Cruella DeVille

The first time I dressed up as Cruella DeVille was for a "Villaintine's" themed night at uni in 2006. Villaintine's Day is a clever (*errr*) pun on Valentine's Day, in case you missed that one.

Because it was so effective, and so easy I repeated it for Halloween 2011 and then again Halloween 2014. For Cruella any long black dress will do, this one is from New Look, and is knee-length in a wraparound style with quite a low neckline. I wear it often for black tie does in "normal life" as well.
The scarf around my shoulders is fake Dalmatian fur, which I probably bought in Cambridge market. Elbow high red (fake) velvet gloves are a little touch which I think push this from being an ok outfit into being a really good one. It's all in the details. The cigarette holder adds to this as well. You can get these from joke shops/fancy dress shops for pennies.

2006

The most fun bit of this costume is most definitely THE HAIR. I didn't want to just buy a wig for this I wanted crazy hair of my own. Buying cheap coloured hairspray is the way to go - but be careful with white hair spray. Black is fine, it'll always be really dark and you'll only need one can. White however - some sprays are really crap and barely give any colour change at all! My normal hair colour is blonde but even on my light hair one brand in particular just didn't work ("Smiffy's Let's Party" hairsprays). The one I used most recently was "Let's Party."

To get the "dragged through a hedge backwards Mad Woman" look you really have to backcomb like crazy. Just go for it, use the whole tin if you can. The colour acts like normal hairspray as well so you don't need any extra on top. It makes your hair go rock hard and also completely wrecks it, so you'll need a tonne of conditioner and about 3/4 hair washes to get it all out, but I think it's worth it. Just make sure you have a shower before you go to bed otherwise your sheets will be covered in black when you wake up.

With regards to makeup, you most definitely need bright red lips, dark eyebrows and even you're feeling brave bright blue eyeshadow (and you will look crazy).

If you want to extend this into a Group Costume, get your friends to dress up as Cruella's burglar minions: Horace and Jasper, or even recruit 101 people to dress up as Dalamatians!

2014