I’ve been wring about design and photography for a while so I figured it’s time to jump out that box and write about something creative, practical and hopefully a part of your life at least once in a while — costuming!
Halloween is right round the corner and in this particular post I’ll be showing how I put together three Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos / sugar skull costumes. But it doesn’t have to be Halloween and you don’t have to be doing Dia de los Muertos. This approach will work for any holiday or costume or special occasion outfit you need!
Step 1. Research sugar skull and Day of the Dead costumes
When I’m given a costume theme to go by, I look at Google Images and see what’s out there. This is not just looking at what’s for sale on the costume sites; it shows all kinds of things from cool, artistic photo shoots to random internet weirdness. I usually type in the occasion or theme followed by “costume.” Sometimes I drag and drop the most compelling images to a folder on my desktop to refer to later, but this time I just made mental notes of recurring themes and what looked interesting to me. I already had some vague idea of sugar skull imagery though I have never built a costume around that theme.
In looking at a bunch of the Day of the Dead costume ideas I found the commonalities to be the skeleton imagery, lace, the floral and sugar skull face makeup and colorful rose floral headbands. Lots of dresses or corsets with fluffy skirts.
There were several white outfits, like bridal with lace, several red and black and a bunch that were multi-color but nothing specific. This is great! It looks like I can do anything I want color-wise!
Step 2. Plan your sugar skull costume
I mentally process all the sugar skull costumes I saw and think about what I already have in my costume closet that I can use, and what nice accessories I should acquire to really make my outfit unique and something that works for me.
Part of this thought process involves thinking about where I’ll be wearing my costume. Will there be a lot of sitting, standing, walking, bike riding? Will it be warm or cold or rainy? Inside or outside? Day or night?
For this sugar skull costume, I’ll be wearing the costumes mostly at night in a cool climate. There will be moderate walking and some sitting and standing. No bike riding!
Next I’ll walk in to my costume closet and let it speak to me! Or I’ll rummage through the bins of tutus and corsets and see what color combos I can come up with to fit the theme. I start with the large pieces (top, bottom and jacket), and add smaller items later.
Costume #1 – I did a red and black Santa costume a few years ago, so that’s a no-brainer. It was a red and black corset on top and red lacy tutu on bottom, plus a red and black monster fur crop coat (see photo way below). I can add some skeleton accessories, a floral headband and some black boots.
Costume #2 – I just went to Diner en Blanc a couple weeks ago so I had occasion to look at my white stuff. I’ll start with a white under-bust corset and white tutu, then add some skeleton stuff, jewelry, floral headband and black boots. I have a black thrift store jacket that I sewed fiber optic strands (from a whip) onto a couple years back. It’s an awesome piece that I don’t wear very often, it’s black (fits my black and white theme), will give me a little warmth, it’s very unusual, and adds lighting to my costume.
Costume #3 – For the last one, I remember seeing some fancy costumes that were based on bustle skirts. I have an aqua and green one from etsy that’s super cute and a little unexpected color-wise. What can I put with it? I can go black or white. I have a black under-bust corset but I need something to go under it. I have a crazy crop jacket made of green and aqua monster fur, but I think that’s a little too crazy. Not that I wouldn’t do it, but I’m going to think of some other options that are less crazy.
The bustle skirt deserves to be the focal point of this outfit. I could use a black lace and knit top that I just bought at Kohl’s last week. I could use a black faux fur short sleeve jacket and get some skeleton gloves for arm warmth. I’ll still add skeleton tights, floral headband and some jewelry. This one still needs some work but it will be awesome, whatever it ends up being.
Footwear: I’m going to wear black boots I already have for all of these costumes. They are comfortable to walk in and go with all my costumes. They come just below my knees and will cover up some of the skeletons on the tights, but I can live with that.
The things I saw that I want to purchase are:
- Rose floral headband (so many color choices; I need to narrow that down to two)
- Skeleton tights (this will be perfect because it will keep me warm and fit the costume theme)
- Skeleton gloves (again, it will keep me warm and fit the theme; I prefer fingerless so I can still use my hands and my iPhone)
- Black jewelry (no specific ideas but I don’t have black jewelry so I’ll look with the thought that I want something I can wear everyday, not just with a costume)
- Face paint? (I’m not crazy about face paint because I worry about smearing it or messing it up; I’m thinking about using liquid eyeliner to draw teeth on either side of my mouth, a hollowed out nose hole and just using regular eye make-up but put it on super dark)
Step 3. Shop for what you don’t already have
If you are starting with some items you already have, you should have gathered those in the previous step. In this step you can go to amazon.com or a brick and mortar store like Spirit Halloween or Party City to round up your missing items.
On Amazon, I look at the star rating and read the reviews. It helps me discern the quality of the item and how I should expect it to fit and what size I should order. In the US, I’m considered small, but when ordering stuff from China, I often need a medium or large. Knowing my measurements and consulting the size charts is a must! I try to limit my purchases to Prime, and I make sure the delivery date works with my deadline.
At this stage since you’re doing a different kind of search from the Google Images search, you might find some things you hadn’t thought about previously. I find that there are temporary tattoos for all that fancy face art so I can eliminate the face painting completely and just go with the tattoos! And they’re affordable, 2 in a pack for about $10.
In searching for skeleton tights on Amazon, I find some regular black ones with white bones on them, and I also find white ones that have a full skeleton illustration on each leg, with the skull a little above the knee. This is super cool and unexpected. I’m getting them!
I look at skeleton gloves and find they have black and pink as well as black and white! I’d love to buy both, but I’m going to limit myself to one, and white seems like the better choice since I might need to use it with any of my 3 costumes.
The floral headbands — so many colors to choose from! If I get a black one and a white one. They will go with everything I have planned. Done. I decide to go to Spirit Halloween store just to see what they have and they have a whole Day of the Dead section(!) so I pick up a red floral headband because it’s a more traditional headband than just an elastic band. It will go with two of my costumes.
Next up: jewelry. I search for “black jewelry,” black necklace,” and “black bracelet.” I find a bracelet that looks pretty cool so I order it. I remember the last time I was at Kohl’s saw a black Vera Wang necklace that was pretty unusual. I’ll go back there and have another look.
While at Kohl’s I walk past the wall o’ bras and spy a nice aqua one with black lace. I find my size and I think it will go perfectly with that bustle skirt and complete that outfit! Aha, the missing piece! So my Kohl’s purchase results in $30 of Kohl’s bucks that I can’t use for another 4 days. I guess I’ll be back! On the return trip I get the other black necklace that I liked. It’s asymmetrical and floral, seems sturdy too.
I still need a white lace top for the white outfit. Amazon it is — search for white lace top and bam, a cool one shows up on the first page. It’s Prime, I order it and I think I’m finally done shopping! Gotta wait for the stuff to come in so I can try it all on and see what happens. So excited!
Step 4. Gather your pieces and try everything on, yes everything; tweak and revise as needed; document the final outfit, on and off of you
I gather all my Amazon purchases, Kohl’s treasures and closet staples and put it all on outfit by outfit. I try to take a picture in a full length mirror partly for my own documentation and partly to see how it looks from a little distance. If anything isn’t quite floating my boat, I look through stuff I already have to see if I can improve it. I put on everything except the face tats since I don’t want to use them up. I’ll have to do that on the fly when the time comes. But I do put on my boots and accessories to make sure it all looks good and is comfortable to wear and move around in.
I think of costuming in optional layers when it comes to dealing with unknown weather. For this reason I plan to wear the gloves if it’s warm or a jacket if it’s chilly. I try the costumes on both ways.
After I take the costumes off I group them by outfit and shoot them on a 30” X 40” foam core board. I find that documenting all the pieces for a single costume is great to refer to when I am putting it on “for real” so I don’t forget anything. It’s often a stressful time crunch and having something to refer to helps me maintain my zen. You don’t need foam core to shoot on; you can use a table top or clean floor.
Here are my three finished sugar skull costumes:
Step 5. When the occasion arrives, put it on, be fabulous and have fun!
Hopefully you’ll have someone other than you take your photo to document your fabulousness.
I will leave you with 2 valuable tips:
- Don’t wait until the last minute to start planning your costume. Give yourself 2-4 weeks if you can. eBay purchases form China can take a while to ship. Not everything is Amazon Prime. If you want to visit some brick and mortar stores, that takes time too.
- Don’t just buy a canned costume from Amazon, Party City or Spirit. They’re usually cheaply made (but cost $30-50) and you may not be the only one wearing it. If you spend a little time combining costuming basics that you may or may not already have with some cool accessories, you’ll end up with a completely unique and perfect-for-you costume. Alternatively, choose your own accessories to add to a pre-made costume to make it your own.
What’s the next costume you need to plan? Do you have any costuming tricks or tips to share? Let me hear ’em!