When it comes to Halloween costumes, I love taking ideas from popular culture. Favorite movies, TV shows, and music artists are all great sources of inspiration. It’s so much fun to come up with ideas that can’t always be found at the store and aren’t overdone.
One of the ideas I’ve been keeping in my back pocket is recreating the iconic “Addicted to Love” video with Robert Palmer and his band of models. It truly doesn’t take much in the way of costume elements, and it’s instantly recognizable… at least to most people of the MTV music video era.
Friday night gave us the perfect opportunity to finally make this idea come to life: an 80s-themed Halloween party at East Lansing’s Fieldhouse featuring 80s cover band Triple Lindy.
We had a complete blast dancing the night away, and we won the costume contest!
For Zack, dressing like Robert Palmer was a snap: dark suit pants, a white dress shirt, and a black tie. For his prop, we used our Guitar Hero microphone.
The key to a Robert Palmer girl costume is a black dress, sheer black nylons, a white guitar, slicked back hair, major major major makeup, and equally major hip action while dancing.
I found my black dress at Old Navy, and even though it wasn’t long-sleeved, it had the right silhouette and neckline. I’ll also actually wear this again in the fall, so it was worth buying something new instead of scouring thrift shops. I used a wide black belt I already owned to cinch in my waist. The girls wear studded belts in the video, but with the guitar on, you couldn’t really see it anyway.
For the nylons, I picked up some classic L’eggs nylons in a super sheer shade… no opaque tights allowed! For comfort’s sake, I skipped wearing black pumps and opted for black booties I already own. For my prop, all I needed to do was grab our white Guitar Hero guitar. An inflatable guitar would also work easily.
When it came to the makeup, I needed some major help. I even considered trying to go to the MAC counter at the mall, but after doing some Googling for images of their makeup, I found a helpful makeup tutorial on YouTube.
This video helped me tremendously with how to accomplish the eye makeup without looking like Jack Skellington. I found this great CoverGirl eyeshadow palette at Target, which seemed to have all of the colors I’d need:
In addition to the eyeshadow, I used my favorite e.l.f. eyebrow pencil (it’s only $2!!!) to really fill in and darken my brows, and my ColourPop lippie stix in “trust me” to get that major red lip.
The models in the video are a lot paler than I am, but had some cheek contouring. I used some bronzer to accentuate my cheekbones. For someone who really doesn’t like to wear a lot of makeup, especially on my eyes, I think I did okay!
I’m planning to chop my hair into a bob next week, so I’m glad I could take advantage of my longer hair for this costume. All I did was pull it back into a tight ponytail, then used bobby pins to pin it into a bun.
Truly, beyond putting the look together, it was really all about staying in character. The Robert Palmer girls never smile, don’t actually play their instruments, and have a constant hip swivel/sidestep motion to the music. I tried to keep that attitude all night, and it really made it fun.
I’m so proud of us for winning the costume contest, especially when there were a lot of great ones!
This was such a fun costume to put together, and beyond easy. It worked great as a couples costume, but would also work with a group of women as the Robert Palmer girls.
Give it a try and you too will be simply irresistible.
