Halloween Costumes: Begging to Differ?
October 28, 2014 in Design, Personal
In the fall of 2010, the first Halloween in our son’s life was fast approaching and we were faced with the Costume Conundrum. As a tireless enthusiast for originality, I just could not go the usual route. A skeleton, or Spiderman pajamas, or even the slightly original fireman outfit were not appealing options. An utterly adorable [animal of your choice] bodysuit was a serious consideration (no one is perfect). But all this was just the usual short-lasting review of what everyone had already done over and over again, and as expected, this was a good enough reason to go in a different direction and seek some excitement.
I had a starting point: we had a child that we had named Charles. I also knew of another Charles, a much older favourite of mine. He was also brilliant, though in a different way from our lovely little troublemaker. He had made iconic silent films, so generally he was a bit less of a noise-maker than his namesake that lived in our house, but they were both able to touch ours hearts, each in their own mysterious ways. And so it was decided. A scaled down version of Charles Chaplin was in the works, and this is how it turned out…
October 31, 2010
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And the after-party... (Don’t ask why there is masking tape in the following images… Lets just say it is not an uncommon occurrence in our household…)
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If we should say so ourselves, the costume was a big hit among Halloween enthusiasts. Certainly, some of the younger kids had no idea who we were depicting, but their puzzlement was just another reassurance that, if nothing else, we had been successful in avoiding the “oh, here is another <fill in the blanks character>”. And hopefully we somewhat helped re-enliven the memory of a true and deserving legend.
So naturally, we recycled the costume the following year, albeit with much less bagginess in the pants.
October 31, 2011
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And the after-party…
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We are happy to report that as a result of our tribute to the silent film era, at least a few members of the younger generation now know who Charles Chaplin is. This, and all the fun that we had being the escort of the miniature person in the loveable tramp figure outfit from a time gone by, made for a fully worthwhile experience.
And now, for the Charles Chaplin Halloween costume formula:
In the spirit of good recycling, for the following two Halloweens (2012 & 2013), we reused parts of the Chaplin costume in combination with an existing feature: our son’s real prescription glasses, to easily recreate another classic (while admittedly less unusual) character:
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We are certain that you have guessed correctly who this character is, but here is the costume formula anyway:
In the spirit of even better recycling, we were not going to let a great pair of fabulous baggy pants sit in the closet for too long…. So 2014 saw yet another utilization of the everlasting piece of quirky garment…..
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And here is one of the easiest costume formulas:
Okay, so perhaps there was a little discrepancy in the resemblance achieved that last time around…. But good times, nonetheless!
How did you like the method of using a pair of pants to chart-illustrate a child’s growth over a period of 4 years? Very clever, I know…. We definitively demonstrated that legs appear to continually elongate, based on each and every October 31st data retrievals. We intend to continue with this important study, stay tuned for further updates.
Truly,
R