My Halloween Costume – The Mad Hatter!

I have very poor documentation of my costumes of halloween past. This time I was proud enough of what I created to take some pictures, though they’re still of pretty poor quality. This costume didn’t start out this way. At first I was going to be Lydia Deetz, from the last scene of Beetlejuice where she comes home from school and dances to Harry Belafonte up in the air. I wore a white button up shirt, black sweater, plaid skirt, and black skirt underneath. The black skirt was floor length so I needed to roll it up at the waist. It’s high-waisted so I couldn’t zip it up if I was going to roll it. I had to wear a belt to keep it up, and then the belt and all the extra fabric pooling around my waist was very unflattering. So I wore a girdle on top of the skirt. Awkward. I put in my Bang Thing and put my hair in a half ponytail just like she has in the movie. I did my makeup just so.

The result was…accurate, almost. My hair is long and red, not shoulder length and black though. And the outfit itself…boring. Absolutely nobody knew who I was supposed to be. There was another girl at the bar that night as Lydia, not necessarily an accurate replica except for her perfect Lydia hair. Everyone knew who she was, and she looked a shit ton better than me, who looked short and dumpy beside her in my layers of school girl outfit. And that thing was  HOT. The sleeves on my shirt didn’t even have buttons so I was pretty uncomfortable.

There was no way I could wear this again, meaning I was stuck for what to wear to work on halloween itself. I went to Bea’s house late the night before because we were both in pretty black moods for our own various reasons. She suggested I should be the mad hatter based on all my weird clothes and many top hats. She lent me an awesome little top hat with a little bird on it, purple stripey socks, and surprisingly comfortable black and white striped shoes. It’s a rare thing when I borrow clothes from someone else. In fact I absolutely cannot recall a single time this has ever happened before.

So I went home and at 5am set to work. I took Mike’s big top hat and wrapped pretty green and pink ribbon around it, tied my own green mini top hat on top, and clipped Bea’s top hat beside that. I clipped in a ton of flowers and feathers, including one huge black one, and stuck a voodoo doll in front. The next day I wore a black satin top with a high neck and ruffles, my corset with the ribcage, my green spider skirt from Rockabetty with the full crinoline, the stripey socks and shoes, and a cropped velvet tea jacket that is so soft and cuddly I really wish it went with more clothes. I did my eyebrows and lips purple, and used different pretty shades of metallic green eyeshadow. On the way out the door I thought to grab Mike’s walking stick with the scorpion in it.

I looked pretty cool! My dad even took a ton of pictures, I didn’t even know he had a camera. And I wasn’t uncomfortable at all, because basically I was wearing all my own clothes in a silly combination. I had to stick a skirt inside Mike’s hat to keep it from falling down my face too so it was all cushy. Everyone at work loved it, and I’m now up to 60 upvotes on the halloween subreddit.

So fast, easy, and FREE costumes can totally work in a great way. You just have to be creative! I think I’ll wear this to whatever halloween event we go to next year. It’s a shame only a few of my coworkers got to see it.

Ahhh! Hat hair!