In the spirit of the season, what was the best Halloween costume you ever made for yourself or wore?
I peaked early. It was in 1964, when I was 12. Nikita Khrushchev had been deposed as premier of the Soviet Union in mid-October. I was wandering around the old Five and Dime (local, not Woolworth’s) and saw they had a Khruschev mask. I laughed and said “That’ll never sell.”
But I got to thinking. I bought the mask, dressed up in an old suit of my father’s, and made up a sign: “From Russia With Love: Out of a Job”
I went out trick or treating (kids did it alone back then, even after dark) and, by coincidence, went around with a friend of my brother who no one associated with me. I never said a word. People would just peer at me, surprised, get the joke, and try to figure out who I was under the mask. No one did.
Tossup for me:
[ul]
[li]Spray painted my clothes to look like concrete and sewed 40 Hotwheels cars all over me, as a Parking Lot.[/li][li]Black outfit, including gloves, turtleneck, black hair dye and theatrical makeup–only the lips were bright red: The Lips from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.[/li][li]And I once won a Boy George lookalike contest . . .[/li][/ul]
I went as Lulu from Final Fantasy X one year. It took us a month to make, some random guy ran down the street yelling, “Lulu” at me and flagged me down so his buddy could take a picture, yet I personally don’t have a single picture of me in the damned costume. Some of my friends may have taken some; I’ll have to ask around.
In any case, it was awesome, but I’m never wearing it again. A belt skirt and a corset made of vinyl (I cut my fur collar a bit higher so my boobs weren’t as exposed) meant I was freezing and sweating the entire evening.
I once ran a 5K race that featured a costume contest. I ran as Steve Martin’s “The Jerk”, wearing my bathrobe and carrying a chair, ashtray, thermos(red-striped), paddle ball game and matches.
Totally situational. In college, we had a friend whose invite said “come as your favorite movie character.” I would have liked Faye Dunaway as Bonnie but didn’t think I could pull that off, so a friend and I went as the two freaks in Midnight Cowboy who handed out invitations to the party Joe Buck went to, because that was easy enough to do. We walked into the party and there was Joe Buck himself, a.k.a. our film teacher. We walked up and handed him one of our fake invitations. Massive brownie points.
Unsituational: In high school, I found one of my mother’s old flapper dresses and spruced it up so that it looked like a costume. Kohl eye makeup and fake pearls. Loved that dress.
Probably the time I went as the Titanic. My friend went as an iceberg. Horrible to wear though, because it was made of cardboard and dug into my hips the whole time.
2006 I had no costume Halloween night. But I did have a few bucks and there was a 7-Eleven across the street from my bro’s apartment. I decided on duck tape and post it notes. There is a video floating around on the internet with me walking by but I can’t find it anymore. I wrapped myself with ductape, sticky side out, and then covered myself in post it’s (not me only, had 4 people helping) Was wearing a long sleeve button up collared shirt with black slacks, and a tie. The costume ended up getting me a ton of attention, and phone numbers. Oh no, I did not forget my Sharpie. I never covered up my ass though, no one wanted to help me there.
1 hour prep and a budget of about $10 turned out to be a pretty sweet night.
Don’t look now but there’s a lizard growing out of your head!
My (very skinny) brother went as a hypodermic needle once. We sewed a white sheet (like a tube) around him and used a marker to mark off the cc’s. He took a bleach bottle and covered it with foil, and made a long tip. All night at the party he’d bend his head down to give people a ‘hit’ in their arm. Hilarious.
I was the 3-headed man. I cut a couple of holes in the shoulders of a t-shirt, and inserted some styrofoam wig holders, decorated accordingly. I attached a piece of string to each head so I could nod one head or the other as the situation required.
When we were in high school my brother had this “style” going on where he wore all black and lots of rings and necklaces. He’s got olive skin and jet black hair, and I’ve got pale white skin and light brown hair.
I got my hair cut really short and put some temporary black dye in, dressed in all black and wore some of his rings and necklaces. I also painted a little mole on my face in the same place he has one, put a little “stubble” on my face and painted my eyebrows black.
Both of us happened to be well-known and well-liked in school, so everyone knew who I was dressed as. It was quite striking to see me with black hair.
Just a short while ago one of our mutual Facebook friends posted a picture of us. Creepy!
I’ve had some great ones over the years. Went in bed once (won a Greenwich Village bar contest on Halloween), Mrs Dvl and I have gone as cat got your tongue and the birds and the bees. But one stands out not so much for the costume (not exactly original) but for the slightly awed standing ovation.
For a while, I couldn’t go anywhere without a random person stopping me and telling me I looked like Jesus. Slightly longish hair, full goatee, whatever — very typical Jesus. So, one year in college (New York City) I cast blaspheme aside and went as Waldo. No, just kidding. Dressed as Jesus, complete with robe, crown of thorns, stigmata, etc.
So what. Lots of people have.
This is where it gets situational.
St. John’s Cathedral (for size reference, it’s the fourth or fifth largest church in the world) shows classic films on Halloween. That year was Nosferatu. You can see where this is going. Supposed to meet friends, I’m there about ten minutes before it starts, milling about, looking for them. Standing in an open door. Of a Cathedral. An odd hush had fallen, which I took as a sign that things were starting. A moment later, however, I noticed that most everyone was starring at me. I stared back for a second, then said “peace be with you.”
I did the 3-headed man once. 3 masks, and a very long black cape-like dress thingy majiger. Other than the mask on my head the other 2 were in my hands giving me a lot of mobility. Got pretty tiring after a while from holding my arms up so long.
When I was a kid I went as the Statue of Liberty. We made a robe out of an old sheet. My Mom cut the crown out of a Zingers box, and it was either spraypainted silver or had foil over it, I can’t remember. My dad spraypainted a paper towel roll silver, put some Kleenex in the top as a flame (also spraypainted red/orange I think), and a penlight in it so it actually lit up. We covered one of my books with foil and I was good to go.
A few years ago I helped my MiL go as a disembodied head on a nice place setting (complete with centerpiece and candles). That was interesting. She won Lakers tix for it too.
I haven’t really done anything creative with costumes since, except for a comically failed Athena a few years ago. My (cotton) robe was dragging on the ground, and it was raining in LA, so I ended up freezing and wet (huge outdoor party at a friend’s house). As I recall, I changed to street clothes in the car, cut the foot of a pair of pantyhose (I always keep a spare set in the glove compartment), and went back to the party as a bank robber.
I was going to go as a toilet once, with the candy bag as the bowl and when they tossed the candy in I would imitate a flushing sound (this was when I was a young child) but when Mommy found out my plan she said “No way” So I had to dress as a pickup truck that year and use the candy bag as the bed. Which meant I had to turn around to receive my treats and I couldn’t even see what I was getting! Truly, I was a deprived child.
The terrorist was a good one, though relatively simple (ski mask, Dad’s old military fatigues) and mainly involved me jumping out at the trick or treaters while screaming that I was holding them hostage and they would die if they did not accept the candy.
Bill Clinton was also a good one; I even had a nice pair of boxers to put on and I bought a few cigars for the occasion. One kid said it was the second scariest costume he’d seen all night. I didn’t have the heart to ask him what the first scariest was. Then some kids began to argue about which POTUS/POTUS candidate I was, which led to me standing at the door frantically yelling “I’m Bill Clinton! I’m Bill Clinton!”
My best ever was this one from just last year. I want to make a few changes (fill out the chest a bit more, a robotic hand in one of the sleeves, and maybe a Nixon mask) and use it again.
Two that I’d like to do someday:
Get an old motorcycle helmet, spray paint it green, stick a shoeshine brush on the top (and appropriate clothes and shoes) as Marvin the Martian.
Get a big sheet of white fabric (or foam rubber, to hold the shape), wrap it around myself, cut a hole for my face, white face paint, and be Bill.
My best one was a gene fragment. I wore a black catsuit twined with 2 ‘strands’ made of 4 colors of ribbon. They went in a proper double helix around my torso, and then split off to wrap around my arms and legs. I was about 20.
At 21, I was Darth Vader with a proper helmet and a homemade chestplate with blinky lights and tiny Hebrew letters. I went with Princess Leia (played by a guy who swore never to wear a bra again).
