Halloween Cosytume Idea: Tippi Hedren in The Birds

Halloween Costume Idea | Tippi Hedren in The Birds

Halloween Costume Idea: Tippi Hedren in The Birds

This Saturday was the first of two Hallloween parties which Terry and I have been invited to this month, which means that, yes, there will be another one of these costume posts for you next week. Well, you know me: “never the same costume twice”, that’s my motto. That and “Never a really GOOD costume once,” obviously.

Now, as some of you know, this particular party presented me with something of a challenge, on account of how I’d already spent all my money on shoes by the time I decided to start thinking about what to wear to it. So, in my usual fashion, I headed off to my closet to see if there was any possible way I could just, you know, wear my own clothes and call them a “costume”, and that’s where the inspiration for this costume came from. This dress isn’t EXACTLY the same the same as the outfit Tippi Hedren wears in The Birds (By which I mean, “it’s nothing like it”), but it’s roughly the same colour as her skirt and jacket, and the style is from roughly the same era, so I decided it would have to do.

I’d noticed Matalan were selling fake birds in their Halloween shop, so with a few of those on their way, and a cheap blonde wig from eBay (It turns out no one sells “Tippi-Hedren-in-The-Birds” wigs, so I had to buy a blonde mullet wig instead and try to style it to a rough approximation of her ‘do. Did you know that hairspray, mousse, and a ton of other styling products have absolutely NO EFFECT AT ALL on synthetic hair? You do now!), all I needed was some way to attach the birds to my body. This turned out to be trickier than I’d assumed: when the birds turned up (Ever opened a delivery box to find it stuffed full of what appears to be dead birds? Because I have.), I realised they were much bigger than they’d looked on the website, which made them too heavy to pin/sew to the dress without ruining it. And I DO actually wear this dress, so, you know.

Luckily, however, with the help of Terry and a quick Google image search for inspiration, I had myself a “birds” head-dress, which made them appear to be flying right at my head. Score

(Yes, I know I look more like I’m just doing jazz hands than anything else here. I don’t call these posts “half-assed” for nothing.)

(I say “with the HELP of Terry”. You all know that means “it was totally Terry who did this, I just drank wine and watched him,” don’t you? if not, let the record show that the birds were all Terry’s work, and he even attached some fake wings to them, because the ones we bought had their wings folded rather than outstretched, so they looked like they were levitating around my head. That would ALSO have been fairly spooky, but it would’ve been even LESS authentic than what I eventually ended up with, so like I say, Terry to the rescue. He only complained a few times, too.)

Halloween costume Idea: Tippi Hedren in The BirdsIn the picture I was trying to recreate, Tippi Hedren is holding a giant torch. I don’t have a giant torch, so I went for a more modern interpretation, and used the torch on my iPhone. Oh, come on, Hitchcock would’ve loved it.

These photos were actually taken the day before the party, during a “test run” of my birds head-dress (and also so I could get some photos in daylight!): for the night itself, I managed to acquire a couple more birds:

Tippi Hedren in The Birds Halloween Costume

Yes, it was a bit inconvenient. No, I didn’t manage to keep the wig on all night: I gave it a pretty good shot, though!

As for Terry:

Redfoo LMFA Halloween Costume

red-foo-halloween-costume

He’s Redfoo from LMFAO, and I had to shamelessly steal these photos from Facebook because my birds seriously hampered my ability to work a camera, so the ones I took right before we left all came out blurry. Thank God for Facebook, huh! I’m happy to report that Terry’s costume was NOT pulled together using clothes he already owned, because that would mean Terry already owned a pair of women’s animal print leggings, and some thick gold chains, and I don’t know how he would explain that.

Halloween party

(Also stolen from Facebook)

Anyway! We had a great time, and now we’re gearing up for our NEXT Halloween party, which is this Saturday. This time I’m going to try to stay well away from wigs and birds…

The Birds

But we’ll see how that works out.

P.S. If you'd like to hear more from me, please consider subscribing to my newsletter…

books by Amber Eve
COMMENTS
  • My Halloween costume from the weekend: http://t.co/3AQ0LspEMm #halloweencostume #Halloween

    October 28, 2013
  • Thats amazing! I think it’s quite original too, can’t say I’ve seen this costume before! I’m still thinking of what to do for mine, since I have red hair too I tend to resort to red headed characters (last year it was Poison Ivy) xx

    October 28, 2013
  • Leigh

    REPLY

    Gorgeous as always. I look forward to your costume every year. You never disappoint! You did however fail to mention Terry’s prep…..learning to “shuffle” and teaching it to everyone at the party….great fun! Love you guys. X

    October 28, 2013
  • Hillarious, this made me laugh! I think the costume is absolutely fabulous and inspired! Brilliant!

    October 28, 2013
  • I think for costumes like this if you have the big iconic part of it (in this case the birds attacking), you can fudge the rest of the details and still be instantly recognizable. Love this costume idea.

    October 28, 2013
  • Brilliant Halloween costume. Tippi Hendren from The Birds: http://t.co/j2iHHNSLCL

    October 28, 2013
  • This is great Amber, really unique and creative (bravo Terry!).
    I went to a Hallowe’en party on Saturday as a pumpkin (as did my two year old daughter), I felt tres chic as you can well imagine 😉

    October 28, 2013
  • OMG!!! Terry is flippin’ amazing! LOL I love it! What a couple!

    I love your dress…the costume is cute but the dress is gorgeous.

    bisous
    Suzanne

    October 28, 2013
  • Is… is that a Boden dress?

    I LOVE the costume. I wish I’d thought of this, haha! Way better than mine.

    October 28, 2013
      • Oh, okay, cool! I think it’s the neckline – I’ve only ever seen that kind of neckline at Boden. Although I’m American and I think that cool sixties neckline is more of a Brit thing.

        October 28, 2013
  • Brilliant!

    October 28, 2013
  • Hilarious!!! I think its a great costume.

    October 28, 2013
  • Terry, you, sir, deserve a medal. And you both looked awesome.

    October 28, 2013
  • I would never call this half arsed – however I am completely biased because you’ve included a Pinup Girl Clothing dress in your costume! We don’t do Halloween in Australia so no one is going to be dressing up, but I am looking forward to seeing your next costume 😀

    October 29, 2013
  • Amazing. That’s all.

    (half assed comment – sorry!)

    October 30, 2013
  • Great costume! You guys always go all out with your costumes! I’m very impressed (not half-assed at all!). And I love Terry’s costume! 🙂 I laughed out loud at work, ops!

    October 31, 2013
  • LOVE this! I’m wondering if this is a half assed costume, how amazing it would be if you went all out!

    November 1, 2013
  • I so love the Birds being carried round on your head! Terry is awesome!

    November 1, 2013
  • laura

    REPLY

    I would love to do something similar some time. What did you search to figure out how to make that headband? I love that part so much.

    October 30, 2014
  • This is amazing! Such a great last minute and inexpensive costume idea!

    October 13, 2016
  • Sara

    REPLY

    What a clever and original costume! I love the birds, looks really neat!

    October 22, 2016
  • Lindzi Ellis

    REPLY

    Can you please please please give me some hints on how you made the headdress?? I have everything I need for my Tippy costume for my party this weekend but I can’t for the life of me get the birds to ‘hover’! ?
    I attached wire from a coat hanger to a headband and then attached birds to the end but it’s PAINFUL to wear and keeps falling off.

    Please please help!

    October 26, 2016
  • Mona

    REPLY

    Where did you get the dress? It’s perfect, and we can’t find a good one for this same costume.

    October 22, 2019
POST A COMMENT