Costume Custom Can Be an Ill Fit or a Fantasy Come True
O K, we know: The Halloween party invitation is sitting on your desk, and you’re not about to open it. Last year’s bash was just too humiliating. You dressed like Sharon Stone and everybody thought you were Joan Rivers. Or you did your Michael Crawford shtick--again--and everybody called you Zorro. Is transforming yourself into someone’s idea of a scream or a dream worth it? What are the challenges of costume-dressing for women? Men?
SHE: I confess: Every time I look ghoulish or gooney at a Halloween party, I have a lousy time. People look me over once, howl or stare, and they’re gone. But if I go all out to appear gorrrrgeous--try a look that’s a little racy--I have a blast. So, the question for me is always: Which drop-dead gorgeous woman should I try to look like this year?
HE: I think you’d have done well at the “suppressed desires” parties we used to throw in college. The idea was to come as your fantasy self or possibly a screwy mutation of it. Lots of Bogies and Bacalls; a few, ahem, exotic dancers and super-heroes in capes and tights. Generally, nobody wanted to look grotesque or excessively silly.
Halloween, though, cranks things up a few notches. There’s more of a Mardi Gras spirit in that nobody seems to give a particular damn if you show up with a bloody hatchet in your skull or a big shark fin sticking out of your back. Still, walking around like that all evening can get to be a bit tedious. There’s something to be said for pure comfort.
SHE: I’ll never forget the year I dressed as a slinked-out cat. I figured this was a look that served both sides of the image issue: a cat was a Halloween kind of thing, and the black head-to-toe costume would be flattering.
My husband, however, was miffed about being a mouse. Not macho enough. But he finally agreed. And so I made him a costume, dyeing white long johns a mousy shade of gray and dyeing white felt the same color for his ears and tail. Minutes before we were to leave, I noticed the tail and ears were still wet.
Throw them in the dryer, right? Wrong.
The ears came out the size of quarters, and his tail was the size of a triple-A battery. What a night. We had a horrible fight.
HE: He couldn’t have been thrilled about the mouse outfit in any case. Guys, I think, like costumes that are terrifically creative, horrifying or fairly manly.
One year I borrowed an outfit from a friend’s father, who played the pipes in a Highland band. Full, dazzling Scottish regalia, complete with kilt. My date dared me to wear the kilt in true Scots fashion, and, because it was Halloween, I figured what the hell and did it. It was nice and breezy, but I didn’t sit down all night.
SHE: According to Women’s Wear Daily, a hot look for women this holiday season will be inspired by the new movie “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” It’s a Columbia Pictures film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and even though it won’t be released until Thanksgiving, there’s a huge merchandise promotion under way. Women are going to be able to buy coffin-shaped lipstick holders and evening bags, rhinestone dagger pins, Dracula vests, even a “coffin” dress with a molded plastic bustier painted to look like cherrywood. Talk about drop-dead chic.
HE: That bears out my theory about how women tend to dress for Halloween. Like men, I think women get a charge out of a truly inventive costume, but because women hate looking fat/rumpled/unpolished/bizarre even on Halloween, they tend, like you, to go for the slinky look.
Dracula in his original incarnation was hideous, but then came Bela Lugosi in an opera cape and lots of wraithlike female victims, and suddenly the un-dead became sexy. You can bet Western Costume is going to be stocking lots of Catwoman outfits this year too.
SHE: This being an election year, I’ll bet we’re going to see a lot of women sporting a Hillary Clinton look: power suit and blond page-boy wig. Maybe they’ll even carry the perfect prop: a tray of home-baked cookies.
The topical costume is always a winner. The year my husband wore a Richard Nixon rubber mask and waved the victory sign at everybody he won first prize. I had a lousy time--looked downright homely as his press secretary. Trench coats and khaki hats don’t become me.
HE: When the guys go topical, I think they make a decision on who the most insufferable boob on the scene is at that particular moment and find a way to dress like him. Rubber masks that look like the presidential candidates will probably move well (or just a pair of fake jug ears for the faux Perots).
I personally have a wonderful and highly topical prop: a Gorby lick-and-stick forehead tattoo. But there’s no way I’m going to shave my head just to achieve the proper effect. I’ll go without underwear, but not without hair.
