Hallowe'en 2015: The One with the Ridiculous Flat Party

Anyone who knows me even slightly knows that Hallowe'en is My Thing. I enjoy it more than Christmas. I make more effort than is probably normal, I spend a lot of money on costumes and stage makeup. This year, after living in a box for three years, I am now able to have a flat party, as the place I live in is a bit of a palace on the 25th (top!) floor of a tower block. We have big rooms, we have two floors and we have a roof terrace. Partay Central.

About a year ago I told my friends I would be having a Hallowe'en party. I started planning the decorations in about August. I wanted the kitchen to have a spooky laboratory theme. I bought various types of creams and black material from supermarkets and eBay, hung them from the windows and ripped them up. I bought bunches of white lilies and roses a few weeks before the party and let them slowly die. The gorgeous candlebra was off gumtree. The jars were collected over a few weeks and some bought from various shops, then filled with plastic animals, and body parts including hands, fingers and hearts..... Food colouring tinted water finished off the look.

The paintings and doors in the corridors were covered in fake spider web, and the stairs were adorned with small carved pumpkins, more spiderwebs and tea lights.  The living room became the dance floor for a DJ friend. The TV had Saw on repeat all night.

Outside was my favourite, it's an awesome space to begin with, but in my head I wanted it to be a "Haunted Forest." We bought a gazebo, went to the local park to gather leaves and twigs. Pumpkins became bases for twigs and ballast for the gazebo. Fake Ravens were placed into one of the trees, with fairy lights for some illumination. A fire pit in the corner provided warmth (on which was actually a very mild night), and then in the corner we had my favourite bit - the graveyard. Bags of sand were placed under our fake grass, and made complete with polystyrene gravestones. A "grave escaper" completed the look.

My haunted Forest

Graveyard in the corner

The grave escaper

Dark wings, Dark words....

I spent considerable money on dry ice. But look how cool it was!!!

Last but not least, I decorated the bathroom. This got a LOT of scares, it was fantastic! I made a fake body out of my housemates clothes (stuffed with other clothes and newspapers). A "head" was made out of bin bags and the whole thing was put into a clear plastic "body bag" - actually the plastic cover off a new mattress. It was liberally doused with fake blood and placed into the bath. I then went to town over the whole room with fake blood, thus coming up with a crime scene reminiscent of something out of "Dexter."

That was the house. Now for my costume!

NB SPOILERS FOR SERIES THREE OF GAME OF THRONES






I dressed up as Catlyn Stark/Lady Stoneheart. I hired a costume (yes really) from complete-costumes.co.uk the most gorgeous dark green velvet medieval dress.  It had a long hood, and the most amazing draped sleeves, with a corset style strings to adjust at both the front and back. I really recommend the website, the dress was exquisite and they have a great selection, was actually really difficult to chose which one to get! The dress came in really good time and I got the security deposit back really quickly. Will definitely use them again! Click here to see the website page for the dress.

Now in the books Catlyn gets her throat cut, and that's the part of the costume I really wanted to concentrate on. I started by using tissue paper and liquid latex to create the prosthesis. This is done by making the tissue paper into the size and shape you want it, then painting the liquid latex over the whole thing.

I built the prosthesis up into a few layers of paper and also used some crappy cheap wax, which was far too sticky and also bright pink. In hindsight using wax was a good idea but next time I'll buy some better quality stuff.

Then, (very!) carefully cut through the middle of the prosthesis to create the "wound." Scissors next to throat you have to be careful!

I used two small pieces of a grey corrugated tube (last seen in the Star Wars costume) as the fake trachea. I stuck them under the paper prosthesis and secured them in place with some spirit gum.

My throat under the paper was painted with maroon Snazaroo face paint, and then I used my Ben Nye fake blood to create the fresh blood on top. I doused small bit of tissues in it then placing them into the wound gives texture and a more gory look.

My face and neck has a quick basing of white Snazaroo with a sponge, and then some quick black facepaint around the eyes to give it a fresh corpse look.

I finished off with using a sponge to sponge on blood around the edges of the wound and then dipping cotton buds into the fake blood and then pressing onto my neck to create the drips. It really is great stuff, it "sets" but still looks fresh and wet.

The party itself was absolutely fantastic. A lot of friends from medical school who lives around the country (London, Leeds, Bath, Glasgow)  all descended/ascended during the afternoon so it felt like an all day event! More friends arrived early and I had just the best time. I'd made a thing on the Facebook event page that everyone HAD to be in a costume, and that "slutty cats" weren't allowed, people had to be in suitable scary Hallowe'en costume. So of course my 13 or so closest friends who'd come from around the country all came in identical slutty cat costumes. Bloody love them <3

Hallowe'en: T minus nine days

Anyone who knows me even remotely slightly knows that Hallowe’een is my favourite holiday of the year. I enjoy it more than Christmas to be honest, (in part due to my dislike of Christmas), but also because it’s THE ONE DAY A YEAR WHEN EVERYONE HAS TO GET DRESSED UP. 

So, obviously, for a person who has a blog that’s all about fancy dress, Hallowe’en is the high point of the year. (I'm also a very big proponent of scary not sexy Hallowe'een costumes. Slutty cat? Slutty pirate? Slutty pizza?? Fuck off. Come as a beheaded zombie or nothing. Fucking patriarchy.)

Anyway, now that I’ve moved back to Liverpool and can actually afford to live somewhere that isn’t a cardboard box, and do actually live somewhere pretty awesome I’m having a Hallowe’en house party. This will be documented in its own post after the party of course, but needless to say I’ve had my outfit planned since about August, and over the last month or two have been slowly stockpiling decorations. (No slutty cats allowed, naturally). 

The last two years at uni I’ve had three nights out at Hallowe’en (the Wednesday sports night, then the Friday and Saturday nights of actual Hallowe’en) and as I’m not one to recycle costumes so close together that’s meant six different costumes. 

Hallowe’een 2014 – The scary mask made of my own skin ripped off my face

Daenarys Targaryean (and my ex as Khal Drogo, which will probably never get a post because it makes me too sad to think about. Fucking awesome costume though. *Sigh*)

Cruella DeVille

Hallowe’een 2013 – Broken China Doll 

 

Dark Link (yes from Zelda 64) and what I wore to a Tim Burton themed party (excellent theme incidentally) - Sweeney Todd.

 

The clothes were pretty easy. Black trousers, white shirt, black waistcoat (a combo used for many a costume, I think I don't ever wear that waistcoat in "normal" life). I tied my hair back and pulled a bit out to make it look shorter, then went to town with black and white hairspray. NB you need LOTS, especially the white because it comes out so thin that even to just get that little stripe took nearly a whole bottle. Face and neck painted white, eyes dark, fake blood on the neck. Plus sideburns. My friends found that bit particularly hilarious but the devil's in the details! Hallowe'en is NOT about looking hot, it's about looking scary! Bottom picture is of some other Sweeneys at the party, plus a very very good Mrs Lovatt. On reflection I could have probably done with a cravat, and probably mor fake blood. I would point out though that I was the only one who sprayed my own hair and didn't use a wig, in a similar vein to my Cruella costume....

And here’s another Tim Burton character for good measure – Edward Scissorhands – Hallowe’en 2007. My college at Cambridge had fancy dress formal dinner for Hallowe’en every year. Think the Great Hall from Harry Potter, long benches, latin grace, but everyone dressed up, getting smashed on disgusting white wine. Great stuff. Have to say the scissors did make it hard to eat. Also on reflection, this is again quite similar to Sweeney Todd, black stripey trousers, white shirt, braces...white face, black hair. And scissor hands obviously. (Cardboard covered in tin foil, sellotaped to black gloves). 

(My friend has come as…Me in this picture by the way. Yes I used to dress like that, and wear glasses. She snuck into my room and stole some of my clothes, then put stickers on with some of the things I used to say quite often. No idea what the pose is about. Probably something to do with taking photos….)

X Wing Fighter Pilot - for Secret Cinema The Empire Strikes Back

Having been a huge fan of both Star Wars and Secret Cinema for quite a few years I was incredibly excited when they announced that this year's film was going to be Empire Strikes Back. (For those who aren't aware of Secret Cinema, it's a production company that puts on huge scale immersive film experiences, where everyone dresses up, interacts with actors in venues that have been re-created to be like the film, before watching the film usually with actors acting out various scenes in real time, whilst they're happening on screen. Previous films have included Back to The Future (my personal fave), Prometheus, Lawrence of Arabia, Bugsy Malone and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest).

I immediately decided that my costume was going to be that of an X Wing Fighter Pilot, i.e. the orange jumpsuit get-up that Luke Skywalker and the other rebels wear when they are flying the X-Wings. My mum was also going to Secret Cinema with me, so everything I made I had to make two of!

Luke Skywalker in his X Wing Fighter Pilot Uniform

The orange jumpsuit was simply bought off amazon for about £8. It is one of those "prisoner" ones so has some black writing on the front and black, but luckily this was going to be covered up.

The next step was the white vest. Now I wasn't completely faithful here, as in the film the vests are ruched horizontally. Instead I bought a white vest top from New Look and cut off the sleeves.

To make the pack on the front I used a cardboard box (teabags to be precise), covered in white paper and then used felt tip pens to colours in the front, copying the image of Luke. I then used black masking tape to create the straps to go around the neck, and one to go around my waist. 

To make the grey straps/harness around Luke's waist and legs I used grey gaffer tape, stuck to itself. This was a bit fiddly as it kept sticking to itself, but with enough perseverance you can do it eventually! One long piece is required to go around the hips. Two shorter pieces are required to go around each leg, just above the knee. These are attached together with a short piece, which is then attached by two straps to the waist piece. One of these hangs down from the front and one from the back. These length of these pieces depends on the size/height of the person obviously so doing this on the person (or in front of a mirror) is essential to make sure it's the right size for them.

2 hoops for the legs, with the straps that attach to the waist strap

The last bit of the main costume was the addition of a grey tube from the front pack, attached just under the arm to one of the waist straps. I bought this off amazon. To complete we wore knee high black boots. Black gloves would complete the outfit.

Now for the bit that took the longest by far (a good two days!) THE HELMET. Despite it taking hours to create it was by far the most satisfying as I got a LOAD of compliments at Secret Cinema, a ton of people saying they were the best helmets, really accurate, generally loving them!

I used my skiing helmet as a base, covering it with a white plastic bin bag, using white masking tape to secure it all. 

Next was the attachment of paper plates. These was actually Very Hungry Caterpillar ones which I turned inside out. I glued one to each side of the helmet with superglue, with a third across the back with the bottom cut off. The glue wasn't the best and I did have to use some more masking tape to really hold the plates in place. The whole thing would probably work better with a glue gun (which I do not own! Maybe the next thing to invest in).

The next part was adding the central partition on the helmet. Again this was just a piece of cardboard cut to size and covered with white paper, then glued onto the helmet. Unfortunately the cardboard I had wasn't *quite* long enough, so my central partition was in two parts. 

Now the fun bit, the colouring in! This was just a matter of copying from the image. The front of the central partition has diagonal yellow stripes. The partition has three red stripes continuing over the helmet to the back. From about half way back the red continues outwards with a yellow strip in the middle. 

The side of the helmet is a bit harder to describe, so here is a picture. I added on the Rebel Alliance signs by cutting out another piece of paper and colouring it in, rather than colouring on the white plastic as the felt tip pens didn't really work that well on the material. 

The final part of the helmet was the visor. I used a clear yellow plastic wallet, and cut out a goggle shape, and attached to the helmet with sellotape. 

And here's the finished product!!!

The actual event was brilliant, but I obviously can't give anything away as it's currently still on!