Last Fall one of our favorite art directors Valerie Mangum made a series of amazing DIY costumes for a shoot for Small photographed by Nick Prendergast . We thought it would be great to show them to you again in the run up to Halloween along with the instructions from Valerie that we couldn't fit along side the shoot when we published it in issue 8 of Small.
Valerie: 'The kimono is vintage but you could easily make a simple one by cutting down an old dressing gown. I made the obi out of Amy Butler fabric and put wire in the hem of the obi to help it keep its shape. The model is wearing white tights with traditional Japanese shoes, but flip flops would work just fine. The best part about this costume is her wig, which is made out of strips of white polar fleece. I criss-crossed the strips over each other like lines making an astrix symbol until it looked almost like a circle. it wasn't cut into a bob until we put it on the model to make sure it was the right length.'
thank you for posting this! my daughter and i saw this in your issue last year and fell in love with it, so she's going to be a kokeshi doll this year! but we weren't sure how to do the hair, so thanks for the instructions!
Posted by: jo | 10/05/2009 at 01:20 PM
Omg, this is the cutest costume idea ever!
Posted by: Jennifer O. | 10/06/2009 at 01:04 PM
She is so talented! We have another one from Valerie coming on Monday so check back.
Posted by: Olivia | 10/07/2009 at 04:35 AM