Growing up with an artistic father always made for an interesting Halloween costume. Some of the most exciting, to name a few, were the apple tree, the Monarch caterpillar, the box of McDonalds french fries, and the cactus; thankfully, my brother and sister both suffered through the menagerie of costumes as I did. While at the time, my focus was mainly on the bulky, often awkward costumes, as I think back on them, the most interesting part of it all was not the embarrassment we sometimes felt in wearing them, but the process that went into designing and developing each costume. For the sake of time, I will focus on the year that I dressed as a box of McDonalds french fries.
The costume consisted of two main parts--the box, and the fries. The box was crafted out of cardboard and covered in red paper with the iconic double arch pasted on the front. It was held up by two bungee cords acting as suspenders across my shoulders. Inside the box, I was dressed in a yellow turtleneck, and foam pieces cut to the shape of french fries were placed inside the box alongside me. Although the costume may not sound complicated, it was an arduous process to design it. Months before anything physical began to take shape, we discussed ideas, finally settling on a suitable design for the costume. Next came the process of engineering what the costume would be made of so that it would be comfortable enough to wear the entire night. (Needless to say, that part of the process was an utter failure; the costume was too bulky and heavy to maneuver very far in.)
Some people may think creating your own Halloween costume is silly. There are plenty of costume stores out there, so why not choose from hundreds of premade get-ups, like the one pictured above? Certainly, there were years when we copped out and took the easy road. But had it not been for those years when we took the liberty of thinking outside the box (or inside, in the case of the french fries), I may not have been given such a fond introduction to some of the nuances of design.
The costume consisted of two main parts--the box, and the fries. The box was crafted out of cardboard and covered in red paper with the iconic double arch pasted on the front. It was held up by two bungee cords acting as suspenders across my shoulders. Inside the box, I was dressed in a yellow turtleneck, and foam pieces cut to the shape of french fries were placed inside the box alongside me. Although the costume may not sound complicated, it was an arduous process to design it. Months before anything physical began to take shape, we discussed ideas, finally settling on a suitable design for the costume. Next came the process of engineering what the costume would be made of so that it would be comfortable enough to wear the entire night. (Needless to say, that part of the process was an utter failure; the costume was too bulky and heavy to maneuver very far in.)
Some people may think creating your own Halloween costume is silly. There are plenty of costume stores out there, so why not choose from hundreds of premade get-ups, like the one pictured above? Certainly, there were years when we copped out and took the easy road. But had it not been for those years when we took the liberty of thinking outside the box (or inside, in the case of the french fries), I may not have been given such a fond introduction to some of the nuances of design.
++Photo courtesy of Lynn Applen
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