Unlike Gayle I do enjoy dressing up for Halloween. The best Halloween costumes are clever, immediately recognizable, and comfortable. I haven’t always been able to achieve those three things, but I’ve had my successes. Here are what I consider my three best Halloween costumes from years past.
My most clever Halloween costume
For Halloween of 1994 I went as Mrs. Mia Wallace (a.k.a. Uma Thurman) from Pulp Fiction. So did a lot of people. But I went as Mrs. Mia Wallace after she is revived from her overdose.
I started with the basic Mia Wallace costume: black wig with severe bangs, white fitted shirt, black bustier, black pants and mules. Then I added a bloody nose and purple eyeliner under my eyes so I’d look strung out.
The best part was the syringe (actually an oral syringe for giving medicine to babies) that I cut the tip off of and latexed to my chest. Miraculously it stayed on the whole night through a party and some bar hopping despite multiple people touching it and saying “Wow, how’d you get it to stay on?”
I’ve seen pictures on the Internet of other people who have done this costume, but that night just a few months after the film came out I was the only one I saw.
My most comfortable Halloween costume
In 2004 my Halloween costume was Alex (a.k.a. Jennifer Beals plus 3 body doubles) from Flashdance. The main thing you need is an oversized gray sweatshirt with the neck cut out of it so that it hangs off your shoulder. A pair of 80s style pumps are also key. I went the modest (and warmer) route of wearing black leggings as well. I didn’t even use the fake welder’s helmet that I had found and which gave me the costume idea in the first place.
The least comfortable part of the costume was the wig, which got itchy over the course of the night. If, however, you have brown curly hair this is the most comfortable costume ever. What a feeling, indeed.
My least comfortable (but still a favorite) Halloween costume
Around 1995 I decided to go as Botticelli’s Venus. I wore a flesh-colored body suit. (No, I was not naked, despite some drunk guy at one of the parties I attended seeing me across the room and shouting, “That girl’s naked!”) I had a long blonde wig to which I added some wires to try to make it look like my hair was blowing in the wind.
The key to being Venus was the clam shell that I cut out of foam then painted. I cut holes so my feet could stick through, and I could wear shoes. The bare feet were painted on the top. I think I did a damn good job painting that shell. The problem was that to move I sort of had to waddle. Also, the shell meant I took up a lot of room at what were rather crowded parties.
At the first party I basically just stood against the wall talking to whoever happened to come near me. At the second party I ditched the shell and was Lady Godiva.
It’s still one of my favorite costumes because I was proud of the paint job on the shell, but I will never wear a costume that renders me largely immobile again.
For the month of October Listing Toward Forty is Listing Toward Halloween. All Halloween posts from this series can be found here.
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Kim Z. Dale 