Help me Halloween!

October 2, 2008 10:47 PM

Halloween Costume Filter: I am looking for a somewhat classy character or historical figure to be for Halloween this year that's not overly done. (Think Jackie O, not Marilyn Monroe.)

I am 21 and a redhead, but I can play older or younger depending on the genius of the costume. In the past I have been Dorothy Parker, Pepper Potts, Ginger Spice and Heidi Fleiss. (So... I'm somewhat flexible on the "classy".)

Thanks kids!

posted by thebrokenmuse to grab bag (23 comments total)

Zombie Jackie O?
posted by welephant at 11:11 PM on October 2, 2008

Oh and also- I refuse to be Sarah Palin.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 11:14 PM on October 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Auntie Mame?
posted by orthogonality at 11:47 PM on October 2, 2008

If it doesn't have to be a redhead, I'd suggest Tippi Hedren with some birds attached to your hat/wig. Classy and holiday appropriate.
posted by Roman Graves at 12:04 AM on October 3, 2008

Red Emma
posted by Methylviolet at 12:05 AM on October 3, 2008

Riffing on quirky/red hair just to narrow down some ideas:

You could be the character Joan (played by Christina Hendricks) from the TV show Man Men. It would need some period clothes, hair, accessories and the right attitude. I think it could be fun for the right person. A little obscure, but you mentioned Dorothy Parker and there couldn't have been many people who knew that one. Great idea, by the way.

Audrey Hepburn? A few options to go with there. It could be fun playing with a cockney accent and doing a My Fair Lady costume. Very prim and proper, but let a few cockney phrases slip out at random moments. I think it's amusing, anyway.
posted by empyrean at 12:08 AM on October 3, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Does not have to be redhead specific! I just thought it might be a good jumping off point. I have no qualms with donning a wig.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 12:31 AM on October 3, 2008

When I was about 24 and a redhead, I went as Jackie Kennedy. Pink suit, pillbox hat, big sunglasses, white gloves, and a couple of tubes of fake blood splattered all over me. Just cruised around the party waving and smiling as though I didn't even know my husband had just been assassinated all over me.

I won a case of beer at the costume contest.

I wouldn't say it was classy, per se, but it was pretty great. And given that I did it ten years ago and two thousand miles away from where you're going to do it, I think you're more than welcome to consider it as an option.

I found the suit and gloves at a thrift store and made the hat myself with a stapler, cardboard and a quarter yard of pink cotton from a local fabric store.

The girl who came in second to me, by the way, was the Mona Lisa. She just wandered around in a long dress with a big picture frame attached to herself, smiling enigmatically.
posted by padraigin at 12:35 AM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Rita Hayworth as Gilda.
posted by essexjan at 2:19 AM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Might be too subtle, but Ginger from Gilligan's Island, Ann Margret, Lucille Ball, Mary Jane from Spiderman, maybe some others..yeah, Rita Hayworth is good. You should embrace the red!
posted by rhizome at 2:28 AM on October 3, 2008

Time Warp Wives: Meet the Women Who Really Do Live in the Past

Atomic Magazine: The Essential Guide to the Retro Revival
posted by plokent at 2:36 AM on October 3, 2008

Amelia Earheart? It strikes me as easy to get together -- just some slacks, shirt, and a bomber jacket, plus pilots' cap and goggles.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:48 AM on October 3, 2008

I went as Little Edie Bouvier Beale from Grey Gardens a few years back. My boyfriend was the undead version of her beau, Joe Kennedy, Jr., who was the one who was supposed to be president but died in WWII. I wore the whole getup - headscarf, old school brown bathing suit with tights, heels, "fur" coat, lots of bling. He wore the classic preppy summer outfit-- seer sucker and boat shoes and pink and green and whatnot... with zombie makeup. We ran into 4 bloody Jackie 0-undead JFK combos that night...
posted by lalalana at 4:54 AM on October 3, 2008

For whatever it's worth, if you were dressed as Jackie-O my first guess would be that you were Dr. Girlfriend.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:40 AM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Holly Golightly? Bonus points if you have a cat.
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:20 AM on October 3, 2008

Carmen Sandiego.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:03 AM on October 3, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_roosevelt
posted by aleahey at 7:10 AM on October 3, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Totally inspired by Merriam-Webster's word of the day...

You could dress all in red and carry around a fake herring (or a framed picture of one).

... yeah, I just woke up.
posted by Verdandi at 7:41 AM on October 3, 2008

Rosie the Riverter.
posted by banannafish at 9:15 AM on October 3, 2008

You could go the comic book character route, since you've done Pepper Potts before (which is brilliant btw)... quite a few red-headed heroines out there:

Batgirl
Jean Grey/Phoenix
Starfire (ok, so that costume isn't very classy)
posted by saturngirl at 9:24 AM on October 3, 2008

Cruella DeVil.
posted by 23skidoo at 11:11 AM on October 3, 2008

Bella the Hat
posted by stenseng at 1:51 PM on October 3, 2008

Scarlett O'Hara
posted by i_love_squirrels at 9:17 PM on October 3, 2008