Oh, Halloween, how vexing you are,

Well, the mad hunt for my Holly Golightly costume pieces has produced no real progress except some long black gloves stolen from my mother's closet. Consequently, I have thought about creating another look. It breaks my heart but in my search for Audrey's black dress I have come to some startling conclusions about how easy it is to create elaborate costumes for forty dollars or so that look like you spent a fistful. You just have to know where to look and I may just have to use one of these myself instead if I can find nothing else.
And so, here is an early Halloween post for those of you going to elaborate parties like me or just love to dress up for the night and want to do it right. I'll post one today and more in the days leading up to Halloween. Any suggestions are welcome, I've had to create a lot of looks and something to do would be helpful. Most of these are movie characters which are easy to recognize and therefore easy to make, but are refreshingly original as opposed to batwoman and the slutty nurse.

Costume 1:Marie Antoinette

Wig: Wigs can be purchased premade, but its much more fun to make your own with very curly doll hair that can be found at craft stores. Buy some in blonde or white and purchase a hairnet that can also be found on the same aisle. With a hot glue gun start gluing in the middle or the hairnet and spiral outward, piling the hair upward. it might take a few packages or hair but they are fairly inexpensive. Next cut a few long curls and attach them to the back of the hairnet. You can get creative with the wig and give it many looks by pulling it tight in some places to give it a more pronounced style but this is the easiest and most straight forward way that I've tried. A toy ship can be glued to the top of the wig as long as the glue is well hidden for a festival version and for a masquerade version, flowers can be woven in and out of the hair.

Mask(Optional): If the Masquerade costume is more your style you have to have a mask. This can present a problem for some with limited resources but if you want something simple and easy try a piece of tulle tied over the eyes like Kirsten Dunst in the incredible movie. The elaborate version can be made with the plastic masks in the craft store but something crucial is missing. First, you need to cut the mask to fit your face with points at both ends. Most of them are far to big so this is necessary. Paper mache to stiffen the plastic is a great idea but on a deadline you can cover the mask in fabric, lace and ribbon as well as beads and trim that make it look as though hours have been spent on it, when really only a few minutes in front of the trusty glue gun have been spent. Last but not least, the feathers are crucial however they are most accurately plumes. The must be very big and really are necessary so antique and vintage stores are your best bet, I picked up three for a dollar and all in wonderful colors.

Shoes: After some toiling over my amazing Fashion through the Ages book that was a much needed just because gift from the mother, I have learned that while many elaborate Parisian fashions of the time incorporated the sweet pastry inspired shoes from the movie that float dreamily across the screen during a montage of I Want Candy, the true styles of the queen were lace up high heeled boots in white, at least when the shoes couldn't be seen under the dress. When they were however, the shoes were much like today's stylish heels, pumps, but not quite stilettos, maybe an extra bow on top wouldn't hurt.

Dress: Finally, the most important part, the dress. My favorite idea is to buy an old prom dress (as shown above courtesy of ebay $20.00), preferably a white one, and rit dye it any variety of pastels, complete with a poofy tulle slip and some sewing. White is all right also because if you are opting for a very original dress, you'll want something with a lacy skirt and plain satin bodice. Short sleeves are just fine, even no sleeves, we'll add those later. Most of these dresses can be found at the salvation army, goodwill, ebay or vintage and antique stores for twenty to forty dollars. Now, a trip to the fabric store. Bring the dress and if you need help ask the nice older women working there, they're saviors. Choose your color scheme before your trip and buy about eight yards of satin in the color of your choice. Try to match the satin of the bodice if possible because that means less sewing. With two yards or so of satin, construct sleeves if you so please. Simple ones are fine, the important part is that they are three quarter length and have long cuffs that drop downward as shown in the following pictures. Inside the sleeves, lace should be added and some trim, ribbon and extra lace can be added to the outside. Another option is to create a lace up bodice in addition to the sleeves or add some flowers to match your wig. Finally, the skirt is important to the overall look. With the remaining four yards or satin, sew along the bottom of the bodice, then trim, hem and make the bottom of your new upper layer very pretty with lace and ribbon. The result is that the original skirt should look as though it is now an underskirt as shown the pictures below.
Any of these techniques can be mixed and matched to create the dress you desire, combine them all for the most realistic look, but I'm sure no matter which one you use you'll turn heads.

(Very elaborate) Gown (RomanticThreads)
from the runway


Extras: And so, if you want to go even further, add a lacy fan, or some short gloves that match your dress and this insane look is complete.


I am thinking about creating this costume for myself, let me know what you think. I am very confused on what I should do! This would be so much fun to create but I need opinions and soon so I can get a head start. Hope this was helpful to anyone that needed it, more to come soon.