Halloween How-To: The Avengers
For snappy catch phrases and immediate camaraderie, you may want to consider dressing up as a superhero group. The Avengers have all had their time in the big screen limelight the last few summers, so they’re a hot ticket for costume themes. The great part about doing something like this is that you just need it to exist and go as a team, and then everyone will get it.
Costumes inspired by a large franchise are easily available, pre-packaged, bagged, and ready to grab off the shelf at Halloween Express in Maplewood. You just have to decide who gets to be who in the group. Specific wigs are also available to accompany the costumes that come in the bags. You may want to put some texture cream and hair spray into your wigs since they’ll be a little stiff from being in the bag before purchase. Feel free to pull them back into a ponytail or however else you might feel it would read best. This is a great option for those who want a quick and easy but fun-filled costume idea.
If you are going to play Thor or Iron Man, you’ll want to do some stubble if you don’t have any. If you are going to play Hulk, you’ll want to get some body paint or consider hiring a media makeup artist to get you ready if you want a more professional design. If you are a female playing Hulk, you will also need to think about binding.
Photography: Mike Hnida
Models: Dragged Out – Left to right: Xavier as Hulk; Taiyo as Black Widow; Chico Caliente as Iron Man; Suave Rico Gotti as Nick Fury; Damien as Captain America; Ethan Prince as Thor; and Andre 1000 as Hawkeye.
Costumes: Models’ own, kits from Halloween Express in Maplewood – www.halloweenexpressmn.com
Makeup/Hair: Brett Dorrian Artistry Studios
What to Get:
Costumes: You can wing it for Hawkeye’s black sleeveless shirt and pants outfit, but the rest you can get straight off the shelves of Halloween Express in Maplewood: Thor’s Avengers Costume, $69.99, Thor’s Hammer, $6.99, and Thor’s Wig, $16.99; Captain America’s Muscle Costume, $56.99, and Captain America’s Shield, $34.99; Black Widow’s Avengers Deluxe Costume, $39.99, and Black Widow’s Wig, $14.99; Nick Fury’s Pirate Eyepatch, $1.49, and a Cyber Man Costume, $29.99; Iron Man Deluxe Costume (with mask), $69.99; M16 Gun, $7.99; Secret Agent Gun, $6.99.
Hulk Body Paint How-To:
DIY Body Painting: Pick up a bottle of green liquid body paint, a bowl/container to pour it into, and a large brush for application. You’ll probably need to enlist a friend to help. As you can see, it’s a pretty good opaque coverage once you do more than one layer. However, it does not cover the lime green duct tape binding. Our Hulk model was female, so we had to bind her and then start painting. Only professional airbrush makeup will help hide that.
Professional Body Painting: A professional artist can be hired to bring your body painting design to the next level ($50-$150 depending on the area to be covered and detail desired). Airbrush makeup fully covers the duct tape chest binding as well as a more full allover layer. From there, an artist can custom blend colors to create highlight and shadow to create muscles to bring Hulk to 3-D life.
How to add stubble to your face with crepe wool
Creating Your Own Beard or Stubble: This is a really slick way to create some stubble. Get a bit of crepe wool and pull some length out of the coil. Use a portion of pantyhose tied off to make a nylon cup (of sorts) or use a wig cap (pictured here). Cut your desired length of stubble off of the crepe wool and let it fall into the wig cap/nylon. Essentially, you are creating a pouch of stubble hair. Once that is ready, put Spirit Gum adhesive wherever you want your beard/stubble to be. Then hit the pouch of hair against the glued areas. You will end up with a great stubble beard that was a relatively clean application process. You can reuse your pouch or discard (it depends on how sticky it is after use against the glue).
Halloween How-To Credits:
Inspired by The Avengers
Photography: Mike Hnida
Models: Dragged Out – Xavier as Hulk; Damien as Captain America; Ethan Prince as Thor; Chico Caliente as Iron Man; Suave Rico Gotti as Nick Fury; Andre 1000 as Hawkeye; Taiyo as Black Widow. Dragged Out is the only king show in the Twin Cities, along with special guests. You can see their show every 3rd Friday of the month at the Town House Bar.
www.facebook.com/Dragged.Out.MN
Makeup/Hair/Wigs/Body Painting by Brett Dorrian Artistry Studios – Brett Dorrian, Sabrina Rogers, and Kristine Loehrer. Promotion: Custom body painting, character design, wig styling, and lessons available for performers.
