Sexy Library!

October 26, 2009 6:15 PM

Costume-filter: I would like to dress as a library for Halloween. How can I accomplish this in an inexpensive, recognizable, maneuverable/non-bulky way (aside from sticking random books to my bum?)

When perusing for costume ideas for bespectacled folks, I came across the "sexy librarian" idea over and over again. I've decided to give it a twist and dress instead as a "sexy library". I figure the 'sexy' part isn't so difficult, it's the 'library' part that I haven't quite worked out logistically.

The actual costume doesn't have to be sexy, per se; I'm probably just going to throw some ridiculous lingerie over the top of whatever I wear.

posted by chara to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

I would take a large cardboard box and cut two holes for hands, one for your head, and one for your body. Then I'd paint it to look like a bookshelf, with the spines painted on the front. Give the books pornographic titles (either real or imagined), and label the side with a similarly sexy dewey decimal number (it looks like the sexy non-fic titles are in the 300s, mostly). For the costume, I'd play more with the "sexy librarian" stereotype rather than just throwing on lingerie--wear glasses and your hair in a bun, if possible, and maybe a pencil skirt on the bottom. This way it's funny because, you know, most of your body will be obscured by a cardboard box, but the sexy library/sexy librarian pun will still work.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:24 PM on October 26, 2009

Heh if you could work the cardboard box idea with actual removable books, so that as more books "checked out" more of the sexy you would be revealed, that'd be neat..
posted by The otter lady at 6:39 PM on October 26, 2009

If you really want to get checked out, go as a call slip. Print them up and fill them in with all sorts of interesting requests and then pin them all over (what else?) your slip.
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:43 PM on October 26, 2009

You could always pick up a large quantity of paperbacks and rip off the covers, or use hardcovers' dust jackets, and staple them into a minidress.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:48 PM on October 26, 2009

If you can sew at all or enlist the aid of a friend who does, you could try to do a very basic version of the skirt that turns into a vending machine: link link link

Make the opened skirt look like a library shelf filled with rows of books instead of a machine filled with rows of soda, obviously. You can go into most any fabric store and find some kind of a print with spines of books on it, or you could take white sheets, make a basic skirt, and draw/paint the spines and titles on it. Then you could switch from librarian to library whenever you liked. Make the titles of the books racy, so that the collection literally is a sexy library.
posted by iconomy at 6:49 PM on October 26, 2009

I'd do a different variation of the cardboard box idea and have a box with a hole cut in the top that you stood in the middle off. I would paint REFERENCE DESK on the front of it and put various stuff on top of it [a few paperback books, stapler, check out slips, rubber stamps] and then you could be standing in the middle in whatever you chose to wear. Add a little sign that says "ask me anything" and presto, tawdry!
posted by jessamyn at 7:37 PM on October 26, 2009

You can usually get old books at the library. The ones in LA have a "free" cart with books that are no longer good for the library. You can use those for spines and covers...
posted by Jinx of the 2nd Law at 8:55 PM on October 26, 2009

Get a sexy white dress.
Get some iron-on printer paper.
Print out a bunch of brief records for romance or sex books from loc.gov (example: Kama Sutra. Or, you could use card catalog cards.
Iron the printouts onto your dress in an artistic and flattering manner.
Wear the dress. You are now a catalog of sex.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:47 AM on October 27, 2009