Andy Warhol, or, In the Future, Everyone Will Cosplay, for 15 Minutes

[Mike J.]

The older I get, the more particular I'm getting about my costumes. I wear glasses, and since I don't wear contacts, and I can't walk around virtually blind, I have to wear some kind of glasses all the time, or disguise them somehow. I've made a list before of characters I can still pass for (adult white males with glasses or sunglasses), but Andy is a new addition to it. I'll lay some of the credit for this at the feet of Burger King, since they ran a commercial of Andy Warhol eating a burger during the Super Bowl.

Once that seed was planted, I realized I could wear some cheap sunglasses over my glasses and hopefully put together an Andy Warhol using completely off the rack components. It all seemed very reasonable as far as cost and comfort, labor and potential re-use were concerned. As a sort of skill-set / comfort zone builder, this would be the first time I would wear a wig.

I started by doing some research into Andy's appearance, and roughly divided it into 3 stages: early, middle and late:

• Early Andy wears striped shirts a la Picasso, black pants / jeans, a black leather motorcycle jacket, and black cowboy boots.
• Middle period Andy wears dress shirts & ties, suit jackets, blue jeans, and brown cowboy boots.
• Late period Andy wears black turtlenecks, black suit jackets, black pants, and black boots or shoes.

I settled on the 'middle period' Andy, as that seemed about the easiest and most comfortable. That's also his look in the Burger King commercial. I had a pair of bluejeans I could use, but everything else I'd have to identify & find or get 'close enough' to. So began the searching...

 

[Mike J.]

After quite a bit of Google image searching (and far too many black and white photos of Andy), I had complied a sort of reference library. I then divided the pics into groups: Glasses, Ties, Boots and General.

Armed with a rough idea of what my components should look like, I started hitting the local thrift stores, and Amazon and eBay.

The wig and sunglasses came from Amazon, easily the simplest purchases. The necktie I found on eBay. Unfortunately, the dress shirt & boots were harder to settle on / get close / get a good fit, and I ended up going through a couple of each before I was satisfied.

Below, you see a 'test' pic of me in partial get-up. I'm not wearing my chosen tie, but the rest of it will be part of the final product.

 

[MattBlack]

Nice! One of the costumes where everyone's gonna know who you are immediately. Early Andy is my favourite era, but you can't go wrong with any to be honest. I know what I'm doing for Halloween this year!

 

[Temperance]

Ah, I feel your pain. I have been picking cosplays where the character A) wears glasses, or B) has a mask that I can hide my glasses behind.
Walking around blind at a con in a pain in the butt - so many of my costumes have hidden glasses pockets so I can tuck them away for photos and whip them out when I need them.
Andy is a good choice though! Super comfy cosplay

 

[Mike J.]

Thank you, thank you!

Here's a (middling) shot of the final product (version 1, anyway). Now added is the best tie (so far), a Campbell's Soup can lapel pin, and an actual soup can label inserted into my phone case's clear back.

Pleasantly, the wig did not blow off or fall off. The sunglasses are a bit too dark for indoors, but I didn't walk into anything or anyone. It was a bit warm, wearing all this, however.

Minor quibbles and possible improvements for a hypothetical version 2:

• Possible alternate tie.
• Possible narrower collared shirt.
• Possibly swap the black jacket for a navy blue one.
• Trim wig?

 

[Mike J.]

Minor update: Version 1.5:

• Thinned out & trimmed the wig a bit with thinning shears
• New necktie
• New skinny jeans (not shown)
• Polished the boots (not shown)

I did get a navy blazer, which did not fit well at all, however, and so was not used in this outing.

Pleasantly, I did get recognized by a few people. THEY GOT STICKERS. Let this be a lesson to all of you – know your artists!


-MJ / AW

 

[Clutch]

LOVE Andy Warhol. Had his face on a T-Shirt when I was a kid.