One year I went as Ringo on Sgt. Pepper’s, but not the one in military regalia, rather as the funeral attendee seen on the left side of the front cover of Sgt. Pepper’s, dressed all in black. IIRC, this portion of the album cover was in honor of Stuart Sutcliffe, a Beatle who had somewhat recently died prior to the time of the release. Needless to say, no one could guess who I was which pissed off quite a few, to say the least.
Another year, I wore white tennis shoes, white socks, white cotton pants, a white crew neck t-shirt, a white cook’s apron and a white baseball hat. A friend was dressed similarly except he wore a chef’s coat and hat and was thus a bit less amorphous. When solo, though, I got quite a few guesses: dish washer, bottle washer, line cook, short order cook, baker, butcher, etc. When people would ask what I was and I responded “Whatever you want me to be” that really bothered some people. Some just cannot handle ambiguity, I guess.
I didn’t find this obscure, but no one knew I was dressed as Joey Ramone.
Some that have shown up at my parties have been a girl as Madonna and her boyfriend was cover with blue prints, so together they were a duet of Madonna and Prince (Prints?).
Two people came dressed in pink with a board on their heads, they were gum stuck under a chair.
Someone else was dressed in black with stamps all over them, they were blackmail.
Just plain odd was the guy who had on a superhero outfit with a big T on his chest. He had a toaster strapped to his head, he was ToasterMan (I think he abused many substances in his life). And one guy came as a fully decorated x-mas tree with a 75 ft extension cord so he could walk around with his lights on.
Oh, and another friend once tied a chair to his chest and was, well, a chair.
One year I went as Captain Beefheart as seen on the cover of Trout Mask Replica.
Another year I went as a Resident, in tux with eyeball head.
The handful of people who knew were impressed. Most were just puzzled.
Over the past few years, I’ve gone as G.K. Chesterton, Bix Beiderbecke, and Oswald Spengler. No one has ever guessed who I was supposed to be until after I explained.
Sophomore year in college (where Halloween was LSD Day!), I dressed in a colorful knee-length coat with a brocaded vest, white trousers, wide-brimmed hat, and brass-topped walking stick. A friend wore a long black severe frock-coat with a stovepipe hat, black pants and necktie. We both did our faces in Clown White with black highlights and reddened lips.
We had NO IDEA at the outset what we were supposed to be, but as the evening wore on, we decided that we were representations of the Antebellum South and North.
We hooked up with a 15th Century Edinburgh Prostitute, and a Potted Plant.
on a fancy dress party a few of my friends and I came as London Tube (underground for the tourists) stations.
BlackFriars - Blackface in a hessian monks habit.
Cockfosters - a gent in pants with a can of fosters creatively attached.
Parsons Green - a forest Green suit with dog collar, cross and bible
Greenwich - a ‘green witch’
took a while until a few people twigged who we were it was a good laugh!
I’ve gone as a bag of garbage. Cut arm and leg holes in a big garbage bag, filled it out with cotton and had cans and papers sticking out the neck, and affixed more garbage to my head. Great costume.
The most elaborate I’ve seen yet was the guy who went to Mike Kuisma’s Hallowe’en party as a cigar. He wore several laundry baskets with the bottoms cut out for a frame, then had brown canvas wrapped around like cigar papers with an elaborate cigar band made from construction paper. On the top he had layers of Christmas cotton “snow” and white paper, stained grey, as the ash, and in the middle of the “ash” he had a hidden bowl reservoir which a friend kept putting dry ice into for a “smoke” effect.
I went as a box of birth control pills one year. I cut out a big circle of cardboard, painted it powder blue, cut out 28 squares of aluminum foilsquares of aluminum foil and then cut up 28 circles made of sponge 21 yellow 7 pink then gluesd thenm to the tinfoil.Then i took stencils and did the Mon Tue Wed Thur thing. It was GREAT at bars cause id get one of two reactions from women who saw it…either a complete blank look or an instant look of recogniotion. i learned ALOT about a woman when she came up to me just by the expression on her face, before even saying HI
In my first year of university, we stole a roommate’s sheets, to chop it up and turn it into a half-assed fish-like costume for my friend, Wanda. Only the people who knew her name at the party recognized that she was “A Fish Called Wanda.”
That same year (it was 1990) I used a big box to turn myself into a kind of grey, concrete wall kind of thing. I added graffitti with “Berlin Rules!!!” as the most predominant on the front and back. Drunken revellers thought they were tremendously clever when they figured out “Hey! It’s the Berlin Wall!”
Coincidentally, at the Hallowe’en party, I met two girls who were dressed respectively as East and West Germany. Kinda cool until some drunken louts started chanting “Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!”
I also knew someone who used those green glow-sticks to make a strange belt/sash thing with the word “nuclear” glowing across it. He wore the belt proudly for a “Nuclear Waist.”
“The guy you’d least want to be sitting next to on the airplane” was my best one ( I won a prize that year) - people had trouble with it at first, but I put a sign on my back and everyone loved it.
I was strapped with fake explosives, had a crying baby (doll), had fake open sores on my face indicating a random horrible disease, was smoking a cigar, and had both Amway brochures and Jehovah’s Witness ‘Watchtower’ magazines with me to hand out.
Other costumes that were less impressive but still very esoteric.
“The JFK Jr. Flying Club” - with custom T-shirt of plane crashes and matching hat with big picture of him, plus fishnets and crabs picking at me.
“Typical East Coast Beach Going Tourist 2001” which was, of course, a shark attack victim. Featured a 5-foot blow up shark, custom shirt with bloody bite mark, loud bermuda shorts, mask and snorkel, sandals, and a pinky ring.
I had found one of my mother’s old dresses dated from the late '60s in the basement – it was essentially a big smock that tied around the waist from the inside (underneath), so that the material hugged your torso but the sleeves were so wide they were almost wing-like. It was a pretty rusty orange color with big blue dots (sort of a batik-type print).
So I wore that, and I put on brown tights, a head-band that had those silver balls on springs on top, and my brightest smile – instant social butterfly.
Another year I went as a flying nun (but not THE flying nun, since I couldn’t find that cool habit anywhere). I just wore a long black dress (given to me by a nun, so it was authentic), a big crucifix, and white feather wings.
I’m wearing nothing but a pair of Levi’s this year. No shirt, shoes, nothing but the jeans. When people ask me what I’m s’posed to be, I’ll tell 'em “premature ejaculation”
I might win for most ambiguous. One year I wore all black, including a nondescript black cloak, and a mask made out of a mirror (I had a mirror shop cut eye and mouth holes in it for me). When people asked me what I was supposed to be, I’d face them and say, “You.”
It’s actually very unnerving to talk with someone wearing a mirror.
As for obscure, I usually go for concept costumes. At an unseelie faerie party, I wore a wifebeater t-shirt with gory red handprints, several colors of red paint around my mouth and chin (to look like fresh and dried blood), overalls, and a red baseball cap dripping with more red paint. I was a redneckcap.
I’ve also done lots of fun things with styrofoam heads in masks; last year, I was a two-headed monster, wearing cheapo masks on both my real and my fake heads. I delighted in letting my real head sag off to one side while I swivelled the styrofoam head around to watch someone, to nod as they talked, to drink from a straw, etc. A couple of people were really confused.
Last year I went as someone few from outside this board would even know of, let alone recognize (The Almighty Cecil).
This year, if plans go as I think they will, I will be a lot more obvious. However, there is an alternate plan in the works, which could be even more interesting…
I’ve been both The Maxx and The Tick. I guess I was born to be a lumbering well-intentioned, but clutzy superhero.
Two of my friends had a great one once. Once safety pinned red triangles to himself, and the other blue semicircles. They both carried water guns. One was “cold front” and the other was “warm front.” When they were within 5 feet of each other, they shot the water guns into the air…
My most uncomfortable costume ever was World’s Ugliest Baby. With plety of duct tape, wire hangers, a decapitated doll, a baby carrier, bonnett, and a styrofoam head. Man my neck hurt after that night.
Most obscure: Hospital gown, giant plastic butt from the costume store. Battery operated drink mixer with a altered switch on 3 feet of wire, and a furry little cat toy. I put a hole in the butt, and duct taped the drink mixer inside, then the cat toy was put over the mixer. I ran the wire up to my hand. so the spinning gerbil could be activated from there. Oh, and grey hair spray. I was Richard Gere.
