Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Can I play dress-up?
I love clothes. And jewelry. And shoes. And hair accessories. Basically, when it comes to dressing this female form, I am the girliest girl that ever girled. In a way, it's a shame that my fashion sense is usually pretty good, because as it stands there is no way I will ever be nominated for What Not to Wear. Oh, what I could do with $5,000!
But you know what I really love?
Costumes.
As far back as I can remember I've loved putting together costumes. I've always loved Halloween, but not for me were the plastic masks and standard supermarket issue costumes. How very boring! Besides, who the hell could breathe in those masks? Sure as hell not me, with my slight case of claustrophobia.
I so much preferred rummaging around all the closets in the house to find just the right pieces for my Halloween costumes, then putting them together. That was pure heaven. Sometimes I couldn't find just the right accessory so I'd have to improvise. Like the several years I was gypsy but possessed neither pierced ears nor hoop earrings. So I just used the shower curtain hoops. Sure, they hurt when I clipped them to my ear lobes. But I didn't care, because at least I looked the part. At least as much as a eight year old could look like a gypsy in old clothes made for her by her grandmother or her mom's castoffs, shower curtain hoops adorning her tender ears.
Back in second grade, I think it was, I was cast as the seamstress in "Stone Soup". All the other children read their lines from papers and wore pretty much what they wore everyday. I scoured my drawers for something that looked like a fairy-tale seamstress might wear. I put together a bit of cloth with yarn and needle, so that my seamstress would have something to be working on when the visitor asked her for potatoes to add to the stone soup. And I memorized my few lines. I was the best seamstress I could be. And I have to say, I was pretty darned good.
I remember even dressing up to deliver my report about Florence Nightingale to the class. We were encouraged to do so by our teacher (again, this was second grade - or perhaps it was third - I think I was living in Virginia). Some of the children did, but many didn't. It wasn't even a question with me.
Sometimes, though, my penchant for trying to be dressed exactly right didn't work too well. In sixth grade, when I was both a munchkin (which, as one of the tallest kids in the class, was pretty funny) and a winged monkey in the sixth grade production of "Wizard of Oz", my need to have two completely different, yet appropriate, outfits actually caused me to show up late for my winged monkey entrance. Why? Because I didn't know until it was time for the performance that there was nothing to change behind, that the stage consisted of an open platform in the middle of the cafeteria with absolutely no flats for the actors to wait behind. So, after my munchkin bit (which I delivered from memory, unlike Dorothy and the others, who relied on their scripts *sniff*), I sunk down as low as I could behind the platform stairs and tried to come up with a way to quickly change my costume without letting the other actors, or the audience, see anything interesting. I tried, I really tried, but it couldn't be done and, a minute or so after the other winged monkeys showed up to take the scarecrow away, I popped up, grabbed the scarecrow, and dragged him off-stage with the others, rather upset that I had to be seen as a monkey in the munchkin denim culottes instead of the sleek brown pants and turtleneck that I had planned. I eventually got over it.
I still fondly remember my junior high school costumes in San Diego - Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen (as played by Jim Hutton). No figured out the Ellery Queen costume, but I didn't care. I knew had gotten it right.
I'm still in love with costumes. I love digging through my clothes and thrift shops for the perfect pieces. Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays. I tend to outfit myself in a more sexy, sultry manner these days, though. (Look! I'm a woman!) I love dressing up as a vampire or fortune teller or cat, with the elaborate make-up and the proper fangs (for my canine teeth only, of course) and the witchy accessories. Even when I have no time to plan a costume, I have enough separates that I can always come up something.
I think I'm going to have to start planning this year's costume. What do you mean, it's only August? Your point would be - ?
But you know what I really love?
Costumes.
As far back as I can remember I've loved putting together costumes. I've always loved Halloween, but not for me were the plastic masks and standard supermarket issue costumes. How very boring! Besides, who the hell could breathe in those masks? Sure as hell not me, with my slight case of claustrophobia.
I so much preferred rummaging around all the closets in the house to find just the right pieces for my Halloween costumes, then putting them together. That was pure heaven. Sometimes I couldn't find just the right accessory so I'd have to improvise. Like the several years I was gypsy but possessed neither pierced ears nor hoop earrings. So I just used the shower curtain hoops. Sure, they hurt when I clipped them to my ear lobes. But I didn't care, because at least I looked the part. At least as much as a eight year old could look like a gypsy in old clothes made for her by her grandmother or her mom's castoffs, shower curtain hoops adorning her tender ears.
Back in second grade, I think it was, I was cast as the seamstress in "Stone Soup". All the other children read their lines from papers and wore pretty much what they wore everyday. I scoured my drawers for something that looked like a fairy-tale seamstress might wear. I put together a bit of cloth with yarn and needle, so that my seamstress would have something to be working on when the visitor asked her for potatoes to add to the stone soup. And I memorized my few lines. I was the best seamstress I could be. And I have to say, I was pretty darned good.
I remember even dressing up to deliver my report about Florence Nightingale to the class. We were encouraged to do so by our teacher (again, this was second grade - or perhaps it was third - I think I was living in Virginia). Some of the children did, but many didn't. It wasn't even a question with me.
Sometimes, though, my penchant for trying to be dressed exactly right didn't work too well. In sixth grade, when I was both a munchkin (which, as one of the tallest kids in the class, was pretty funny) and a winged monkey in the sixth grade production of "Wizard of Oz", my need to have two completely different, yet appropriate, outfits actually caused me to show up late for my winged monkey entrance. Why? Because I didn't know until it was time for the performance that there was nothing to change behind, that the stage consisted of an open platform in the middle of the cafeteria with absolutely no flats for the actors to wait behind. So, after my munchkin bit (which I delivered from memory, unlike Dorothy and the others, who relied on their scripts *sniff*), I sunk down as low as I could behind the platform stairs and tried to come up with a way to quickly change my costume without letting the other actors, or the audience, see anything interesting. I tried, I really tried, but it couldn't be done and, a minute or so after the other winged monkeys showed up to take the scarecrow away, I popped up, grabbed the scarecrow, and dragged him off-stage with the others, rather upset that I had to be seen as a monkey in the munchkin denim culottes instead of the sleek brown pants and turtleneck that I had planned. I eventually got over it.
I still fondly remember my junior high school costumes in San Diego - Sherlock Holmes and Ellery Queen (as played by Jim Hutton). No figured out the Ellery Queen costume, but I didn't care. I knew had gotten it right.
I'm still in love with costumes. I love digging through my clothes and thrift shops for the perfect pieces. Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays. I tend to outfit myself in a more sexy, sultry manner these days, though. (Look! I'm a woman!) I love dressing up as a vampire or fortune teller or cat, with the elaborate make-up and the proper fangs (for my canine teeth only, of course) and the witchy accessories. Even when I have no time to plan a costume, I have enough separates that I can always come up something.
I think I'm going to have to start planning this year's costume. What do you mean, it's only August? Your point would be - ?
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