This past October, I decided to not be so obscure with my Halloween costume and chose something that at least the majority of the 80s/90s kid crowd would recognize. We all already know that I love The Nightmare Before Christmas, so to pay further homage to that, I figured I'd try a gender-bent Jack.
Despite the difficulty of this costume, it's been done a surprising number of times. Turning yourself into a skeleton is a hard thing to do without dying first, which kind of puts a damper on the whole plan. But, some people have done a remarkably good job of it. I think this rendition by cosplayer Maho Urei is my favorite.
Given my love for second-hand and how unprofessional (read: ghetto) I get with my costume making process, I couldn't possible hope to match that. Still, that didn't stop me from trying.
Unlike my last two costumes, which I knew far in advance that I wanted to try (like September time frame), I actually had to kind of scramble to do this costume, so not only was it on a dime, but also kind of on the fly.
The base costume itself - Jack's signature pinstripe suit - was actually not that difficult. Jack's pinstripes are NOT clean and straight. In a perfect world, I would have taken the time to get white fabric paint and properly add some nice, bold lines, but with my time constraint, I opted to recycle an ill-fitting black blazer and skirt and paint on the stripes with an oil paint marker.
The result was that the lines were pretty faded. On the one hand, it sort of adds to the "authenticity" of the age, I guess, but it wasn't as sharp-looking as I wanted.
Now the harder part - becoming a skeleton. Since I decided to wear a skirt, there was no real way of getting around my legs showing. I probably could have gotten away with pinstripe tights, but I thought it would be more fun to don a pair of leg-bone stockings. Hand made, of course.
I really don't know what I was thinking.
Mmm, no that's a lie. I know exactly what I was thinking. "Make a pair yourself! It'll be less expensive and more fun!" That was... half true. A pair on Amazon run between $10-$25, plus shipping, so I probably did save a little money. However, I also probably lost several layers of skin in the process.
Since tights are pretty thin, there was no way that I could just paint on the top layer and not expect the paint to seep through and make the layers stick together. I don't own any dress forms, and I wanted to paint the bones on a reasonably close location to my actual femur/tibia/etc. So, I had the bright idea to paint on the bones while I was wearing them.
Good idea in theory... Questionable in practice:
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| Ow. |
Since I didn't want the paint drying between the two layers, I let the paint dry while I was still wearing them. It probably could have been worse, but I have made a mental note for the future to get a cardboard tube for any similar endeavors.
The last part was accessories. Really, Jack only has his bow-tie. This, like the suit, was relatively simple. I carved up some foamcore and cut a felt cat head, then painted it in the correct fashion.
Make-up and complete assembly had to wait until the evening of. This was somewhat nerve-wracking, since it would be first time I really did the face-painting. Fortunately, it didn't turn out too badly.
It probably only took half an hour to get my face the way I wanted. In hindsight, it was a lot less complex than some other things I've done, such as the Cheshire grin.
All in all, it turned out alright. Maybe not con-worthy, but for a night of candy, beer pong, and Cards Against Humanity with friends, it did just fine.
And, as an added bonus, just for giggles, several months later I recycled some of the elements to do myself up as Jack and Sally's daughter:
...Wait. Victoria... Your hair...
On the next episode - the chronicles of a quarter-life crisis!
Until the next.
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