Becoming Tippi Hedren

Well, you met Vladimir the other day, I've seen lots of fellow bloggers in their fabulous and creative Halloween costumes, and now I think it's time for you to see Vlad in his starring role in my own costume...

The Birds costume completed, with a glimpse of my friend's Psycho costume to the right

My friend insisted on taking a photo of me with a beer can in hand.  All class, me.
I had been drinking wine from a glass at a previous point, I swear!

Yes, indeed, bin bags and wire coat hangers came into play to create Tippi Hedren, aka Melanie Daniels from The Birds.  Vladimir got pride of place on my head, with his beak artfully aimed at my eye.  The remainder of the flock were constructed from bin bags cut into bird outlines, lined with thin wire to keep them in shape, glued together and erected on wire coat hangers.  There were a few trial runs and prototypes before we got this working properly, particularly as the "invisible green" wire we'd bought was too flopsy to support the birds.  But we soldiered on, improvising with re-worked coat hangers.

The birds were then strapped to my back and my dress slipped on over the top so that they emerged from the neck.  My suit wasn't quite the right colour as it should have been a paler green but it's pretty perfect otherwise, don't you think?  I'd lightly tacked some feathers onto the dress before this but I wasn't going to rip any holes or throw any blood on it - not the fabulous 1960s tweed dress suit!

Anyway, putting the dress over the birds gave them a bit more support and discouraged the possibility of them flying too far away from me and into random passers-by...  One was left aside and became a sort of wrist band/bracelet.

Then came the blonde wig.  Surprisingly, this was the bit about my outfit that made me feel the most ridiculous, not the flock of bin bag birds.  But it was a must, considering Hitchcock's "thing" for blondes.  Thankfully, it looked much less absurd when pinned up into a dishevelled French roll than when it was hanging loose.  Vladimir was sewn onto a pale yellow headband and popped onto my head.

Pastel pink lips to match my pastel pink nails, a spot of fake blood on my face and the look was complete.

My partner in costuming crime became a fellow Hitchcock lady, Janet Leigh, aka Marion Crane from Psycho.  Her costume was fabulous but I am sparing her the indignity of having her face splashed all over my blog.  You can see part of her costume though...

Once the paint/blood was dry, we wrapped her in the shower curtain like it was a sleeveless evening dress, with the hooks running down the front like some pretty, arty detailing on a couture frock...  She had a short, sleeveless, beige dress on underneath just to ensure her modesty was preserved.  We then gave her a bit more blood smudged down her arms and a short blonde wig to top off the look.  Genius, even if I do say so myself.

The only problem we encountered with the costumes was that I ended up having to take the birds off my back later on in the evening as it was getting rather crowded indoors and I didn't actually want to take someone's eye out...

Down come the birds...

Vladimir stayed on though, naturally.

Vlad and I party on