My Halloween as Willy Wonka

Date published: November 4, 2005

Yep, I dressed up as Willy Wonka this year for Halloween, more specifically, Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. I got to wear the costume twice, first on Saturday night and then again on Monday (both at work and out and about later that night).

Saturday night, out at a local bar, I actually won second place in a costume contest! The prize was a $75 bar tab. The first place winners (who received $100 cash) were "Pimp Daddy and Baby Girl." They had decent costumes, but even Pimp Daddy told me he thought I should have won. Even one of the judges said that it was actually a tie for first place, but being that he knew I only entered because some friends made me, they gave me second. I was totally surprised to win anything, so it all worked out for the best.

I have to talk for just a quick second about the W brooch. It's not very apparent on Johnny Depp above, but he does wear a brooch throughout the movie. So the big question was, how would I get a brooch? On eBay there were some replicas going for $60 each, but there was no way I was going to buy one of those (even though they did look spot on). What I ended up doing is making my brooch with polymer clay. It cost only $2 and I just had to cut out the W and then bake it (making sure to put some string holes on the back for a piece of black string to go through to make it into a necklace). It was the first time I'd ever used polymer clay (the two most common brands are Fimo and Sculptey, I used the latter). I was quite proud of the outcome.

On Monday, I decided that for the first time ever, I was going to go to work dressed up for Halloween. On Saturday all that I wore under the jacket was a black muscle shirt. I knew it would be hot inside the bar. Monday though, I had a long sleeved shirt and a black sweater vest on, so I actually looked fine at work that day (thought a bit overly dressed up) when I didn't have on the jacket, hat, and wig. Everyone at worked loved the costume. I think that they were most surprised because the Friday before I had a beard and I shaved it all off for the costume (actually, I left my sideburns...they're slightly visible in the photo above). Unfortunately I didn't get any picture of me at work that day. A friend did take a couple pictures of me that night though. I'll try to get a hold of those pictures and post them here.

One of the funniest things about this costume is that on both nights, people asked me if the wig was my real hair. Gave me a good laugh. I guess it looked real. I'm not sure that the pageboy look is really that en vogue right now though.

Anyway, it was a fun Halloween all around. Though I didn't see it in person, I'd say the best costume that I saw this year was Christian/new_improved's zombie costume.