How to dress up as Beth & Benny from "The Queen's Gambit"

February 16, 2021 8:02 AM

Sure, Halloween is ... [mumble] months away, but it's the pandemic, so what else have we got to do? My girlfriend and I were enraptured by The Queen's Gambit and would like to dress as Beth Harmon and Benny Watts. Would love any and all ideas for doing so. Thanks!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

Benny, I think is easy enough with the right coat and hat. Bad facial hair (real or fake) would add to the look. For Beth you could use a variety of outfits (60s vintage, obvs), but I think you need to nail the hair. Order a wig if necessary. Carry along a chessboard (glue down the pieces to make it more mobile) and a chess clock. Anything beyond that is cake.
posted by rikschell at 9:35 AM on February 16, 2021 [3 favorites]

I agree with rikschell. I would add that along with the hair, nailing Beth's silhouette is important if possible. A dress with something underneath the skirt to fill it out for that look would go a long way if the person going as Beth wants to do her more dressed up look.
posted by Fukiyama at 10:04 AM on February 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

A lot of the costume design blogs talk about Beth's outfits, so there's a wealth of detail out there. One thing that really stands out is the use of black and white, particularly with small square/check accents. Since it's Halloween, and not the Met Ball, you might want to interpret that more ostentatiously and go with something a bit more obviously checkerboard.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:09 AM on February 16, 2021

The most iconic, chess-referencing look for Beth was her white queen coat, hat, and gloves from the final episode. It might just look like Jackie Kennedy but paired with a Benny costume it’ll be recognizable.
posted by migurski at 10:46 AM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

If you have trouble getting a dress with the right details, you may be able to take a plain dress and add the black stripe details from this dress with a careful application of black duct tape. Duct tape sticks pretty well to fabric if you make sure to burnish it. You won't really be able to get it off or wash the dress properly after that, but for one night it will work great.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:47 PM on February 16, 2021

Maybe instead of carrying something chess-related, you could get a giant jar of green pills.
posted by cazoo at 8:29 PM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]