Hey folks,
So my girlfriend and I decided to go as Harley and Joker for Halloween. We were both operating on pretty strict budgets, so I decided to try my hand at a local thrift store. She worked at a costume shop, so she used her discount to get herself a Rubie's Harley. I thought the quality was pretty good. Definitely not up to par with some of the stuff I've seen here and in convention photos. More than anything though, I was just happy a pretty girl wanted to nerd-out with me.
As for my thrift store excursion:
I wasn't expecting much. With the exception of maybe some orange and green dress shirts. My expectations were wrong. Oh, so wrong.
So I wandered over there and found these:
The vest was from a three piece suit (I didn't actually end up using it, as you'll see). The sports coat was purple with a green lining. Pretty nice! But it was a really dark purple and I was worried it just wouldn't show in the limited lighting of all those Halloween dive bars I planned to show up to.
I was planning to then get a regular old cotton raincoat and dye it purple as an overcoat. But I'd never done that before and I didn't have any of the materials for it.
So I decided to just check and see what the women's section might have. I walk down the aisle and BOOM:
I mean, right?!
I discretely tried it on, as there was a sale that day at the thrift store and it was rather crowded. No judgement, though. If that's your bag, right on. More than anything, I'm embellishing my concern to add entertainment value to this otherwise boring occurrence.
Anywho, it fit. It was incredible. It was $4.00.
I left the thrift shop with 2 parts of a green 3-piece suit, a dark purple sports coat, a bright green shirt, a burnt orange shirt, and the friggin unicorn that was my Purple Wool Ladies Overcoat. $11 total. ELEVEN DOLLARS.
I wish I could say that was the end of my spending, but it wasn't. I went on to buy shoe spats, purple gloves, and a western tie from my girlfriend's costume store and split the cost of our makeup. And a pair of purple pants from eBay. All told, though, under $100. Probably closer to $50.
Here's me trying it all on and taking a terrible bathroom selfie. Can you believe in my whole apartment I don't own a full length mirror? Or any mirror, really. Just this one.
Last night, I wound up using a green shirt and no vest because she said she liked it better. I follow her advice on these kinds of things.
My girlfriend did our makeup. She's also a pretty amazing makeup artist. We used Harley's Joker as a jumping off point. If you haven't seen his Joker, google him. Now. Here, I've done it for you.
Anyway, thanks for reading - here are some photos from our debut:
We got second place at the bar's costume contest. We were beat out by a My Little Pony. I'm still dealing with that defeat emotionally, so I'll just leave it at that.
What do you all think?
So my girlfriend and I decided to go as Harley and Joker for Halloween. We were both operating on pretty strict budgets, so I decided to try my hand at a local thrift store. She worked at a costume shop, so she used her discount to get herself a Rubie's Harley. I thought the quality was pretty good. Definitely not up to par with some of the stuff I've seen here and in convention photos. More than anything though, I was just happy a pretty girl wanted to nerd-out with me.
As for my thrift store excursion:
I wasn't expecting much. With the exception of maybe some orange and green dress shirts. My expectations were wrong. Oh, so wrong.
So I wandered over there and found these:
The vest was from a three piece suit (I didn't actually end up using it, as you'll see). The sports coat was purple with a green lining. Pretty nice! But it was a really dark purple and I was worried it just wouldn't show in the limited lighting of all those Halloween dive bars I planned to show up to.
I was planning to then get a regular old cotton raincoat and dye it purple as an overcoat. But I'd never done that before and I didn't have any of the materials for it.
So I decided to just check and see what the women's section might have. I walk down the aisle and BOOM:
I mean, right?!
I discretely tried it on, as there was a sale that day at the thrift store and it was rather crowded. No judgement, though. If that's your bag, right on. More than anything, I'm embellishing my concern to add entertainment value to this otherwise boring occurrence.
Anywho, it fit. It was incredible. It was $4.00.
I left the thrift shop with 2 parts of a green 3-piece suit, a dark purple sports coat, a bright green shirt, a burnt orange shirt, and the friggin unicorn that was my Purple Wool Ladies Overcoat. $11 total. ELEVEN DOLLARS.
I wish I could say that was the end of my spending, but it wasn't. I went on to buy shoe spats, purple gloves, and a western tie from my girlfriend's costume store and split the cost of our makeup. And a pair of purple pants from eBay. All told, though, under $100. Probably closer to $50.
Here's me trying it all on and taking a terrible bathroom selfie. Can you believe in my whole apartment I don't own a full length mirror? Or any mirror, really. Just this one.
Last night, I wound up using a green shirt and no vest because she said she liked it better. I follow her advice on these kinds of things.
My girlfriend did our makeup. She's also a pretty amazing makeup artist. We used Harley's Joker as a jumping off point. If you haven't seen his Joker, google him. Now. Here, I've done it for you.
Anyway, thanks for reading - here are some photos from our debut:
We got second place at the bar's costume contest. We were beat out by a My Little Pony. I'm still dealing with that defeat emotionally, so I'll just leave it at that.
What do you all think?
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