The Virgin's Guide to Rocky Horror - Part 4

And now we come to the crux of the Rocky Horror experience...

Part 4 - Costumes

In my opinion, it is dressing up to see a show which turns a great night into a night you will never forget. Embarrassed about dressing up? Don't fret. Here's everything you need to know about DRESSING UP:

1. You don't have to dress up. If it's your first time at the show and you think you'll be the only one wearing a costume, just wear something you're comfortable in. At some shows I've been too, more than half the audience will be dressed up, and at others it will only be a spattering of folks. For your first time, if you're uncomfortable, you don't have to dress up - but after seeing the other people in costume, you may feel like you want to next time!

ScofieldBurrows says: at the last show I attended (a matinee), most people weren't in costume but the ones who were got so much attention. My party was talked to by everyone, congratulated on our daring and design, and had more photos taken of us than we could count. And that was before the show started! When I sat down in the theatre, the couple next to me were wearing jeans and t-shirts. They looked me up and done and said "we feel overdressed!" I think a lot of people want to dress up but are too afraid. You might find after your first Rocky experience that you fall in love with a particular costume like I did, or that you felt out of place in normal clothes, and so you might be more daring next time!

2. Not every costume has to be revealing. Don't want to strut your stuff in fishnets and heels? You don't have to! There are plenty costumes which aren't too daring but will still make you stand out from the crowd. Love Frank but don't want to wear a basque? No problem! How about wearing a green labcoat, rubber gloves and peals like he does in the creation scene? Cool costume! Are you a guy who's embarrassed to wear heels? Why not be the narrator, complete with cravat and book? I've seen some great narrators in my time, particularly older gents whose best Rocky-ing days are behind them. My advice: if you want to dress up but don't want anything too revealing and don't know what to wear, watch the movie and you'll probably even see something you could put together from pieces in your wardrobe! Sorted!

3. A costume doesn't have to be perfect. Rocky Horror can be a very abstract concept. Some people choose to get a costume as accurate as possible whilst others add a twist of their own personality to it. ScofieldBurrows's preferred costume is movie-accurate whilst mine is more abstract and I often change or alter pieces as I see other costumes I like. At the last show I saw, some of the people in costume looked like they'd stepped right off the stage whilst other people had just added, for example, a gold sequined jacket to their normal outfit or perhaps a feather boa. And both ways are fine! The important thing about Rocky Horror is just to have fun and let your hair down, and I salute anyone who wears even the smallest hint of costume! One thing you should never do is mock other people's costumes. We're all there to have fun and everyone does it in their own unique way - that's one of the things which makes Rocky Horror so special!

That's the basics of dressing up. Now here are some of my own personnal opinions on what makes a good costume:

- Personally, I don't like the pre-made costumes that you can buy. They're cheaply made, expensive, and often don't look anything like they do on the packet. A friend of mine bought a packaged Columbia costume for her first time at a show. Columbia famously wears a gold sequin hat and tailcoat. The tailcoat was the only part of that costume she eventually ended up wearing. On the packet, the hat looked like a plastic glitter hat, not too bad, but the hat you got was a flimsy fabric thing which looked like a ridiculous floppy gold sunhat! My friend then bought black shorts and sewed coloured ribbons on them, bought a beautiful cheap corset on eBay, made a bow and decorated a top hat herself, and she looked great. That said, I've heard the Riff-Raff wig you can buy is actually pretty good because it's not an easy hairstyle to do unless you have hair like that naturally!
- eBay is a great place to buy Rocky Horror costume pieces. I've seen beautiful homemade Columbia hats, Eddie leather vests, etc going for reasonable prices on eBay. I've even seen a gorgeous custom made costume up for bid once or twice. You can sometimes see whole costumes that people have made, or just parts. It's a great place to get unique pieces for good prices!
- ScofieldBurrows is a diehard Rocky fan who had her costume custom-made. She says: a custom-made costume is expensive but well worth it, in my opinion. I fell in love with possibly the most difficult costume in the show and the costume designers I contacted made a fabulous job of it. The quality is superb and I have no doubt that it will last me for many, many years. I believe that making your own costume is a lot of fun because I've helped to prepare costumes for other people. If you want to get a really good costume, I'd advice speaking to other costume-clad people at the show. We all love talking about our costumes and it can be a great source of advice, whether that's where to get a custom made costume or how to sew on sequins which won't fall off as easily!
- I like to be different. In my experience, the most commonly worn costume is Magenta's maid costume because it's easy to do. I personally like to stand out, so I stay away from this costume. If you want to stand out, why not try a more unusual costume, like Magenta's dinner dress? I once saw a girl who made an excellent replica of the outfit Patricia Quinn wears at the start of the film, where Magenta, Columbia, Riff and Frank can all be sneakily seen at the wedding of Betty and Ralph.
- More on the maid's outfit. It's a great outfit but one thing I don't like to see is people who wear a slutty maid's outfit which looks nothing like the one on the stage or in the film. The thing about Magenta's costume is that it is sexy in its own strange way without being slutty. So instead of heading down to Anne Summers to buy a naughty role playing dress, why not try a traditional frilly white apron and pancake hat over a black dress? It's a simple costume and I personally think it looks a lot better than a cheeky French maid costume!


In the end, if you're attending your first show, just wear something you're happy in and have fun! There will always be someone who looks more out of place than you, and you may get so swept up in the great atmosphere that you want to dress up next time! It happens to us all. Remember to have fun!