How to Make a Magenta Costume

‌The Rocky Horror Picture Show‌ is a cult movie from 1975 about an engaged couple who become lost in the middle of a storm and stop at Dr. Frank-N-Furter's to call for help. Frank-N-Furter's home is full of strange and bizarre characters, including the handyman, Riff Raff, and the maid, Magenta.

Fans of the show attend interactive screenings, often dressed as their favorite characters for cosplay events and Halloween parties. If you are looking for ‌Rocky Horror Picture Show‌ costume ideas, consider dressing as Magenta for an interactive showing or for Halloween. Making your own DIY costume takes little time and money.

Dye your hair auburn. You can use a rinse-out that lasts a couple of days or a permanent color. If you do not want to dye your hair, purchase an auburn-colored, curly wig.

Wash your hair and towel dry it the night before you want to dress up. Braid your hair with 20 to 30 small braids while it is still wet. Tie the ends of the braids with rubber bands and sleep on the wet braids. When you are ready to dress up, remove the braids.

Spray your hair with a heavy layer of hair spray. Use a brush to back-comb your hair. Back-combing is when you hold a section of your hair and comb from ends to roots. This creates frizz and volume.

Part your hair down the center and spray it with hair spray a second time to hold it. Use bobby pins to pin a white maid's cap to your hair. You can find maid's caps in costume shops and sometimes in thrift stores.

Magenta also had another look that you can consider for your Magenta Halloween costume. Dye your hair auburn and add a silver streak on each side. Then, put up your hair in a bouffant style.

Apply a very light or white-colored liquid foundation. Do not white out your entire face; just give yourself a pale look. Line your eyebrows with a dark brown or black pencil.

Draw the outline of your eyelids using a purple eye pencil. Fill in this shape with brown and purple eye shadow. The top of the eyelid from the crease up should be purple and below the crease should be brown. Add white lipstick to the space between your eyebrow and the top of the purple eye shadow.

Line your upper and lower eyelids with a thick black line. Use a liquid liner if possible to get a clean, dark line. Add black mascara to the top and bottom lashes or if you prefer, add fake lashes in jet black.

Define your lips using a glossy red lipstick. You want a true red as opposed to one with a pinkish hue. Paint your nails bright red. Allow them to dry.

Magenta is the maid in the movie, so she doesn't wear a fancy dress. Instead, wear a black French maid costume. If possible, find one with suspender-style straps for the apron. Look at specialty costume shops for these.

The dress should have sleeves with white cuffs and a white collar. Use a stitch ripper to remove the thread from the first inch of the collar on the right side. This gives Magenta a more disheveled look, like in the movie.

If the buttons on the French maid costume are not black, use pieces of black fabric and hot glue to cover them.

Wear sheer black pantyhose. Wear a pair of black granny boots. These can be found at shoe stores or local thrift shops. Granny boots are high-heeled boots that come up to the calf.

For an added touch, wear a black garter belt and black thigh-highs instead of pantyhose. Also, leave the bottom three to four buttons unbuttoned on the dress.

If you are looking for a prop to carry, choose a feather duster with dark feathers.