My mom just found this picture of the cape (and tunic) that I made when I was 15.
I KNOW that pretty much everyone else at the party is going to go to the Spirit Store the day before or soemthing, and they are going to pick out a $10 "sexy cat", "sexy witch" or "sexy devil girl" one-size-fits-all generic Halloween outfit and that's that. I have to question why *I* can't do that. Why, why, why? But I can't. The idea of picking out a costume like that is just totally...icky...to me. I can't do it. I won't. No matter how little effort other people might be making, the idea of wearing one of those mass-produced, cheap generic costumes is completely anathema to me.
So this begs a few questions. The first is...why do these people run to the spirit store and grab a cheap, generic costume? Why are they content with that? That's a bit complicated I'm sure. You can't lump everyone in together except in perhaps the most general way. Maybe a better question is, "is it them, or is it their expectations of the party?" Is it the people that I know, or is our party just not fabulous enough?
Maybe it's a little of all of those things.
My bf and I talked about it, and for us the solution is "have a more fabulous party". So that's what we're going to do. A fabulous party, with plenty of advance notice, an emphasis on dressing to impress, an expanded guest list that will hopefully include plenty of people who are already predisposed to put effort into an original costume, written invitations, and perhaps a costume contest.
We've already invited some people...I hope 11 months is enough time for them to prepare.
So, I'm sewing my cape for Halloween this year (the fancy cape with the hood and lining and trim and such) and trying to make a dress to go with and remembering the dress I made for my costume the year before that had 18 pieces that had to be cut out and sew together (and then the stitches ripped out and resized, etc) and I think of the time, thought and expense of putting a costume together and I start thinking to myself, "why do I go to all this effort?"
I KNOW that pretty much everyone else at the party is going to go to the Spirit Store the day before or soemthing, and they are going to pick out a $10 "sexy cat", "sexy witch" or "sexy devil girl" one-size-fits-all generic Halloween outfit and that's that. I have to question why *I* can't do that. Why, why, why? But I can't. The idea of picking out a costume like that is just totally...icky...to me. I can't do it. I won't. No matter how little effort other people might be making, the idea of wearing one of those mass-produced, cheap generic costumes is completely anathema to me.
So this begs a few questions. The first is...why do these people run to the spirit store and grab a cheap, generic costume? Why are they content with that? That's a bit complicated I'm sure. You can't lump everyone in together except in perhaps the most general way. Maybe a better question is, "is it them, or is it their expectations of the party?" Is it the people that I know, or is our party just not fabulous enough?
Maybe it's a little of all of those things.
The other question is "why do I have this need to put so much effort into a costume?" And I suppose the answer is that I don't like to do anything halfway. This sometimes leads to not completing things or to miserable failure, and it sometimes leads to spectacular success, and sometimes it leads me to having a costume that looks really out of place.
My bf and I talked about it, and for us the solution is "have a more fabulous party". So that's what we're going to do. A fabulous party, with plenty of advance notice, an emphasis on dressing to impress, an expanded guest list that will hopefully include plenty of people who are already predisposed to put effort into an original costume, written invitations, and perhaps a costume contest.
We've already invited some people...I hope 11 months is enough time for them to prepare.
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4 comments:
Don't know if your friends are a competitive bunch or not, but you could always hype a "most original costume" contest with some really cool prize.
Or have a theme like "dress in the clothing of your favorite era in history". Granted, amongst people *I* know, that would lead to a ton of Renaissance costumes... but at least it wouldn't be AS easy to put little effort into the costume (unless your friends still have their hippy clothes from the 60s or disco stuff from the 70s)
Generally, though... people are sheep. And sheep are not known for their vivid imaginations!
We are thinking of going as bumblebees, so if it had a theme it would have to be something like "come as your favorite bug", which might make some sexy kitties and sexy witches very unhappy. We have talked about having a new years party with a theme though...like a black and white ball or something.
I figure it's probably going to be a multi-step process...like next year isn't going to be the GREATEST PARTY EVAR, but we can move in the right direction and let each party set a precedent for the next. I'd like to maybe do something like get some video footage as well and use that as a sort of invitation to the next party and/or a way to say "look how lame your costume was" or something. I mean, a sort of subtle, nice way to give the less dense a hint to mend their slacker ways.
I doubt enough people have seen Project Runway but it'd be cool to have a Project Runway-like party. I'm thinking "You have a $X limit and cannot buy a pre-made costume with that $X"
I wonder how many people would show up in modified trash bags...
I'd be into doing that BUT I think most people wouldn't appreciate the challenge. You'd have to make sure you have a group of Makers. We just have like, random relatives and business associates.
Remember Winston? He keeps telling us we should go to Burning Man...now THERE are a bunch of Makers. But...I don't really see R. going there.
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