That was the theme of this year's Family Place 'Escapade' Event, which I helped co-chair Saturday night. It is a yearly Halloween Costume party, which is given to help raise funds for the Family Place, a non-profit that helps women and children leaving violence in the home.
Costume Party? RIGHT up my alley.
I say 'go big or go home' ... hahahah So I started thinking in August of what I was going to "be". I have always wanted to wear a 16th -18th century costume, with the powdered wig and all, and I was initially considering Marie Antoinette or Josephine. But since my husband and I were going together, and we wanted to be a 'couples costume', I knew there was NOOOOO WAY he was going to dress up as a King Henry sort with knickers, pinky rings, crowns and ribboned hair. Yes, NO SIR-EEE.
So it hit me. If I went as Queen Elizabeth I, I could represent Great Britain's "Establishment" and he could forgo the velvet knickers and go as Johnny Rotten/Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols, and represent Great Britain's "Anti-Establishment"! Because there is nothing more anti-establishment than the group who sang the song "Anarchy in the U.K." and founded Punk Rock!
MY COSTUME:
One thing I knew that I HAD to have was a RUFF. That is the big collar that stands around their neck and head like a cone that a dog wears after getting surgery at the vet. I could only find one place that made it, A Very Merry Seamstress. She makes lots of historically accurate costumes, and this is where I learned what Elizabethan Ruffs, Wisks, Rebatos, Underproppers & Supportasses are.
To make this kind of collar stand up, especially in the back, you need a supportasse/underporpper to help prop up the ruff.
To make this kind of collar stand up, especially in the back, you need a supportasse/underporpper to help prop up the ruff.
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| image: here |
I emailed her and she said she was already booked solid and couldn't have it made by my Halloween deadline. I asked my friend Cheryl, who I have used for many sewing and monogramming occasions and she said she would love to help me with my costume.
I found this black gothic looking Victorian dress on eBay. It didn't fit the time period, but I thought it could provide a good foundation for my costume.
I put it on a dress form at home and started playing. I ordered some Union Jack Flags and bunched them around as a skirt. When Cheryl came over to see what I had so far, she agreed that we would have to change it up to make it more 16th century. She suggested ordering a handkerchief and we could make that into a more interesting corset.
I knew through my research that Elizabethan women wore 'bumrolls' and I REALLY wanted this to help make the skirt more pronounced. I had already ordered a 6-ring hoop skirt for the dress, so Cheryl took the fabric and flags and our ideas home with her, to start sewing.
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| image: here |
I needed to figure out my hair and make-up. One thing I knew for sure, I wanted BIG HAIR. BIG, TEXAS DRAG-QUEEN HAIR. hahah. I found a website in Las Vegas named Empress Bianca Wigs and she made the wig for me, based on one she had in her store that was blonde:
Then I researched the make-up: first, by looking at what was historically correct:
I knew I didn't want to look "pretty", but I also didn't want to look "scary/goth". I just wanted it to be dramatic. That's the fun part of Halloween. You can use your imagination, everything doesn't have to be 'by the book'. I gathered images of makeup, by searching "editorial" and "theatrical" makeup, and got inspired:
I knew one thing for sure: I WANTED THE CHALK-WHITE FACE & NECK. That I thought was important. I tried the stage make-up and it didn't look smooth. I knew what I really wanted, was authentic Geisha and Kabuki make-up from Japan. I found it on eBay.
Let me say this: IT IS NOT EASY TO WORK WITH. I downloaded a video on youtube of an authentic geisha applying it, and put it on my ipad on my counter so I could have some instruction on how to put it on.
It is a SEVERAL step process. I documented it:
First, I pulled my hair back in a tight bun, for easy make-up application AND because I was going to wear a wig. I went ahead and did double duty, by slathering on thick conditioning butter on my hair: might as well get it healthy while it's under that wig! (I use various conditioning treatments that are for African American hair. I sleep with it in my hair once or twice a week.)
But about his makeup: The very first thing you have to do is put wax on your face. You also must wax down your eyebrows. Then, with a special brush, you apply the white make-up in certain directions, starting with your shoulders and neck. Before it dries, you blot out the brush marks with a large powder puff. Then you must seal it all with a special white powder.
Then I had to figure out exactly WHAT make-up look I wanted to do. My first thought was wouldn't it be neat to do WHITE CONTACTS and keep the entire thing very ethereal. I (after 10 minutes of trying) put in my FIRST contact lenses. Ever. The look of it FREAKED me out. It was NOT what I was going for.
Then I tried an orange and red eyeshadow look and it just looked like bruised zombie eyes. So needless to say, I had to re-do my time-consuming Geisha make-up process THREE times, when I decided (with Cheryl just now arriving to help me put on my dress) that black smokey eyes would be the look.
I had ordered some rhinestones for my eyelids, and at the last minute picked up some great feather eyelashes at Ulta. I used some glitter cream eyeshadow on top, then for cheek colour dabbed a bit of red lipstick on the apples of my cheeks and rubbed it in a circle, in homage to true Elizabethan style.
I still needed to do some last-minute fixes to my dress. I had told Cheryl that I wanted to line the inside of the bustier with LED white lights. Since my skin was going to be chalk white, I thought it would be really fun and different if I had more white light on it to make it glow. We bought the lights here, and used duct tape to adhere it to the inside of the dress.
I found some red & black stockings/socks and I wore my Toms canvas wedges because I HAD to be comfortable. Now, don't get scared at the image below:
It's just me in a HIDEOUS wig-cap. But when I researched how to wear a wig, they all recommended wearing a wig cap which really just looks like a pantyhose sock cut off. But with all that make-up on my face, and the wig cap, I thought I looked like a man. Like an ugly back-up singer from The Birdcage movie or something!
I helped my husband put on his fake earrings. He wore them for 2 minutes, too uncomfortable. That's okay, I was so impressed he was going along with it all anyways! The thing we really didn't figure out though was HOW TO FIT IN A CAR with a 2 foot wig on your head and a 3 foot diameter skirt. After many (unsuccessful and unattractive) attempts, I found the only way to get to the party was to sit on the floor board, in the back seat.
HIS COSTUME:
I didn't need much research to know what Johnny Rotten & Sid Vicious wore. I went to London in the early 1980's and saw a LOT of their followers on the steps of Picadilly. I knew by memory about what I would need for my husband's "Anti-Establishment of Great Britain" costume.
Skinny red and black pants, a 'God Save the Queen' t-shirt, a mo-hawk, piercings, tattoos, and lots of leather, studs and chains. Finding these things took me to sites I never thought I'd shop at. Ha.
I pretty much scouted it all out, and while waiting for a flight at the airport, hit "add to cart" on them and had his costume purchased and planned within one day. The tattoo sleeves look SO real when you put them on! They are almost like pantyhose sleeves with graphics printed on them.
My husband's a little internet-shy so I doodled some glasses and beard on him, but just imagine the most conservative dad wearing a red mohawk, tattoo'd arms, and black eyeliner.
THE PARTY
The party had about 250 attendees, and the costumes choices worn there were NOT disappointing. But I was the one in charge of decorating the venue, so I was anxious to see how it turned out, since we installed it the day before. Anxious and NERVOUS. We had a lot of ground to cover on a limited budget. So here was my plan:
The entrance would have a red-carpet. I can't take credit for that idea, although I think its a great one. The patio in the entrance before the front door was to be a 'beer garden' where we would set up a coffin in which to hold the beer.
I had a delivery company load up everything from my house to take to the venue. On the way, we stopped at one of the other co-chairs' house, and picked her pumpkins and hay off her front porch (she told us we could, I promise!) We used these 'free' decorations in the beer garden. All the beer was donated too!
To make the 'floral centerpieces' pop a bit, we added river rocks to the bottom (out of necessity really, and we just 'borrowed' some from the parking lot) and purple Aquabrite lights -- the same I had duct taped in my dress. I ordered some 'stone' goblins and creatures from Dollar Tree on-line, and some glow-stick bracelets (600 of them!) from Glow Granny. We put a bunch of glow sticks on every table, just for fun. We alternated purple and red napkins, and had them hang over the edge to keep it a little modern. We relied heavily on candles and lighting to create the mood.
I used my own dessert platters, and whatever glass jars and bottles I could find and again, WINGED IT. I used craft washi tape that already had letters on it, and they looked like vintage labels. I found gummy fingers at CVS and it looked and FELT like a real finger, it was so gross. And of course you have to have brains, hearts, mice, roaches, etc.... which were all included.
I purchased the labels at Jo Ann's and color-copied them, so I could burn the edges (I burned one without copying it first and the burning adhesive smell lingered for quite some time) and then I taped them to the jars.
The party had about 250 attendees, and the costumes choices worn there were NOT disappointing. But I was the one in charge of decorating the venue, so I was anxious to see how it turned out, since we installed it the day before. Anxious and NERVOUS. We had a lot of ground to cover on a limited budget. So here was my plan:
The entrance would have a red-carpet. I can't take credit for that idea, although I think its a great one. The patio in the entrance before the front door was to be a 'beer garden' where we would set up a coffin in which to hold the beer.
I had a delivery company load up everything from my house to take to the venue. On the way, we stopped at one of the other co-chairs' house, and picked her pumpkins and hay off her front porch (she told us we could, I promise!) We used these 'free' decorations in the beer garden. All the beer was donated too!
The venue is cool in that it is basically one large, open space. But you CAN NOT touch the walls in anyway, so that meant no wall decorations of any kind, and nothing leaning on the walls. We knew we had to put 25 tables of 10 in the middle, and the food, music, photo booth, would be surrounding them all throughout the room.
I purchased grey and black gauze from a company in California I had seen at Market. One of the co-chairs supplied the tall cylinder glass vases, and I supplied the branches. I have three live oaks in our front yard, they needed trimming so I kept 26 branches and had someone spray paint them black. The ones that turned out best were the branches with leaves and acorns still on them.
To make the 'floral centerpieces' pop a bit, we added river rocks to the bottom (out of necessity really, and we just 'borrowed' some from the parking lot) and purple Aquabrite lights -- the same I had duct taped in my dress. I ordered some 'stone' goblins and creatures from Dollar Tree on-line, and some glow-stick bracelets (600 of them!) from Glow Granny. We put a bunch of glow sticks on every table, just for fun. We alternated purple and red napkins, and had them hang over the edge to keep it a little modern. We relied heavily on candles and lighting to create the mood.
To keep the costs down, we opted for a CANDY BAR instead of a dessert via buffet. I used all the jars and vases I had myself, and another co-chair lent me two of her apothecary jars too.
I ordered most of the candy in bulk from the Dollar Tree, and picked up the rest here and there while out grocery shopping. I tried to figure out how to make it interesting, and basically just WINGED IT. With all the lollipops I had, in order to make them display well, they needed to be different heights.
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| Hot tamales, black licorice, and Halloween peeps provided the decorative but necessary filling for the jars, as the lollipop sticks needed support. |
I went to Jo Ann's craft store, where they have candy-making supplies. I picked up two different lengths of lollipop sticks. I used duct tape to tape them to the existing lollipops, and turned these cute Frankenstein cookies into Cookie Pops but just using duct tape to hold the stick on those too. While I was at Jo Ann's Crafts, I picked up some Halloween craft labels and drink coasters, which I used on the jars with kraft paper, twine and whatever else I had handy in my supply tub.
We put them on a round table at the party, with a tower of Sprinkle's cupcakes in the center, as they donated 200 boxes of individual cupcakes as well. I provided scoops for the loose candy and little trick-or-treat bags from Dollar Tree for people to fill up and take home.
At the same time I was making the Candy Bar Jars, I also made decorations for the bathroom at the venue. There were separate bathrooms, but a communal sink area, with four sinks. Since we couldn't put anything on any walls, I used the tiny ledges that the deep-set mirrors above the sink provided.
I have several bottles and jars myself, most of them old and from diggers, which I knew I could use, but I also raided my sons' rooms and Curio's Nature section for ideas. I wanted it to be some sort of Experimental - Specimen - Laboratory. I kept thinking of that scene in Young Frankenstein where they show the brain in Dr. Frankenstein's Laboratory and the label says Abnormal, but Igor thinks it belongs to a girl named Abby Normal....
I purchased the labels at Jo Ann's and color-copied them, so I could burn the edges (I burned one without copying it first and the burning adhesive smell lingered for quite some time) and then I taped them to the jars.
We turned the lights to dim, and lit the candles and it looked really good.
The party started and I had more fun looking at everyones costumes than anything else. It is AMAZING everyones creativity! My camera did not take great pictures because I didn't keep the flash on, but I snapped a few anyways:
I have NO idea WHO this skeleton is, but his "Fire Marshall Bill" grin really creeped me out! I couldn't tell what was real, make-up, or mask! You can see the glow from my lights really well in this picture. When I started dancing, I pressed the button on each one to change it from a solid glow to flashing. Woo-hoo. I am SO crazy.
All in all, it was a great night for The Family Place, which is a SUPER organization. If you live in the area, you are probably aware of Partner's Card, which a fundraiser that greatly benefits Family Place victims. One Partner's Card buys diapers for an infant for 8 weeks, provides one night of shelter for a woman and her child, and buys 25 bus passes to help women find employment, receive medical care, or secure protective orders.
Purchasing this ONE $60 card does ALL that, AND you get 20% discount off all purchases for 10 days at local stores. And HUNDREDS of stores now participate! If you live in the Dallas area, Partner's Card days are active until November 6th! Go here for more details.
HAPPPPPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
From Queen Elizabeth I, Johnny Rotten, Army combat boy, Zombie boy, and family Halloween mascot, Rosie
