Costumes! Costumes! Costumes!

Group costumes

We have a group of seven people who want to go as a ‘theme’.  What do we do?

Hmmmm…let me think. 

Jailbirds.  Perhaps going as a group of former CEO’s of large corporations. 

A convent?  All you need is a Mother Superior and a gaggle of Nuns.  It doesn’t need much color coordination.  Black and white would be fine.  Somewhat similar to the jailbirds.

Not necessarily seven, but there are the  ‘Marx Brothers’ (‘Groucho’, ‘Chico’ and ‘Harpo’ for starters; not to mention the two less famous brothers, ‘Zeppo’ and ‘Gummo’).

Maybe Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from fairy tale land, or the ‘Our Gang’ gang.  I favor Alfalfa, myself! 

The ‘Beatles’ used a number of styles of costumes over the years. 

A policeman, a cowboy, a construction worker….why not go as the “Village People”? 

Now, what ideas can you come up with?

Television Shows and Television Personality Costumes

 From ‘Mr. Television’, Milton Berle (oh, you never heard of him?) and his outlandish, clownish costumes and makeup to M*A*S*H and its assorted military characters from the Korean War, come another huge category of possible Halloween costume ideas.

 There were a rash of Western TV shows (‘Bonanza’, ‘Rawhide’, ‘Gunsmoke’ with Matt and Kitty) and their assortment of western garb, replete with a six shooter or two) in the 50’s, 60’s.  

 For you futuristic fans, remember ‘Battlestar Galactica’ or ‘Star Trek’?  Costumes from these kind of productions might be on the pricey side.

 The ‘Addams Family’ and ’The Munsters’ can provide you with several characters each that might feed your ghoulish personality.

 A medical smock might be all you need to play a part from ER or Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey or ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.

 Buffalo Bob, Clarabelle, Princess Summerfallwinterspring are a few characters from ‘Howdy Doody’.

But Howdy, himself might be a bit of a challenge. Unless of course, someone has a wooden head and looks like him.  (He was a marionette) 

Geographical Costumes/Fairy Tales 

 The brothers Grimm wrote many fairy tales, and most are depicted by costumes of their country of origin (Germany) at the time they penned their works.  Usually these costumes are peasant costumes of the period.

 There are some fairy tale costumes that don’t necessarily fit a period or geographical location, though; such as ‘Red Riding Hood’.  Of course, a wolf as in the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ is common to many countries and many periods in history.

Costumes pictured above are availabe at Buycostumes.com.  See ad in right column.

But not all geographical costumes need to be from fairy tales.  Some can be taken from movies or a Broadway show, like “Sayonara” or “Sound of Music”. 

 Some don’t have to be associated with anything at all.  Just pick a country, any country, and adapt a costume.  If you are Scottish, then a kilt, shirt and sporran might be just the costume you want to wear to your Halloween costume party.  Some clothing costumes are indigenous to countries and locales such as a Muumuu costume from Africa, or a hula skirt from Hawaii.

Costumes pictured above are availabe at Buycostumes.com.  See ad in right column.

 Again, geography, history, movies and theatre and literature can be intermixed.  The possibilities are endless.

Yet More Movie Character Costume Ideas

 There was a harvest of romantic comedies and musicals in the 1950s, many of which were based on Broadway productions.  There too were the epic Biblical movies such as ‘Ben Hur’, where a simple toga or a Roman soldier costume might fare well.   

 Along with the likes of ‘On the Waterfront’, and ‘Marty’ (neither will provide you with a good Halloween costume idea), were several Broadway musical productions converted to film.  ‘Carousel’, ‘Oklahoma’, ‘Kismet’ and ‘South Pacific’ to name a few, and costume ideas are plentiful in this genre.

There were movies like ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, ‘Blackboard Jungle; and another musical ‘West Side Story’ that were based on teenagers and teenage gangs of the fifties.  Poodle skirts, and black leather jackets would fit well (more or less) for a Halloween costume from these movies.

More Movie Character Costume Ideas. 

Yesterday we left you hanging.  No real ideas, but only a few general directions. 

From the silent movies and into the 1930’s came some  of the best scariest flicks. Maybe it was because of the black and white, and the poor quality of the film, but

Nosferatu (the original Dracula) was one of the better horror movies.  Lon Chaney was excellent in Phantom of the Opera and  Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Of course, following ‘Nosferatu’ was a series of vampire movies starring Bela Lugosi.  And don’t forget the Frankenstein movies with Boris Karloff.  

The thirties produced stars such as Nelson Eddy (as a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman) and Jeanette McDonald in ‘Rosemarie’, a musical.  The gangster movies were in their prime with the likes of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.

Later in the decade, colorization became more commonplace especially with a couple of blockbusters like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With The Wind”.  Keeping in mind the Wizard costumes are copyrighted, wouldn’t  Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion be a great group costume?  Of course, Scarlett and Rhett are basically period costumes and not quite so readily identifiable.

The forties produced a lot of war films, and of course the ongoing gangster and private detective movies.

Most of the movies and characters from the 40s movies would have worn what we now call ‘vintage’ clothing.  So a trip to a vintage shop might be in order.