Gaga-licious Women’s Costumes
Welcome to the House of Gaga where dreams of wild and whimsical fashion can be all your own. Inspired by the Lady herself, there are sure to be many of the best Halloween costumes this year based on pop princess Lady Gaga. If you’ve ever watched this singer in a music video, at a concert, or just being stalked by the paparazzi, the one thing instantly noticed is that her style is utterly unpredictable – and you can count on that! So if the whole gang wants to dress up as Lady Gaga (hey, guy gossip-meister Perez Hilton did last year) for Halloween or the next costume party, no one has to worry about wearing the same exact thing!
One of the easiest and most (oxymoronically)basic Lady Gaga costumes you can create is to just throw on some sort of leotard in any color you choose; there aren’t very many photo ops where you have seen this leggy blonde’s stems covered up. At this point you can decorate your leotard in anyway you please; some of Gaga’s favorite looks have included a leotard with great big bows, green Kermit the Frog dolls, bubbles made of balloons, a little red riding hood “hood”, and more. After you’ve got the leotard in place with the right “theme” add some crazy tights, wild boots, or platform heels and sunglasses.
Lady Gaga loves her an outlandish wig, so this has to be one of your main costume accessories! For an everyday Gaga look, a platinum blonde bob wig will do, but you’ll want to take your ‘do over the top for a special occasion. One favorite, all-purpose hairstyle of mine is when she had her hair coiffed to look like a bow or then there is the time that she had a flat hat that looked like a big button covered in hair to match her own. If you’re feeling the need for some shade, tease, flatten and spray your long blond hair out to look like the wide-brim sun hat that she’s sported about. If you don’t have the natural hair to pull it off, check out the many wigs found through CostumeMachine.com that can help you with the crowning glory to all your other Gaga gear.
“The Young Victoria” Costumes Rule Oscars
If you are a movie aficionado and view costumes as “art” and the costume designer as the “artist”, then you are sure to appreciate the sumptuous style of Sandy Powell who won an Oscar for Costume Design at the recent 2010 Academy Awards. Her costumes for The Young Victoria set the stage for this period drama and created a spellbinding focal point that was at once fresh and historically accurate. Julian Fellowes, writer of the script, says, “What is so extraordinary about her work in the film is that she has reinvented the Victorian look without being unfaithful to it”.
In the title role, actress Emily Blunt portrays Princess Victoria, the next in line for the British throne who has to contend with ambitious, self-serving men who have agendas of their own. During this time and through her reign from 1837 through 1901, Queen Victoria had a major influence on fashion; so much so that the era was named after her with the term “Victorian Period”. Accurately depicted in the movie and as fashion historians report, Victoria has had a long-lasting impact on Western clothing and womens costumes, most notably to wear a white wedding gown (when she married Prince Albert) and to wear black in mourning as she did for King William IV (as depicted in the movie) and later for the remainder of her days after Prince Albert died.
Costume designer, Sandy Powell, tells that the biggest challenge on The Young Victoria film was “to make the characters look regal and wealthy without the budget a queen would normally have”! She figuratively and literally stitched together past and present history with her interpretation of this British monarch’s clothing. This was not the first Oscar nomination or win for Powell who has previously won Academy Awards in Costume Design for Shakespeare in Love (1998) and The Aviator (2004) and been nominated five other times as well.
Make Waves in Spring Break Costumes
If they haven’t already hit a beach near you, you can expect Spring Breakers across the country are packing up their party gear for bring a bit of rowdy, raucous merrriment this March. Grey skies have cleared up and high school students, college co-eds and those of us old enough to know better are ready to put on a happy face and get the party started. And, nothing makes Spring Breakers happier than a good party and standing out amongst a sea of tanned, toned beach bods.
One way you are sure to get noticed is put a little extra effort into your “GTL” like The Situation on MTV’s “Jersey Shore”. First you hit the gym (G) to get the muscles pumped and primed; next you get a tan (T) from a bottle, bed or beach to show off said muscles, and finally your pay attention to your laundry (L) which is a euphemism for making sure your outfit for the day is stylish and looking fine. During spring break, everyone knows the official costume requires very little actual clothing, just bikinis for the girls and surf shorts for the guys. For those that like to cover up a bit more add a straw cowboy hat, do rag or pair of sunglasses.
But you can add a little sumptin’ special for the occasion like a beach bum or Rastafarian wig for the guys or a grass hula skirt and coconut shell bra for the ladies. Other costume ideas for a March trip to the beach include tacky tourists with Hawaiian shirts, white socks with sandals and cameras worn around the neck or even a sexy mermaid costume. If you really want to make a memorable entrance to the next Spring Break party, queue the “Jaws” music and jump out in a Man Eating Shark costume with legs sticking out of the mouth like a tasty swimmer dinner. Check out CostumeMachine.com for lots more costume ideas that are sure to make waves and get raves; after Spring Break these will also make some of the best Halloween costumes around.
Poultry Day Something To Cluck About
Crank “The Chicken Dance” up on your iPod and get ready to flap your feathers all day long because today, March 19th, is Poultry Day. Whether you like to feast on poultry (it’s lower and fat and cholesterol than other carnivorous treats) or just like to be entertained by poultry (imagine the 2000 stop-animation film Chicken Run), Poultry Day is a reason to celebrate your fine feathered friends anyway you darn well please. Don’t stick with the same-old chicken dinner, try something new like Cornish hens, roasted goose, turkey legs, duck gumbo, or quail kebobs – just one bite and you’ll proclaim, “mmmm, tastes just like chicken”!
After dinner, just flip on the television you might just find yourself entertained with that good ole boy, err chicken, Foghorn Leghorn from old-school Looney Tunes, Camilla the Chicken from the Muppets, or the beyond-ridiculous Giant Chicken that randomly appears to fight with Peter on the Family Guy. Perhaps one of the most famous chickens of all time is the San Diego Chicken (aka The Famous Chicken) that performed at more than 500 consecutive Padres baseball games and was one of the major forces in making sporting mascots popular all over the country. This chicken mascot was so popular that it was actually named by The Sporting News as one of the “100 most powerful people in sports for the 20th century”. Pecking order aside, another poultry mascot that can’t be overlooked is HokieBird of Virginia Tech. Helping to cheer the Fighting Gobblers onto victory, this turkey mascot is one of the top college mascots around.
Chicken and turkey costumes are sure to put a little scratch in your step on Poultry Day. But you can get even more creative on this day of tribute to the edible bird; how about dressing up as a larger-than-life egg cooked sunny side up? Or, Humpty Dumpty or a big pastel Easter egg or a sugary yellow marshmallow Peep chick. Other fun Halloween costumes that will get folks clucking on Poultry Day include a white-bearded and black string tie Colonel Sanders costume inspired by the KFC restaurant chain or a Cock Fighter costume that looks like a huge chicken in a prize fighter costume.
The Sinister and The Sweet – Queen Costumes in “Alice”
More than 150 years have past since Lewis Carroll’s classic piece of literature, “Alice’s Adventures Wonderland”, was first published. Since then, the enchanting story’s characters have leapt off the pages to figuratively come to life in a variety of movie, television and stage adaptations. While the story hasn’t lost its charm after all these years, the costumes worn by the good and bad Queens have become predictable (you’ve probably seen dozens of “Queen of Hearts” in the same cheap Halloween costume). But to her credit, Colleen Atwood, the costume designer for Tim Burton’s recently released Alice in Wonderland, stepped out of the box and raced into the rabbit hole to create costumes that are loyal to Carroll’s tale, but utterly unique as well.
The villainous Red Queen, known as Iracebeth, was portrayed quite sinisterly by actress Helen Bonham Carter. Her Elizabethan-era inspired gown with corseted waist regal collar was elevated beyond cliché with an outrageous red wig in the shape of a heart. Complementing the red hearts along the full skirt, the wig worn by Bonham Carter was rumored to have weighed three pounds! In addition, her head was digitally altered to bulbous proportions making her snarled, heart-shaped lips and brazen, blue eyeshadow even more noticeable.
The benevolent and kindly White Queen, named Mirana, played by actress Ann Hathaway wore a Victorian-esque gown in a meruinge of delicate white fabrics was designed to transform her into a “Stepford fairy princess”. Laces and pearls and ribbons, oh my, this womens costume looks at once angelic and alternative fashionista! Costume designer, Atwood, also had makeup artists add a long, cascading wig of snow white waves, real human hair none the less, along with dark brows and ruby-stained lips to punctuate her extraordinarily ethereal complexion.
If you’ve become “curiouser and curiouser” about the Red Queen and White Queen from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, you can put together your own costume today with a little imagination and some great costume accessories (such as wigs, face paint, and royal accoutrements) found through costume machine. By the time summer rolls around, Tim Burton and Disney’s officially licensed costumes will be ready to order for your Halloween plans. Many sites are accepting pre-orders for July 2010 delivery.
Costumes For Spring Break Skiing
Many mountain slopes across the country are readying themselves for one last blast of skiing and snowboarding for the season. For the Spring-Breakers who prefer fresh powder over fine sandy beaches, heading to a ski resort is the perfect way to keep the adrenaline rush going until there just isn’t a mogul left to master or a slope to shred. Who needs to catch a wave to ride when you can nab some big air off the half-pipe just like Shaun White (in your dreams!).
Spring break skiing is just as much about the party and perfecting your Bota bag swigging skills as it is about looking good out there on the runs. Everyone wants to make and impression in a “I-didn’t-try-too-hard-way” in their gear and snow outfits; why not take it over the top by wearing some of the best Halloween costumes from last year’s costume party. You’ll feel like swinging from the snow-dusted treetops in a great big hairy gorilla costume; yes, we’ve really seen these swishing down the slopes. In addition to gathering up all the attention, a gorilla costume wearing skier will also stay toasty warm with the benefits of a full-body, furry suit.
Another idea for spring break skiing costumes is to dress as a rabbit and turn yourself into a literal “ski bunny”. If the weather is still below freezing, go for the mascot-style Easter bunny costume, but if the weather’s warming up women can really make a sexy statement in a Playboy bunny costume which is perfect for après-ski activities as well! For spring break skiing, really anything goes – keep celebrating winter by dressing up as a snowman, a penguin or an Eskimo cutie. Or, be a harbinger of temperatures rising by suiting up in tropical beachwear, hula skirts, bikinis or whatever your bare skin can bear!
Some Of Oscar’s Best Film Costumes
With the 82nd Annual Academy Awards quickly approaching, movie aficionados will tune in to see who wins what in the year’s best movies. This got me thinking about what makes a truly memorable movie. Of course, the talent of actors portraying various characters pulls the audience into the story, but so does the cinematography, the musical score and the high-tech special effects. But, all these things aside, one of my favorite parts of the movie watching experience is admiring the costumes created and styled by talented costume designers. Some movie costumes are based in history, transporting us seamlessly to a time gone by – or to a reality we haven’t yet imaged. Other costumes are fantastical, over-the-top and beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, until we see them on the big screen. If you are movie fan like me, you’ll enjoy dressing up like characters from some of these past films that have received an Oscar for “Best Picture”.
Scarlet O’Hara: A true steel magnolia, the pretty protagonist from the 1939 Best Film winner Gone With The Wind wears the stereotypical Southern Belle costume. From the heavy velvet gown made from Ms. Ellen’s drapes to the delicate, tiered white dress and big sun hat worn at the barbeque, a Scarlet O’Hara costume is definitely for the sassy gal that does give a dang!
Rocky Balboa: Go the distance this underdog prize fighter from the 1976 Best Film winner, Rocky. Grab a Halloween costume of a boxer complete with silk shorts, a hooded robe (your name spelled out on back) and a pair of red boxing gloves.
Mozart: The historical biopic, Amadeus, won the 1984 Best Film Oscar and left us with an impression of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart not to be forgotten. Recreate the music, the magic and the madness with a 17th century aristocratic costume and powdered white wig that transforms you into this famous musical genius.
Frodo Baggins: In the 2003 Oscar winning movie, Lord of the Rings (Return of the King), hobbit Frodo prepares for the final battle in Middle Earth on his journey to Mt. Doom. Dress in a Frodo Lord of the Rings costume made of cropped brown pants, a hooded cloak, sword and hairy feet!
Creative Kids Make Costumes From Duct Tape and Trash
What do you get when you mix hundreds of creative kids with as much duct tape as they can get their hands on? You get an amazing array of costumes created especially for the Out-Of-The-Box Costume Ball at the Destination Imagination Global Tournament. Destination Imagination is a non-profit organization that provides an educationally-based outlet for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving and Each year at the Global Tournament, this unique and utterly fun event sponsors an “Out Of The Box Ball” as a way for the kids to cut loose and show-off their handiness with scissors, tape, cardboard, recyclables and little else except maybe a few good costume accessories! It’s amazing what types of costume ideas that these smart kids come up with – most have more creativity in their little pinkies that we adult have in our whole bodies!
From over-the-top “The Joker” costume from Batman made entirely of different colored duct tapes to ball gowns made of yesterday’s newspaper, these costume ideas would make the contestants on “Project Runway” green with envy. Watch the kids in action or ask for tips, these highly creative costumers often are asked to create costumes from paper, mailing labels and other leftover stuff in mere minutes during one of the signature events at the competition, the Instant Challenge. Not afraid to go out on a limb, these teams can fan fold, hole punch, tape, twist and tear their way into a costume that will make you say “wow”! One interesting technique an elementary school kid shared was making flimsy materials like foil, newspaper, or fabric stiffer and more durable by lining the back with slightly overlapping strips of duct tape. Next, you can cut your creation into any shape desired, connect with more duct tape – no sewing required! For Central Challenges, which can often take several months to solve, kids can get more elaborate with their outfits, adding silly costume accessories such as feather boas, oversized sunglasses, face paints, costume shoes, crazy hats and more!
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