Happy Halloween!

For a few years, Frida Kahlo has been on my mind as Halloween costume inspiration.  I decided to take the plunge this year, when portraying Frida turned out to be the easiest of my choices!  The only things that I bought to complete the costume were red lipstick and false eye lashes. 

Click through for instructions and a more complete look at the costume. . . .

These are the components that I used:

• Peasant-type skirt from Massimo Dutti (from 2006!)
• Embroidered top from an indigenous market in Panama City
• Snakeskin belt, thrifted
• Shawl from Al Khatoun, in Cairo
• Earrings from Al Khatoun, in Cairo 
• Multi-strand turquoise and ceramic beaded necklace, by me
• A rousing arm party, comprised of various wooden and metal bangles, gifted and thrifted :)
• Cork wedges from Franco Sarto
• Red lipstick
• Individual false eye lashes, helped along with black and brown eye shadow, applied generously with an angled brush
• Flowers from my front yard, arranged with the help of floral wire that I had on-hand (I couldn't tell you why.)

I referred loosely to this image of Frida, trying to follow her approach, generally, rather than copy it exactly.  Also, I wanted to utilize the elements that I already owned.  So, the more casual take on Frida's style worked best for me.  Photos showed that she preferred chandelier-type earrings.  She tended to wear various colors in one outfit, but then match certain pieces, like the pink flowers and pink shawl in the reference photo.  Frida's makeup was very simple, except for a red lip.

For the hair, I started by running a dampened styling pomade through my hair, which I then pulled into two pony tails.  I braided the pony tails and then pinned them up into a Heidi-type style, along the lines of these instructions.  I am basically hairstyle illiterate, so believe me when I say that the process was a simple one.  If you know how to make a braid, you will be fine.  Also, this tutorial on how to use a hair pin (not a bobby pin -- there is a difference!) was exceedingly useful when it was time to pin up the braids.  I finished with lots of hairspray and, voilà, ended up with a style that (really and truly) lasted all night long.

For the eye brows!  I grew them in!  Kidding.  Well, these are about ninety percent my very own brows.   For that extra bit, I used false lashes.  I bought the "individual" ones, which actually have about four or five lashes in a bunch, attached at the end with a tiny, little bulb.  First, I filled in a unibrow by applying black and greyish brown eye shadows with an angled eye liner brush.  I used a light hand and just continued the natural line of my eye brows until the shadow met in the middle.  Then, I applied five (I think) individual lashes in a "V" pattern, following the rough guide of the eye shadow.  Since the lashes I bought didn't come with glue, I used an old eye lash glue that came with a set of Makeup Forever lashes, and it worked fine.  I applied the glue to that little bulb and also to the lower parts of the individual lashes.  After waiting for about thirty seconds, to let the glue set, I applied the lashes to the desired spots on my brow.  I let the glue dry for a few minutes and then snipped off those little bulbs with a cuticle clipper.  The result was a scarily real and somewhat aggressive unibrow.

The flowers were the last touch.  This part of the costume probably was the most intimidating -- I mean, Frida had the floral hair ornamentation thing down.  I tried to pare down the original concept to one that was easy, yet made from real flowers, relatively believable, and able to withstand a night out.  I cut a bunch of flowers from my front garden and strung them onto floral wire.  Rather than threading the wire through the center of the flowers, I tried to thread horizontally through the base of each flower.  Once I had a garland of eight or so flowers, I worked it into a messy pile, by sort of coiling the garland around itself.  I then used extra bits of wire to connect the rings of the coil and stabilize the whole headpiece.  I put the flowers on the crown of my head, in front of the braids, and secured them with bobby pins. 

So, there you have it.  This was such a fun project, and I hope that you enjoyed reading about it.  Have a great Halloween!

(Image props to C., also known as Hipster Smurfette!  Hence, the bike on the wall in the top photo, obv.)