Testimony Tuesdays: A Costume Should Not Be Taken Lightly

I love dressing up for different occasions. To me, wearing a costume is a time to show off your skills and creativity. Therefore, my costumes are not just thrown together but are well thought out. Below I will show some examples and explain the process.

Let's start with creativity. The costume above was for a GYRAD (Get your roommate a date). We were windblown. Yes this has been done, but it is not too common. The key to pulling off a look is committing. The tie is a start, but the messy hair flying in the same direction adds to the illusion. Some dirty makeup gives the appearance that things flew in your face due to the crazy wind. Add in a prop like a inside out umbrella and your set.

This costume is even more creative. This was 2009, the year of the Swine Flu outbreak. Therefore, I was swine flu. The swine is obvious from the ears, snout, tail, and pink shirt. To make the costume into the disease a medical aspect was needed; cue the scrub pants, surgical gloves, and surgical mask. Then to finish off the look and show that it was a contagious disease I added the Quarantine logo to my shirt and held caution tape as a warning.

In choosing a character I am all about the details. For my Harry Potter costume I could have just worn a white shirt, black pants, maroon tie, and glasses. But I chose to wear a gold a maroon striped tie and round glasses. The lightning bolt scar is the correct shape and I added these letters to my hand. The font I used is the exact same writing as in the 5th movie. Details can send your costume over the top.

Speaking of details...When dressing as an iconic character, do the character justice. My Joker costume would not have been complete without a purple shirt and green vest with a green patterned tie. Add the makeup and colored hair to identify the character. Then a simple detail such as the Joker card adds something special.

For my Ryan Lochte costume look at the medal. I made the design similar to the actual medal. And I had to use the purple ribbon to make it look more like the real medal. The jacket is pretty similar to what they wore on the medal stand too. Lochte has a custom grill, so of course I had to make my own red, silver, and blue grill. My fake Olympic rings tattoo matches his real tattoo. And to complete the look I made a shirt with a direct quote from Ryan Lochte himself. I even used his favorite color, green.

I just described a lot but I hope that you can now appreciate how involved I get with costumes and my passion to create an awesome look.

Here are some other costumes to leave you with.

 Chuck Bartowski (from the show Chuck)

 

Fred from Scooby Doo

  

1950's nerd

 

Ventriloquist dummy