Marie Antoinette Costume

Originally uploaded by nicemag.

Best reaction to my costume while handing out candy:
“She started getting lippy and wouldn’t do the dishes” – guy explaining my costume to his little girls
Here’s my costume – Pretty creepy I think. This was a whole lota fun, people were totally scared of me.
Keep scrolling down for the HOW TO.

If anyone else is a Halloween Overachiever, let me know what you pulled off this year.

n

note* Some of the images below are stretched out for some reason. Was fine before, oh well.

I have decide to pass the time by evaluating some of Marie Antoinette costumes that other people have made.

Now, I should state that it appears that this particular costume hasn’t been attemped often, at least according to Google image search. SO, I do give these folks props for trying, and I did use their attempts as a launching pad for designing my own costume. But seriously, check this out:

I found this photo early on in my search, and clearly I had to save it as a reference. First off, this is obviously a dude. So it’s already pretty hilarious. I can’t decide which part I love more, the fact that he kinda tried to hide his face but not really, or the head with the convenient holding stick. Its too great for words. You can see that the general idea of the costume is up the same alley as mine, but this guy made it retarded by incoorporating a fake head an dbeing super ghetto. This brings us to the next costume:

Much better attempt. This costume seriously kicks the first ones ass. And this is more along the lines of what I’m doing. Although, I’m only making one fake arm. For as good as it is though, there are several areas where this costume is weak.

Firstly, I would say the hands. They look Muppet-ish. In my case I’m using long gloves, thereby avoiding the whole flesh coloured thing. Also, there is no structure to the arms, they look floppy and fake and they take attention away from the head. By using a wire skeleton, she could have created a more posable arm and hand.

Secondly, the costume is not near gruesome enough. Its a decapitated head! There should be more blood for christs sake! Refer to my costume for blood and chunks of bone.

Thirdly, there is no attempt to create a waist on the dress. This would fall somewhere around the lady’s actual shoulders. This would again help the illusion. Its also too easy to see her boobs beneath the fabric. Again – distracting.

Lastly, her hairs are wack. Sorry, but its true . It would have been wothwhile to get a wig or at least white hair spray. The baby powder look is not cutting it. Also, no cool make-up either. She could’ve taken it to the next level with more attention to detail.

There you have it. Nice try guys, you paved the way for future generations! Once my costume photo is posted it will be open for constructive criticism too.

I’m at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to explaining this costume. What should it be called:
– Decapitated Marie Antoinette
– Headless Marie Antoinette
-Marie Antoinette with her head cut off
– Marie Antoinette holding her own head
I just dont know. It’s so wordy.

As far as my progress goes:

This is Andy having some fun with the bust. We had just finished creating the frame on which it is attached. We did this by welding some copper pipes together. You can see that the foam bust is now painted an appropriately creepy shade of bluey-gray. I used acrylic paints, as I discovered last year that spray paint doesn’t set. I was hoping to hook up an airbrush, but it never happened (if anyone has one they want to sell, let me know).
If you are going to attempt this, I have some mods I would make. You could use wooden dowles in place of copper piping it would be a bit lighter (the whole thing weighs like 2 pounds).
Also, the bars or dowles should be longer, so they lay against the whole length of the back, ending at the top of the bum.
Strapping across the front is a must, I could have used another one across my stomach.
Oh and that horizontal pipe was in the wrong spot. It should be higher with the foam bust sitting on it. Thats there to stabilize it. Just cut up a backpac – or maybe a stiff vest, sew some tight pockets and slip those poles in the slot!

Here I am wearing my modified backpack with the bust attached. From this photo you can get an idea of how I’m going to pull this off. I was all about the boobies, but if you’re not a breast-person, I would suggest using a bra. It was funny because girls were coming up to me to say that my tits were hanging out. But they didn’t want to touch them when I offered. Who knew?

Here’s the back view. You can see what I’m suggesting about using longer poles. Not a big deal though, if you want to be specific and measure every little thing, you’ll have a premium comfort rig. I eyeballed for the most part, making it up as we went. I really have to give my girl Tempie McDonald some love because without her sweet, sweet sewing skills, this would not have happened.

Before I sign off, here’s the headpiece I created for Tempie. Her Queen of Hearts costume couldn’t be properly executed without a stunning crown. Thanks again!

Bye for now!

Update! She-Ra costume on ebay starting wed September 12 2007. Bid now!

Love , Love, Love Halloween! This is without a doubt my favorite time of year. My She-Ra costume last year was pretty cool, ,but this year I’m raising the stakes! Bring on the Headless Marie Antoinette! How will I accomplish this you ask? Well, let me tell you now.

Start with the idea. From this drawing you get the idea of what I’m after. Pretty cool!

To begin this project, I am starting with sculpting the fake bust I will need to create the illusion of a decapitated body. I used a raku clay that is very easy to work with and dries fairly fast. I am using the jar as the “neck” because I dont think I have enough clay.

OK, here’s the almost finished clay bust. The boobs took some work because I wanted them very fake and baseball-y. They should look like their being pushed up by a corset.

Now here’s where it starts to get tricky. I need to make a negative impression of my clay model, so that I can create another foam positve. To do this I will cast my clay bust with plaster of paris. Firstly, I coated my clay in vaseline to prevent it from bonding with the plaster. (in retrospect I’m not sure if that even worked but better safe than sorry)
I created a clay barrier that ran just off-center of the bust. Then I poured the plaster over one half of the bust up to the barrier.

After the plaster on the one half was set, I removed the clay barrier and coated the inside edge of the plaster with vaseline. This is to prevent the second application of plaster from adhereing to it.

Now here is where I ran into some trouble. I had anticipated being able to pull my plaster mold off the clay model in two pieces.
However, the mold did not want to budge. The clay seemed to have suctioned to it and i couldn’t force it off. So I ended up having to dig out the clay in chunks from the bottom. Good thing it didn’t really dry. So whatever, ther end result was the same.

I reconnected the two parts of my mold with saran wrap. Then I poured my liquid foam in. This is the same foam I used last year with my She-Ra costume. This is a Urethane Foam from Smooth-on. Oh, I almost forgot. I had to seal the interior of the mold with chemical sealer, and then coat it with a release agent. This prevents the foam from sticking to the mold.

The foam expands and cures in about 30 min. Looking good so far!

NIce! As you can see, I was able to extract an almost identical foam model to my original clay sculpture!

Next I will next paint the foam and start work on the rig that hold it above my head.
later n