Feeling Stylish

My man, Benjamin wants to go as the Joker from Batman for my Halloween bash. All the costumes out there for any sort of affordable price are awful. I figured with some clever sewing / dyeing / thrifting we could find him the perfect outfit for next to nothing.

There are two obstacles to over come:

1. His height – He is gangly, long arms and legs which often means that things are too short in the arm / leg area. He’s also hellishly skinny although any trouser issues can be fixed with a belt.

(Edit: I must point out that I love his gangliness, Ben just read this and retorted with “Gangly? Thanks babe : )”  Please note the smiley face, he texted this comment.)

2. Colour – The joker wears two hard to get hold of colours in the suit world. Purple and green. Dyeing may have to ensue.

The Outfit is made up of:

Pinstripe purple trousers
Blue / Grey Hexagon Shirt
Mottled brown/grey/black tie
Green waist coat
Purple coat
Grey Suit Jacket – although this isn’t seen often.

The two factors that seem to make up outfit are the purple coat and green waist coat. The next most important thing is to find purple trouser, then the hexagon shirt and tie. I’m quite a perfectionist and it is the little details such as those hexagons that would make me very, very happy but something tells me that our company at the party won’t notice them. However, everyone is going to be doing this costume because who doesn’t love Heath and the Batman films, so this gets me thinking that having one of the most authentic costumes is going to win serious cool points when exchanging Halloween pics with friends. I would mention Facebook here and how comments on Facebook about the costume would be uber cool but Ben doesn’t have face book and I doubt my friends, fashion forwards and geeky as they may be, would appreciate such awesome.

So, onto dyeing.

Dylon do a colour called Intense violet and a green called Amazon green and these dyes aren’t hard to get hold of, in fact there’s a store that sells them pretty much opposite my fave thrift store. They also do something called pre-dye also which lightens the colour of the garment you wish to dye. This would be perfect for dyeing pin stripe (can you dye pinstripe? Would it all just go one colour?) trousers, a dark coat or a waist coat.

So I need to find:

Grey/blue coat
(Grey suit jacket)
Grey/cream waist coat
Hexagon Shirt
Mottled Tie
(Golfer’s socks in some garish, colourful pattern.)

Hair

Ben already has the hair for the job, with some wax and mousse it should be easy to achieve that wet look, greasy, wavy effect. Then either with some yellow/green spray dye or coloured gel we should be able to get the correct colour. Experiments will have to ensue.

Makeup

I’m feeling pretty confident about the make up part (surprise, surprise) the only thing that may be a little difficult will be the scars. I know how to apply the wax and stuff to get raised scars but I haven’t done it in forever. Once again I shall have to experiment. However, with everything else I think I know what I’m doing. White foundation followed by a thin layer of white face powder, I’ll then get Ben to scrunch up his face for the appropriate cracks.

Eyes will be a mixture of black face paint, eyeliner and black eye shadow. The face paint will allow the cracking, whilst the eyeshadow and eyeliner will ensure the eye area stays dark. Lips will be done in face paint, then extended upward over the wax scars to create the clown look. What will be difficult will be getting the good balance between the authentic Joker look of cracked and smeared makeup with out the whole look being rubbed off by 9pm. Primer in some places but not others? Must train that boy not to rub his eyes.

*sigh* I must take this time to say: Heath, I love and miss you.

With the thrifting trip approaching and little knowledge of what I should be looking for I thought I’d do some research into spotting the good items. I could go into any thrift store and look for pieces whether they be vintage or not but I don’t want to find myself buying crap not matter how much I like it. So, pay attention this this blog post, I’ll try and organise my research into bitesize bits what are easy to read but no promised.

Stitching

-On hems the more stitches per inch the better.
-Stitching should lie flat, not rucking, twisting or folding.
-Stitching should be invisible unless on garments where there is stitching for decoration (i.e. jeans.)
-There should be no loose threads and all seams should be neat.
-Designer work is often hand finished.

Seams

-There should be a generous fabric (a good amount is 3/4 inch+) allowance on all hems/seams. This means they are less likely to come undone.
-No rough edges
-Should lie flat.
-Always sewn straight and then finished to prevent unraveling.

Buttons

-Quality buttons.
-On coats, sturdy buttons that have been sewn on by hand and are backed by another, smaller button.
-Button Holes should be finished off cleanly with no threads hanging.
-Bound buttonholes or keyhole buttonholes rather than straight buttonholes.
-Sturdy materials such a metal or mother of pearl.

Linings

-The more the merrier. In trousers, linings to the knee, in skirts linings at least to the back. In coats and jackets, full linings including silky sleeve linings. Extra linings for coats and jackets to extend the season of the garment.

Cashmere

-Hold them up to the light and put your hand behind it – you shouldn’t be able to see your hand through a thick, quality cashmere.
-Stay tape should line the shoulders of a cashmere sweater (or any other stretchy fabric) this stops the garment stretching in the wrong places like the shoulders.

Fabric

-Garments with a high thread count are best, they will feel really light to touch and will move through your hands like silk.
-Patterns should match all over the garment.
-Fabric should have been cut / sewn on the grain.
-It shouldn’t look or feel cheap.
-If it is coarse in feel then it’s probably not designer.

I’m going to need some help from my thrifting team here. I have little idea about what stitches are good quality ones. More research is needed.