Create the Perfect Disguise

Five weeks till Halloween! Now is the time to start planning our costumes. Hopefully this will prevent me from having that last minute panic because I didn't start working on it earlier. (Sigh, it's the same story every year.)

Planning the perfect disguise always come down to two things: time and money. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, you're going to need plenty of time. It's as simple as that.

To start us off on the right foot, I'm going to post photos of vintage Halloween costumes. I know you've probably seen them all before, but look closely. These costumes are scary. Why? You don't see blood and gore. The scary thing about these costumes are the homemade masks. They're crude and completely disguise the wearer. Even when the masks are smiling they look sinister.

That brings us to another important Halloween rule for me. The costume should be dark; by dark I mean evil, macabre, and a bit menacing. That's because I believe when the evil spirits come out at Halloween, it's better to blend in so they don't notice you. Maybe that's just me, but I haven't been pulled into hell, yet.

Take some time today to search out early photos of Halloween costumes. This is our homework- back to the basics and cleansing the palate. If you can get hold of it, there is a wonderful book of vintage Halloween costumes called Haunted Air by Ossian Brown. The book is filled with photos from 1875 to 1955.

I'm not providing sources for the following photos because they're everywhere on the web.

Good depiction of wearing a hood without looking like the KKK

I love the lack of expression on these masks and the fact
that you can sip a drink with out anyone noticing.

If I found this person wandering around my house I would be unnerved.

I would not want to run into these women in a dark alley.
It's all about the masks.

Just think about this one for a minute.

This scares me a lot.

I love that these costumes are inexpensive, simple to make, and disturbing. All it takes is a little time to put these together. Oh, the possibilities.