apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

For Halloween last year, I was a Freudian Slip - I bought a lacy white slip (layered over a black one for modesty) and wrote words like "Penis Envy" "Oedipal Complex" etc. all over it, including "Id" on one breast and "Ego" on the other. Unfortunately I was at the sort of party where all the girls are playboy bunnies or nurses, so only a few people got it :(

my sister constructed a model of her grade school out of boxes and paint . . . it's a VERY good way to win a contest.

I've gone as a pregnant nun the last few years. Someone always wants to get fresh with the fallen. Or confess something, which is also fun.

My best costume was "dead" Isadora Duncan. I had my face painted ash-white/blue, wore a diaphanous outfit and wore a long scarf around my neck with a tire hanging off it. Of course, a hubcap would do the trick as well. Needless to say, I had to carry the tire or I'd have really ended up "dead".

Last Halloween I dressed up as a Jeopardy contestant. Got a large box and painted it silver with the blue box with my signature. Then I used a large ballpoint pen and stuck a wire to it to act as a buzzer. And I simply wore a suit jacket and tie on top. It was hard to move around in it, but it was incredibly simple to make, and I won 3rd place in a contest. =)

Back in grad school, I made a giant milk carton out of a refrigerator box. I cut a window out of one side, which I looked out from, and wrote "Have You Seen Me" underneath.

I had some awesome costumes as a kid--I was a box of crayons one year, and that same year, my brother was a traffic light that actually lit up--that was the year we made costumes from boxes.

What I was last year and what I shall be for any costume parties in the future, I was a magic 8 ball..so easy, and people actually know what you are.

In grade school I went as a toxic waste disposal guy. Zip up boiler suit, army surplus gas mask, borrowed Dad's fire gloves, and carried a shovel. My friend went as toxic waste, in a green splattered t-shirt with a radiation symbol on it and a crazy wig. I chased him around, it was fun.

I gathered up two friends and we were Goth Scouts Troupe 666. We made uniforms and sashes and a batch of 500 cookies [made with real Goth Scouts by a friend who had a real kitchen]. We won third place at the Batcave's costume contest that year after bribing everyone with our cookies -- sugar cookies with lemon zest and fancy pants Halloween sprinkles. The other two Goth Scouts have since skipped town, but I'd love to do it again...

I am torn on responses to Max's adult costume...

1) YOU were the Greek soldier? NOW I know where I remember you from!

OR

2) Active or passive?

Sorry... Halloween just makes me randy. OKAY, randiER. ;)

mary--
I'm in! :)

sick kids kept me from my favorite grown-up costume parties last year, so when i picked up my daughter from a party at a neighbor's big field, i decided to have a little fun. i put on a twenties hat lying around my closet, a velvet opera coat and whitened my face. to conceal my darker neck,i added a long scarf. then i thought of isadora duncan. i approached groups of curious middle schoolers, drawing them in with the story of my life of dancing and scandalous behavior, when i got to the part about my last motor car ride i yanked up on the scarf, bulging my eyes and gasping as i turned a flashlight onto my ghastly face. they all screamed and ran . my daughter didn't want to ride home with me, she was so unnerved. i convinced her to get in the car, don't be silly, i would behave. she got frightened again because she thought i wasn't blinking ehough. maybe i went too far. she laughs about it now, but it took awhile.

Two Isadora Duncans. Weird.
I guess the artsy alternative to the unnnerving yet inevitable "Prom Night Disaster" costumes.

Easiest costume: Mark Spitz. College. Don't ask.

Most elaborate costume, male: Neptune...gold fishnet cape with gold-glittered fish and crabs entangled; metallic seaweed, scattered pearls. But all in a VERY manly way. :)

Most elaborate costume, drag (the year Priscilla came out, he says by way of sheepish defense that no one will buy..):
An all-out drag salute to Florida, in all her (un)natural glory. Had glittered citrus fruit corsage, a glittered pink yard Flamingo in glittered orange wig... and the piece de resistance... a glittered "alligator bag" made by completely covering a tourist-trap plastic alligator in deep green glitter and adding a chain handle.

My name for the evening was Citronella. :)

Last year I was a beat poet. I wore a black beret, black skirt and turtleneck. Then I tore up my stockings, ripped the shirt up a bit, and painted on all sorts of cuts and bruises. I was truly beat, daddy-o.

when i was 10 i dressed up as an Egyptian mummy, all wrapped us in strips with my eyes made up and and an asp............but of course my mom put a sweater over it.

last year: Tom Cruise, Risky Business. Tighty whities, socks, sunglasses.

pictures, please

Went as Trinity from the Matrix movies one year. Borrowed a shiny black vinyl coat from the drag queen/accountant that used to live upstairs, the rest was just black clothes and shoes and shades. Easy costume, most people got it and I actually got myriad male attention with never ever frickin' happens so I was caught a bit off guard.

One year I saw a guy on the train dressed in sooty, raggedly pajamas and a bathrobe, with his hair all messed up and his face all sooty as well. I overheard his Starfleet uniform-wearing friend ask him, "Dude, what are you supposed to be again?" And he answered, "I'm the guy who didn't take the fire alarm seriously."

Patrick, as a fellow former Floridian, I LOVE your Citronella salute. Very creative!

I don't know that I've had that many inspired costumes, although I certainly love Halloween. A few years ago, I decided to go to a party at the last minute and had no costume, so I decided to go as a trophy wife. Basically, I fancied myself up and carried a trophy. Not that amazing a concept, but I did get a boyfriend out of that party.

P2 -
Pictures, please, yourSELF!

Fiona -
I can SO imagine as a Trophy Wife, at least on your end of it, but one of the main ingredients to one, is that the husband needs to be ancient, enormous and/or generally unattractive to the point that it would be hard to imagine you going for without his being insanely wealthy.

The Two Isadoras -
What a trip it might have been to have you both at the same party! It would have been like the This Irresistable Paris Original number in How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

The best costume I ever did was not for me, it was for one of my nieces. It was a Lucy Ricardo thing with a green dress that I concocted by buying a green shirt her size, sewing a very simple skirt-thing to the bottom of a T-shirt to go under it; bought some fake red curly hair bits and bought her some matching hair spray paint for a bun, and made a hat to match. It had that Dior New Look that Lucy worked a lot. She was like 9 or so, but she looked adorable.

2 years ago I was inspied, I hit the 99 cent store, and the toy store and copied Daniel-san's costume from the Karate Kid... The shower. I rigged the curtain to a hula hoop, attached it to my framed back pack... Being my friends and I all grew up with the movie it was a hit... Last year I just grew my beard out, through on soem fatigues and carried a cigar, Viva Fidel!

The father of a friend of mine once cut up a bunch of little brown felt triangles and stuck them all over his suit. He went as "Pussy Galore."

Costumes? Halloween? I think my best costume evar was at a non-Halloween costume ball, but it's hard to describe - I made a really spectacular mask on a card-suits theme. When I moved, the movers packed the mask badly, and now it's destroyed.

Other costumes over the years: Phantom of the Opera, a Spanish Senorita (something like a tango costume - this was 7th or 8th grade), a pirate, a punk rocker (age 8), Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, a series of generic witches and vampires. Last year my fiance and I went as little devils (based on a comic book character of his devising - he's a comics artist), and won a costume contest. This year we're going as Alice (a very Elegant Gothic Lolita Alice) and either the White Rabbit or the Mad Hatter, depending on whether we find him a huge hat or a pair of rabbit ears that fit. All cupcakes we bring to Halloween parties will be labelled "EAT ME" and all soda will have a "DRINK ME" label taped to it. :)

Mary's Goth Scouts troops sounds pretty awesome - I've heard of a similar thing being done, a Satan's Cheerleaders squad. Perhaps one year we'll all get it together to go as the Cat & Girl "Hipster Scouts."

so, the only idea I have had for this years costume is Michael from "30 Something" pleated pants, plaid shirt with neck-tie and running shoes...

my most inspired costume idea was for a college days group costume: the easy spirits basketball team. remember the commercial? "looks like a pump feels like a sneaker?

My best cardboard box costume, I went as the genie Jambi from Pee-Wee's playhouse (you know... "meka leka hi meka hiny ho"). Wore all black, painted my face, fancied up a turban, and painted and bedazzled a cardboard box I wore on my shoulders. The best part was passing out at the end of the night - able to close the lid over my faze and peacefully snooze in the corner.

I went the last two years as a professional ping pong player. A white polo with USA PING PONG screenprinted on the back and an emblem of a paddle and ball on the upper left front, white shorty shorts, knee socks, blue sneakers, red head band and arm bands, USA ribbons in my pigtails, and a paddle that said Bend Over on it. Think Forrest Gump against China!Comfortable, and a huge hit! Plus, you get to smack a lot of butts with your paddle.

i like the beat poet idea. weakness for puns. sorry. anyway, one year i was a tube of toothpaste (colgate tartar control, specifically), and I carried around a giant brush. i should've talked someone into being floss. oh, yeah, and once i was a cherynobyl core technician, which was just a jumpsuit with that written on it, yellow rubber dishwashing gloves, and a sweet rubber mask that looked like either a cleaved or a melted head.

All of those are pretty good.. Ive been to some great parties and this year Im waiting for some last minute inspiration (hence checking out this site)..
Last year I went to the foam store and spent the afternoon cutting a gluing a huge piece of white bread together. I cored it out and put some dreadlocks with beads on top. I put it on, threw on some dark sun glasses, and went to the party singing 'my Cherie Amour' and bumped into people.. Can you guess what I was...?


Stevie WonderBread.


(and I won first place!)

once I was half of a ying yang and my best friend was the other half and we fit into eachother and managed to walk around as a whole ying yang. and another time i was a peacock. and once a male-order bride (at the time I thought it was really funny but i don't think it totatlly makes sense really. i dressed up as a groom with a big veil and a large envelope on my back. haHaHAH!)

last year i wore a white marylin-monroe-esque dress, very cute, and safety-pinned post-its all over the dress that said things like "the check's in the mail," "not tonight honey, i have a headache," "you don't look fat in that dress," etc..... and i was a little white lie. i may even do it again this year, it went over really well.

Last year, I went as Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter. I glued a big felt red letter A to the front of a velvet old looking dress and cut it short with fishnets to bring out the adultery side of the costume.

last year i was a gas pump. full-sized cardboard construction, got the actual pump off ebay (god bless ebay!). but no arm holes so i couldn't drink or dance or anything. and then the couple hosting the party surprised everyone by getting married. so im trapped in a cardboard box with no arm holes for a thankful short wedding, but couldnt even applaud (had to hold the thing up).

i'm a huge fan of bizare every day objects as costumes. i love the street light above. that's so good.

As a kid growing up in the country, I never go to trick-or-treat, so I've tried to make up for it as an adult. In high school, I won a costume contest as Carmen Miranda ... not a bad feat for a porcelin-skinned redhead ;-) In college, my friends and I went as everyone from Scooby Doo (with a real scooby!) and the following year we showed up as the Publisher's Clearing House prize patrol (complete with Ed McMahon, a big check and balloons!) - that one went over so well that I wrote it into one of my novels ;-)

I also had an ex-boyfriend who was quite legendarily great at Halloween costumes ... they involved elaborate props, too. One year he was an accident victim (with glass shards glued to his face, etc.), one year he was a heart surgeon (with an actual cow's heart that he made "beat" in his hand, and his big prize-winner was a little number called "Something Gone Wrong in the Toolshop." That one had a big saw blade cutting his brain in half, and many tools such as screwdrivers sticking out of his body. The last year we were together, he went as Christ (complete with 8ft. cross), but that one completely freaked me out when he wanted to have sex with makeup and wig still on later ...

I think I still have nightmares about that ;-)

Kristen, that's what I'm going as this year! I got an amish bonnet and apron off Ebay (I second the Ebay rocks sentiment), and I'm wearing a black sweater and a long skirt I found at a thrift store. I have some crazy lace up spiky boots that will fit with the adultery part.

My favorite box costume: I was one of a pair of dice when I was 12. It made for difficult trick-or-treating though.

The costume I got the most male attention from was when I dressed up as Princess Leia right before all the re-releases. It was amusing because I was surrounded by Playboy Bunnies and other such costumes.

My favorite easy costume was the year I went to a party in a nightgown, slippers, robe, one curler, smeared mascara, a bitchy attitude... I went around the party telling people to keep it down or else I was going to call the cops. Yes, I was "the annoyed neighbor”

The best thing about it was the drunker I got the more convincing I became and after a while the host of the party (who KNEW me) was apologizing profusely.

Ok, when it comes to creating Halloween costumes I go all out and make big structures/booths (I walk in the parade each year), and although I really like all of them, I was particularly pleased with last year's costume - I was a prisoner in a visiting booth in jail. Click on my name to see the pic...

My best costume: I created a bedside nightstand out of foam core, brushing the foam core with a combo stain varnish that resulted in surprisingly realistic wood grain. I put three drawers on the front that were all operable, attached with velcro. I wore that and put a decorated lamp shade on my head and glued a condom packet and lubricant packet to the top of the nightstand. Then wore pinned up shorts and a muscle shirt underneath so it looked like I was naked underneath it all.

What was I? "One Night Stand"

It was a blast of fun and I got an incredible amount of attention with people "opening" my drawers all night long that Halloween!

I'm terrible at costumes, but my 11 year old son made a Porta-Potty out of a giant box last year.....complete with 1-800-G0-POTTY as the company telephone number (his idea....pretty clever....if I do say so myself in a proud dad kind of way). Like all giant box costumes it was a pain to wear, but he got his picture taken about 25 times that night (and hauled in the candy)

One year one of my friends was pacman and the rest of us were ghosts (different colors) and chased her around school. the outfits were awesome, cardboard with cloth of the colors. it was hilarious.

This year i had a simple costume. Went to the bar wearing some silk Pj's, House Coat, slippers, grey hair and a pipe and was Hugh Hefner, The Best part of it though wast my playmates, one for each of the months.

I won the costume contest for the Greenwich Village Halloween parade this year! I was floored.
I was The Claw arcade game.

http://www.halloween-nyc.com/contest.php

My friend made a documentary
http://theclawmovie.blogspot.com/