When I was in high school, a group of boys decided to dress as Hare Krishnas. We each got bald-head “wigs” and glued/stapled yarn or horsehair(!) to the tops. We also wrapped sheets around ourselves and carried Bhagvad-Ghitas about, quoting from passages as necessary. All but one of us got into trouble for some reason.
My most inspired, and alas, the one I have no photos of, was when I became a female wrestler - P. M. Esther (I thought the name was inspired)
I wore shiny support hose, crazy print exercise pants that came to mid-thigh, a hot pink thong leotard that was deeply scooped in front, a black cape, black high-top sneakers, and I carried my whip. My husband drew a multi-colored starburst around my right eye, and a tattoo of a heart with a dagger thru it on my left tit. Then I sprayed my hair with bright pink and lime green temporary coloring.
On the way to the party, I had to stop at the grocery store for my contribution to the refreshments. When I got to the checkout, the clerk asked “Are you going to a party?” I wish I’d had the presence of mind to say: “No, why do you ask?” But I lost that moment. Anyway, I had a blast in that outfit and I wish my camera hadn’t died that night…
Like others I can’t name a single favorite costume, but I did go to a party once that had an interesting group of outfits. The theme(it was at a seminary) was “Come as your favorite saint” So the guy with a doggy nose, bigg floppy ears and a keg at his throat was St. Bernard. The guy in the bunny suit was St. Peter of the Cottontail. The English guy was dressed up in formal wear, top hat tails and all, and was Yves St. Laurent. ST George had a dragon hand puppet, but it was his wife that stood out. She was in bright red tights and leotard, little red satin horns in her naturally bright red hair, and she was “St.” Lucifer.
The most elaborate Halloween costume (and tha last one) I ever did was when my ex-wife & I went as Isis and Osiris. She sewed herself a fine ancient Egyptian gown and looked mahvelous. I was wrapped in several dozen yards of mummy wrappings and carried the ritual flail and crook, and my skin was all green. The mummy wrappings seriously inhibited my dancing, but I invented the Dead Dance and hopped and spun around with my arms crossed over my chest Egyptian-god style as my flail flailed about.
It was an object lesson in being just a bit too elaborate: We spent such a long time working on our costumes that we arrived at the party a couple hours late. At our entrance everybody said “Wow!” and they told us “You guys would have won the best-costume prize for sure . . . except that we already awarded it a while ago.”
I once went as “The Spirit of Halloween.” Take one really big pumpkin, carve it, but place the hole on the bottom, then stick your head into it. It smells rather nice inside. You wouldn’t believe how many people peer into the eye sockets to see whose there. Advantage: you can wear your street clothes. Disadvantage: you need a long straw to drink beer.
I had a biology friend that wore a balance on his head and was decorated with question marks, semi-colons, exclamations, etc. Yep, he was “Punctuated Equilibrium.”
Fake Witch Nose Warning: beer gathers in the nose tip. Can be avoided by drinking from bottles. If at a kegger, careful placement of said nose outside the glass will stave off embarrassing beer cascade.
A couple of times I painted my face with the cover to the album Dark Side of the Moon ala Pink Floyd…the first time took about 3 hours the second about 2 hours…
I have a picture floating around here, if I get a chance to swing by my client’s office I will scan a picture, it was pretty damn cool.
Oh and I wore all black but spray painted Pink Floyd on a black sweatshirt on the front with a moon kinda thing…well I thought it was cool.
Operating room scrubs. With blood stains.
Welder’s mask.
And, an ax.
Not quite Jason, Leatherface, or Michael Myers, but in the same gang.
It was my first Hallowe’en ever (we don’t do it in Australia). I was visiting some friends in Norfolk, Virginia, and had arrived on the day of their Annual Monster Mash Bash, 1999. I wanted to have a really good costume as it was probably going to be my only Hallowe’en ever. It may have been obvious, but the idea of dressing as Darth Maul was just too damn cool to resist. I’d always wanted to dress up as a Star Wars character.
My favourite part was the double-ended light saber, which I could flick out with a quick wrist action and light up at the same time. I was jumping around like a little kid the whole night.
I have a photo of it online, but couldn’t get the link to work properly (I think the URL is too long). Here it is anyway, but you’ll have to cut and paste. Sorry!
I was an M&M once…I was the red, my girlfriend was the yellow
Often wanted to do this, but I’m not tall enough.
Grim Reaper cloak, with some combination of the following:
*Hawaiian shirt visible at the neck
*Airline ticket
*Passport
*Flight bag
*Instant camera
*Sandals or flip-flops on feet
“So what are you supposed to be?”
“Death Takes a Holiday.”
I have two.
The first was back in 1989. I was in first grade and we had a costume contest that took place on October 30th (I lived in Las Vegas and we have Halloween off because it’s also Nevada Day). I dressed up as a mouse. I had a little hat that had ears and the mouse snout with whiskers and a huge cotton nose. Then there was the costume itself (grey with pink stomach) and grey mittens for the paws and a tail. I won the costume contest (not THE contest, but in some catagory of which I have forgotten). My prize was a little ET figurine complete with his computer. It was stolen that very day.
The other costume that I like is a rip-off of Saturday Night Live with the skit with Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin where he’s some scumbag selling really crappy children’s costumes and one of them is the Invisible Pedestrian (“Kids know not to get hit by cars! What, are you going to see some kid walking on the freeway knocking on car windows wanting candy?” to paraphrase). So I dressed up in a black shirt, black denium coat (which isn’t that heavy), my black athletic pants, black socks, black hat, and black shoes. I dressed up for that in 1999.
The Infamous Panda costume, that you can see on my moms webpage (it’s my website on the bottom, go check it out!)
One year in college I tried making a bat costume. I started with the feet: big three-toed things that slipped over sneakers. Then I made the top with full-length sleeves that allowed batwings to extend when I raised the arms. I ran out of time, though, before making the bottoms, so I called a friend’s father who managed the local Triple-A baseball club and borrowed a uniform for the night. I wore the pants, clipped a baseball mitt to the belt and wore the ball-cap to supplement the costume I’d made.
I went as a baseball bat.