Costume Creation

As today is Halloween, all I can think about are costumes. Downtown, all the little children are running about with their parents dressed in a special outfit they can only wear this one special day of the year. What intrigues me about costumes is that with a few key items we can almost immediately identify who a person is dressed as, and they are these distinct cues that costume makers have to pick up on in order to develop a costume.

Costume designs are very much dictated by the general view of society, as societies creates their own definitions. A successful princess costume is one that will have its wearer instantly recognized as a princess and unmistakable as anything else. But if that design were to be brought into another culture, it might not be received in the same way.

The interesting thing to me about costumes catering to society's views, is how designers come up with costumes for celebrities. One of the most popular celebrity costumes for this year I suspect will be of pop singer Lady Gaga. Her personal style is to an extreme in comparison to an average person on the street, which makes it a little easier to dress as her, but still I was interested in finding what was considered key items for someone who wanted to impersonate the infamous fashion rule-breaker.

In her own words, Lady Gaga suggested wearing, "Wigs, purple shampoo, and high heels. Lots of latex" according to MTV News.


It seems that everyone else has interpreted her style much differently, sans the purple hair. In my opinion, the most popular Lady Gaga costume ideas stem from how she appears in her music videos. This seems to make the most sense since it's likely that the majority of people have seen clips of her video rather than paparazzi shots of her day to day outfits.

Popular beauty "how-to" girl Michelle Phan on youtube shares her interpretation of Lady Gaga's look in a make-up tutorial. The look is based off of her music video for the song, Pokerface.



Blogger Ashe Mischief at Dramatis Personae has also compiled a list of necessary pieces in order to be easily perceived by others as Lady Gaga for Halloween.

Photo courtesy of Dramatis Personae.

Design, may it be costumes or something else, must take in the public's views and interpretations in order to be successful. If it were to be based on just one person's view, it wouldn't be very effective. In this example Lady Gaga's suggestion on wearing a purple wig would not be a strong choice as most websites and images searched through Google will suggest that you go for a blonde wig with blunt cut bangs.

While it is important in design to pay attention to majority's view, don't forget to let creativity break through!

Happy Halloween :]Photo courtesy of MSN.