The snake charmer/Medusa costume features elaborate lashes, green snake-eye contacts and temporary lip tattoos. (AP Photo/Copyright 2013 Martha Stewart Halloween Special Issue, Glenn Glasser)
The Martha Stewart Halloween special issue sgives directions for a parrot costume with a feathery boa and cheap, plastic glasses adorned with colored feathers and a yellow paper beak. (AP Photo/Copyright 2013 Martha Stewart Halloween Special Issue, Glenn Glasser)
Kim Conner designed this mermaid costume for her daughter. Find directions at her website, www.733blog.com. (AP Photo/Copyright 2013 Martha Stewart Halloween Special Issue, Glenn Glasser)If you’re thinking of making this year’s Halloween costume yourself, you can stick with simple or go Hollywood pro. Neither has to take much time or money, and either can create a convincing costume, whether you’re looking to draw guffaws, shrieks or admiring nods.
Brenda K.B. Anderson, who builds creatures and costumes for the touring “Sesame Street Live” show at VEE Corp. in Minneapolis, says some of the same theories she uses there also apply to making Halloween costumes. A good costume blurs the line between reality and fantasy, she says; even simple subterfuge, such as donning a wig or wearing thick-rimmed glasses, can suffice.
“When people can’t see what you really look like beneath the makeup, hair and clothes, you are much more believable,” says Anderson, author of “Beastly Crochet” (Interweave, 2013).
For instance, she suggests padding a costume – such as around the middle for a clown or bear – to disguise your own shape and make it more authentic.
Start pulling your costume together by visiting a thrift shop, Anderson advises.