Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’m probably gonna burn in Hell for that, but (as a kid) dressing up as my current alter ego and going out and whooping it up at night and gorging on candy was a hoot. As an adult, dressing up as my current alter ego and going out at night and partying hearty til the wee hours is an even bigger hoot. Not to mention the month-long preparation for Pumpkin Night: decorating, sending party invitations, accepting party invitations, deciding what to be, making my costume, going to every five-and-dime, Walmart and Target and looking at Halloween decorations, etc. Okay, so I probably need a life, but on the other hand, there’s just something way cool about that particular October tradition. I’d like to know, just for the heck of it, what YOUR favorite childhood or adulthood Halloween costume has been.
Ah, favorite Halloween costumes…memories!-back in the early 1980’s, I used to live in S. California (Hermosa Beach, CA). There used to be a famous jazz bar there (THE LIGHTHOUSE). Every Halloween they had a costume party-and some of the gal’s costumes were quite imaginative. One gal came in dressed as a belly dancer-her outfit was mosty transparent…I really liked that costume!
Back in my wild & crazy college days I once went to a Halloween party as a nudist.
We used to give brilliant costume parties in Baltimore in the 1970s. One friend owned a “dollar mansion,” and every Halloween she’d give a Death Party—you had to come dressed representing your favorite famous death.
One year—1978, I think—I came as Isadora Duncan. Bare feet, a fluttery chiffon toga sort of dress. I had a six-foot scarf around my neck, and the other end was tangled in an old wire-rimmed tire, which I carried in one hand. I had my lips painted a pale blue, of course. I remember other costumes at that party: Keith and Laura as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette; David as “The Death of Organized Religion” (a pregnant, cigar-smoking nun); Joy as Amelia Earhart (she didn’t show up) . . .
Oh, and here in New York one year I panted myself all blue and festooned myself with tampons and maxi-pads. When people asked what I was, I’d bellow cheerfully, “Picasso’s Blue Period!”
Poor Isadora. Eve, you are a cold, cold woman. I think I love you. 
My best friend and I once went as Spy Vs. Spy (I was the black spy) and spent the whole evening chasing one another and setting “traps” (mostly loaded with champagne poppers). Oh, yeah, and repeatedly stealing a extensible boxing glove widget from one another. We also stole the costume contest prize right from under the host’s nose–they caught us when we starting “fighting” over it. We didn’t win it, but I think we enlivened the proceedings nicely.
Another friend once rigged up a costume of painted foam that looked a bit like a marble sarcophagus with a face in it. It was mostly immobile. He slipped in and out of it all night, and when he was in the costume, he bragged continuously.
He explained it as his “Altar Ego”. :rolleyes:
Creaky, you should check out the Halloween-L Archives. The dedication these people have to Halloween is, well, frightening.
- Sister Mary Sleezy - a habit with a giant “cut-out” for cleavage, a high slit revealing fishnet stockings with spike heels, dangling cross earings, and lots of make-up.
- Nurse Gollum, from South Park. I did not have an actual fetus attached to the side of my head, though; merely a reasonable facsimile.
My Little Red Riding Hood costume----wore it again this year and you would not believe the fairytales I’ve heard.
My favorite was from a long way back – 1964. I had just turned 12 at the time.
Upi need a bit of grounding in current events: a month or two before Halloween, Nikita Krushchev was deposed as premier of the Soviet Union.
The local Halloween store had a Krushchev mask. When I first saw it, I said “well, no one’s going to be interested in that one.” But after a bit of thought, I bought it.
I wore the mask, dressed up in a cheap and oversized suit, and wrote up a sign: “From Russia with Love. Out of a Job.”
I got a lot of funny looks. The mask was stiff plastic, but looked very realistic. I stayed silent the entire time. No one recognized me, partly because I was going around with someone who had only a tenuous connection to me (we were friendly, but not really friends). Even if they recognized the other guy, they’d try to connect me to him, and couldn’t.
I think that was the last time I went anywhere in costume – I knew I could never top that.
Well, anybody ever see the first Karate Kid movie? Yep, that’s right, my favourite Halloween costume was the time I went as a shower. I still have the costume, too.
gave this one to my brother and his wife.
She dressed up as a Christmas wreath (green pants/shirt, pinned holly leaves around), he dressed up like the late 1700’s, grey hair, glasses, vest, stockings up to the knees. and together they were:
Aretha Franklin.
(I know, it hurts, doesn’t it. I also did a Christmas card like that)
My two favorites:
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yep, another Isadora Duncan, here. Filmy chiffon layers, barefoot (and just about froze, but hey, it was accurate) and a long, glittery scarf with a wire hub cap tied to the end. I learned that it’s too damned cold to go barefoot in October and hub caps are suprisingly heavy when worn suspended from the neck. I also learned how many people have never heard of Isadora Duncan.
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and Lizzie Borden. Wore a long black skirt, black silk blouse w/ huge leg 'o mutton sleeves and a demure white lace collar. Put my hair up in a bun and instead of a chatelaine at my waist I wore a nice, shiny camping hatchet.
Veb
When I was a kid my dad made a sandwich board of the Ace of Spades, like in Through The Looking Glass.
It was hell to carry and I had to take it off to sit down, but I loved it.
When my daughter wanted her first costume, she saw my picture in the album and asked for the Queen of Hearts. Only I did it with lighter weight flexible plastic sheets she could easily carry and sit down in.
About three years ago I dressed up like Courtney Love for a pary. Not the Courtney of today but how she was right after Kurt died.
Peach satin bridesmaid dress w/ puffy off the shoulder sleeves chopped to mid thigh. Black bra and fishnet stockings with holes in them. Four inch stiletto heels. A blond wig all ratted up filled w/ baby barrettes. Heavy foundation,smeared eyeliner and red lipstick.
I have destroyed all pictures.
Last year I went as a disgruntled white-collar worker: shirt and tie (with the tie askew), mussed-up hair, my usual crazed look, and a fake bomb strapped to my chest (a metronome in a shoebox, hidden behind toilet paper rolls wrapped in paper and painted red to look like dynamite).
I think my favourite costume, though, was a few years ago when I went to a private Hallowe’en party with some friends. I wore a shirt and tie again, but this time with a really nice smoking jacket and a paper mask that looked like this. (Well, it looked like the face of the flower, not the whole thing.) Unfortunately, that costume was something of an inside joke; a dozen people found it hilarious, and no one else in the world would have gotten it.
You all are quite creative. I looove the costumes!! H’ween party memories rock too, don’t they just?? Balance, thanks for the tip on the H’ween link. I’ll check it out tonight.
Oh, yeah… I forgot to tell you all my favorite costumes from years past. When I was nine, I went out as Mary Poppins. I was a total P.L. Travers maniac then. My family had a whole huge box-a-rama full of ancient clothes left in various stages of decompostion by long-dead relatives, so the costume was pretty authentic: long black velvet skirt (hemmed for my short legs), old shirtwaist blouse, woollen shawl, and straw boater with fake flowers. Nice and warm, too.
The best adult costume I ever did was Cleopatra, when I was 23. Just an old sheet, handsewn to cover the important parts, and goldplated junk jewelry. Heavy eyeliner. Sandals. I already had the requisite dark hair and bangs. That night, that costume got me two of the best “dates” I ever had (at the same time, mind you)… er, but that’s another story for another time.
Creaky, your Cleo costume bagging you great dates reminded me of a mind-bogglingly effective ::koff:: adult costume long ago. I worked in the Biology Dept. of a university; the department parties were a hoot. Set up: Halloween party and a very shy, reserved Southern entomologist. He was handsome as sin but his social life lagged due to shyness and discussion about insects.
He arrived wearing the standard Roman toga thing, though it was uncommonly well made. It wasn’t just a sheet but a real toga with the hem at mid-thigh. (And he had great legs, too.) But the real kicker: he’d fashioned a hugely outsized set of complete genitalia to dangle below the hem. They were obviously made from panty hose but let me tell you, the man had an eye for form and color.
The sound of chins hitting the floor sounded like tympani. He coped suspiciously well with the mob of women suddenly surrounding him. Either they suspected he had (ahem!) hidden assets or they developed a sudden interest in bugs. Funnier than hell.
Veb
wierd, I almost started a post like this a few days ago but … didn’t
anyhoo, sometime around 6 or 7 I suddenly became Sheik Yabuti, and remained so until I became “too tall to trick-or-treat” Which sucked a cause I was only 14, my sister on the other hand continued to go out till she was 21, heck she could probably do it still, she’s 5’5", I’m 6’5" sigh
side note, I didn’t know until last week where dad got the idea for Sheik Yabuto, apparantly it’s a Frank Zappa song.
remembered another quick and easy one tho’ like Veb, I suspect you’ll find out how few folks know who it is.
Get a piece of astroturf large enough to wrap around your body securely, paint the front with markings of a football field, voila - you’re Jimmy Hoffa.
::crickets::
Jimmy Hoffa
::more crickets::
JIMMY HOFFA you know the labor leader who disappeared, rumor was the mob had him killed and disposed of his body in well known football field???
I also live for Halloween. I have had many favorites. I don’t think I could pick just one.
Dead Bride: Complete with boquet of dead flowers and awesome makeup job. It was pretty hideous.
Rogue from Xmen: I thought it was so cool that all the little kids knew who I was! It was like being a celebrity cuz they thought I WAS Rogue:)
Dominatrix: Self explanatory and I liked it cuz I won $75 in a bar for that one:)
Little Red Riding hood: Quite sexy with an interesting basket of “goodies”. Even got Turbo to dress up as the wolf in a bathrobe. Ran around the bar all night yelling “what big teeth you have”, etc… way fun!
Slave Princess Leia: Another homemade one and a lot of fun to wear! Almost no one knew who I was supposed to be, but when my boss heard about it, she gave me the night off work rather than having me wear it there.
I think I have pics of a couple of them I’ll get around to posting sometime.
Two years ago, I was Lara Croft for a college Halloween party. Now, while many might think that my bazooms were the best accessory, it was the actual playstation controller attached to my waist that made the night. Started out simple, folx hittin’ buttons and yellin’ “jump,” “go left,” “crouch”…and then someone discovered the “drink” button.
Suffice to say, much craziness ensued.