Thelma & Louise
THE IDEA
2017 saw the #MeToo movement in full swing. It seemed like the right time for an anti-sexual-harassment costume. Even though Connie Wilson and I are not spring chickens, we took the challenge—and it really turned into a challenge.
THE COSTUME
Kids, if you don't know who Thelma & Louise are, you can read about them and the film here. In the movie, they drove a beautiful, blue 1966 Thunderbird. I wanted to create the illusion that we were in a car so I needed to find a photo of the car from the front. A wonderful woman at Morse Classics, which specialize in international classic cars in the U.K., allowed me to use a photo of theirs for this costume. I enlarged the photo and gave the car a license plate that copied the film's typography (Futura) so that people would know immediately who we were. I glued the photo to cardboard and cut it out. Amazon sells press-on lights, so I got two of those so that our car would have working headlights. I wrapped white tape around a floral mold to create a steering wheel and taped that down. My attempt at a windshield was not so successful, which brings me to the real horror of the night—rain. It rained like crazy the night of the parade, but the show had to go on. The rain made the crowd thinner and the whole thing a soggy mess. I had to tear off the top of the windshield because the cardboard was drooping. The rain let up enough that the parade marched on, and we danced some at the after-party. Halloween costumes are like life—unpredictable and ephemeral. We really did mange to have as much fun as possible under the circumstances.
2017 saw the #MeToo movement in full swing. It seemed like the right time for an anti-sexual-harassment costume. Even though Connie Wilson and I are not spring chickens, we took the challenge—and it really turned into a challenge.
THE COSTUME
Kids, if you don't know who Thelma & Louise are, you can read about them and the film here. In the movie, they drove a beautiful, blue 1966 Thunderbird. I wanted to create the illusion that we were in a car so I needed to find a photo of the car from the front. A wonderful woman at Morse Classics, which specialize in international classic cars in the U.K., allowed me to use a photo of theirs for this costume. I enlarged the photo and gave the car a license plate that copied the film's typography (Futura) so that people would know immediately who we were. I glued the photo to cardboard and cut it out. Amazon sells press-on lights, so I got two of those so that our car would have working headlights. I wrapped white tape around a floral mold to create a steering wheel and taped that down. My attempt at a windshield was not so successful, which brings me to the real horror of the night—rain. It rained like crazy the night of the parade, but the show had to go on. The rain made the crowd thinner and the whole thing a soggy mess. I had to tear off the top of the windshield because the cardboard was drooping. The rain let up enough that the parade marched on, and we danced some at the after-party. Halloween costumes are like life—unpredictable and ephemeral. We really did mange to have as much fun as possible under the circumstances.