I'm with the Lonely Hearts Club Band

On Saturday, I was invited to a 1960's/Sergeant-Pepper's-Lonely-Hearts-Club-Band-themed party. That's a mouthful, but more importantly, it's a challenge! How to dress to meet the theme and to do it well enough to win a contest (which I'd heard would be happening)? I didn't know, but I was going to try!

I knew my friend, who was hosting, was planning to dress as Paul McCartney from the cover of said Beatles album, and she was encouraging attendees to dress as other band members. I came very close to going that route, until I noticed this quite 1960's minidress in my closet. Yes, I do wear 60's minidresses as regular clothes. When I wear this one, I usually pair it with pants—it's very mini.

But for a 60's party, I felt I could get away with wearing it over opaque tights, which are another classic look of the decade. I was very fortunate that all the essentials for this costume/outfit were already in my wardrobe. I had my pick of tights in several shades of pink, or white, or ivory. For footwear, I figured I'd wear a pair of pink Mary Jane shoes, which seemed fairly period-appropriate. Fairly, but not quite. When I'm doing retro fashion interpretations, I am really hard on myself if I feel my look isn't historically accurate, and the 3.5-inch heel on my Mary Janes just felt too high for the vibe of the sixties.

So I decided I should look into buying a pair of go go boots (so mod!). The lowest prices were in the high 20's, and those were for eBay auctions that were likely to end at a higher price. If I wanted some go go boots, I was probably going to have to fork over at least 35 dollars—way above my usual budget!  I wrestled with myself for a while, but then I decided to take the plunge. A splurge is worth it if it means winning a costume contest, right? Fortunately, I never did have to justify a splurge to myself. Right before I was about to bid on a 30$-plus auction for some white boots, I ran my search one more time. This time, I hit the jackpot—a silver pair of go go boots with free shipping, for only $6.47! Yeah, baby, yeah!

These boots also have a 3-inch heel, but since the style is otherwise quintessentially 60's, I felt better about the overall look.

Now on to hair and accessories! For earrings and makeup, I looked to Twiggy, fashion icon of the era, as my literal model. Her signature look back in her heyday was huge, overly made-up eyes with multiple pairs of false lashes, plus painted-on lashes on the lower lid. I only have one pair of false lashes, but I did my best, and managed to paint on a decent set of lower lashes after only four attempts!

Huge, glossy dangle earrings seemed like the best jewelry choice, but I didn't really have any in my collection that fit the bill. What I did have, was a sizable collection of Sculpey. I made my own pair of huge heart earrings (another nod to the theme!) and then painted them with silver nail polish, to match the boots. I hung them from extra-long hooks so they would be visible below the bottom of my hair.

Speaking of hair, I was going to attempt it: the big, voluminous, 1960's bouffant with flipped ends! This was of course a bad idea, since my hair does only one thing well: hang straight down. Even after spending the whole day in giant curlers, teasing the roots to within an inch of their life, and spraying it with more hairspray than I have ever employed, I could only manage a limp approximation of the oversized 'do. Well, at least I got the flipped ends halfway decent.

Here we are in a very retro Polaroid!

With that, my costume was done, but I still had time to help my boyfriend with his. I suggested he go for a John Lennon look, since I happen to have a pair of round-lens glasses. To go with it, I suggested he wear a shiny red Indonesian shirt, because it looks vaguely Indian, and the Beatles went through an Indian phase at some point. He originally picked out a wig that I called a "collapsed Afro," (it was period-appropriate enough, albeit in a more Jimi Hendrix way than a Beatles way), but as we were about to leave the house, I remembered he has a messy brown wig that I thought would look a little more like John Lennon's hair.

I'm glad I thought of that, because he got nothing but compliments about his costume. I did too, so I consider all the effort well worth it...even though I didn't win a prize. I don't think anyone got a prize, because by the time we left, the party was winding down, and no costume contest had been had. So I'll have to consider myself a winner in my own eyes.