Vintage Glamour Dresses Up Parties : Designer Tom Copeland’s Elaborate Masks and Period Hats Put Adult Sparkle in the Children’s Game of Make-Believe

Marie Antoinette.

Carmen Miranda.

Mae West.

The Three Musketeers.

With one of his magic masks and period hats, Anaheim designer Tom Copeland promises that he can turn a reveler into one of these--or any other--famous figures.

With New Year’s Eve around the corner and theme parties on the rise, Copeland said, more party-goers are looking for bejeweled masks and extravagant hats to top off their costumes.

“Everybody’s tired of the same old black-tie event,” he said of annual charity fund-raisers. “They’ve started doing theme parties because it puts more interest in the thing.”

Even police officers have turned to theme parties. November’s Orange Police Department Awards Banquet, for instance, was a 1950s-theme dance, said Dawna Saucedo, owner of Gasoline Alley, a vintage clothing store in Orange that sells Copeland’s designs. Whether it’s a Roaring ‘20s flapper dance, a Mardi Gras bash or an open-theme costume party, Copeland’s accessories add the finishing touch to almost any outfit.

His best-selling hats are wide-brimmed picture hats, made famous by actress Mae West; they frame the face in a circle of velvet and trimmed feathers.

Copeland makes them in black, purple, red--any color you want--and sells wholesale to local vintage clothing stores or direct through mail-order catalogues.

His clients heap raves on his outrageous millinery.

“There isn’t anybody that makes a hat like that,” said Saucedo, who has been buying Copeland’s headgear for years. “That’s why they’re so popular.”

The other big Copeland design at Gasoline Alley, Saucedo said, is the cocktail hat, similar to those worn by the Pointer Sisters. A glamorous hard-shelled oblong perched at an angle, the hat is reminiscent of an Army cap, but with a coquettish veil in front. “I consider it a 1940s hat, but people use them for other eras,” Copeland said.

And for those who want to samba all night, there’s the multicolored Carmen Miranda hat, piled high with lightweight plastic grapes, pears and bananas balanced on a red satin brim.

“Everyone recognizes it,” Copeland said of his fruity creation. “It amazes me.”

Copeland’s career as a costume designer blossomed from his love of collecting Art Deco items and from years of pawing through vintage clothing stores.

While some folks shopped at department stores, Copeland and his friends preferred scrounging through the Salvation Army store for an alternative look. Nowadays, the 43-year-old designer said, vintage clothing boutiques are just as much costume shops as clothing stores.

“We wore vintage clothing in the ‘70s,” Copeland said. “Now the stuff from the ‘50s (and before that) is just gone.”

And Copeland wants to bring it back.

After years of shopping for retro clothes for himself, Copeland shifted his talents to helping store owners create outfits and top them off with stylish period hats.

“You add this . . . take other things away . . . and you (turn) a prom dress into a Cinderella dress,” Copeland said.

Through trial and error over 10 years, Copeland has perfected his designs to create sturdy hats and masks that wear well and stay put.

“I’m very meticulous about what I do. It’s not just thrown together,” he said.

In his baroque bedroom, lined with flamingo art, Copeland crafts a few thousand masks and hats per year while watching TV or listening to the radio.

The designer said he will often stay up all night watching old movies and TV shows, sometimes with the sound off, “just to see the costumes.”

His line of masks started as side items to the hats, Copeland said, “but now they’ve taken off and have gotten a life of their own.”

“I had so many requests for stick masks,” he said, pointing to a box filled with colorful cat-eye lace masks trimmed with gold thread and ostrich feathers.

“Women think they’re very elegant and feminine. To me it’s a decoration. It’s more fun. It’s just one more thing to wear when you’re getting dressed up.”

Other boxes spilled over with full-face masks on sticks, half masks and leather Lone Ranger tie-on masks.

The half masks are Copeland’s proudest achievement. Spray-painted red, silver or gold and flecked with contrasting paints, the contoured masks shimmer with plastic gems, stars and sequined trim.

“I operate on the theory that you can’t wear too many sequins and rhinestones,” Copeland said. “But for some people, that’s just gauche.” For the timid, Copeland makes masks in pastels with less glitter.

But can one dance and drink the night away in a bijou-covered mask?

“I’ve worn it through entire parties,” Copeland said. “You can breathe through it real well, and it’s not as hot as you’d believe, compared to those latex (full-head) masks.”

And after the party, “if they haven’t destroyed it,” his sparkling creations make a fine wall decoration, Copeland said, beaming with pride.