and current coolness. The list could go on and on…but one thing I would certainly do is embroider, somewhere on the Pine Barrens Skirt, a little Jersey Devil!
All the same for me, as I am a fourth generation and lifelong Oregonian. Also, an easy costume choice since we are the Beaver State, I dress as a beaver.
