Tips for a David Bowie Halloween Costume

Series Summary

Ground control to Major Tom—are you feeling low because you’re still searching for the perfect Halloween costume idea? Do you look back in anger at some of the lame costumes you’ve selected in past years: the back end of a horse, a cactus, Nikola Tesla? Do you have a sense of doubt that fake blood and scary monsters have already had their golden years? If you’re really under pressure, then it’s time for some ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

Perhaps you’ve heard of a man named David Robert Jones? No? Well, what about the Thin White Duke? Ziggy Stardust? I’m talking about none other than the famous innovator, musician, actor, and producer: David Bowie. With a career that spans almost 50 years, Bowie is a living legend of rock and roll…and certainly worthy to be honored at a costume party.

In these Halloween costume videos, learn how to dress up like the man who sold the world a new identity every ten years or so. Whatever music, fashion, or art decade you decide to portray Bowie in, things should all be hunky dory. But, if you do show up to a Halloween party and everyone says “Hi, who are you supposed to be,” stay cool. You might reply, “I’m just bouncing from station to station, soaking up the scenery and the free alcohol.” After all, you are a guest and have no control over the situation. You might decide to move on to the next party, perhaps not populated by so much teenage wildlife. Or you might just say, “Who cares? Let’s dance.”

…Either way, we hope you truly enjoy your fantastic voyage as the inimitable David Bowie.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about researching your David Bowie costume. Now you've decided to make a David Bowie costume, but how exactly are you going to do it. David Bowie has forty years of a career behind him, so there's many different periods you can pick from. Your best bet is something from his earlier years because that's when his costumes were more extreme. In order to actually figure out what the costume looks like though you should go online and do some research. When you look online you can find photographs from Bowie's more extreme years, such as the Ziggy Stardust stuff, and you can see just how the costumes looked, how they fit. You can see the materials that are used, and that's a great guide that you'll be able to use when you're building your own costume. In my case, I want to make a costume from the Ziggy Stardust period of David Bowie. So, I look online and I take a look at the different costumes. I can see the materials that are used, and I can figure out just how difficult it will be to make this costume so I can start figuring out just how to budget my resources."