“Time and Relative Dimension in Space” Yes, that’s me! A Type 40 T.A.R.D.I.S, I was already a museum piece when you stole me. ~ The Doctor’s Wife, Doctor Who
The costume that was a long time in coming; because I was utterly tired of putting on whiskers every season (although I love Chesh, and I played her well – she’s just had her time for now is all); I wanted something elegant, something lady-like, with a nod to the more quirky side of well…me…
I stumbled on the design completely by accident, I was just looking up Doctor Who memes one day, and lo and behold, there is a Victorian three piece women’s suit…that is every inch a T.A.R.D.I.S. Of course, having such a thing made was leagues out of my price range at the time – even with the discounts that most seamstresses I know are kind enough to give. I tracked down which pattern it was from, and resigned myself to at least another year of Chesh. I wasn’t’ able to scrape together the funds until this last vacation, and even then it wasn’t easy (is anything ever really?)
Two nights before All Hallows I was sitting on the bed watching Tomorrowland and carefully stitching the “Police Public Call Box” ribbon along the upper edge of the bustier (that could not be done earlier because I couldn’t order it that far in advance), about a month before that Amras and I were in Hot Topic in San Diego and I squealed with delight as I found the matching accessories.
Then of course there was the hair…the ever-present, ever-non-co-operative hair. I only do one hairstyle for Halloween, and spiral curls take 45 minutes of twisting and pulling in the salon chair no matter how much care I take with my tresses. But it’s usually worth it. Originally this costume was going to have a top hat, but though the original model pulled off that look beautifully it was simply not going to work for me. Instead I topped the curls with a ‘Police Box’ bow, which had a much better effect.
And since I always do everything in a ‘go big or stay home’ kind of fashion, there were also the accessories to think about. Months ago I ordered two sets of earrings, one TARDIS pair and one ‘weeping angel’ pair; I wore one of each and Tolly wore the other two because she was being The Doctor. I had a proper-sized yale key on a chain around my neck, a high gallifrean design painted across my collarbone and even over the knee socks with the tardis window design on them. And that was the little subtle stuff, the bigger stuff – the sonic screwdriver, River Song’s diary, the pocket watch, those were all in various pockets or being carried. If you knew the show, you knew the costume, if you didn’t – I just had a gorgeous Victorian ballgown.
One of my co-workers described it as ‘exquisite’ and I’m thinking she was pretty much right.
And I had sound effects, because my phone has the sound of the TARDIS engines loaded as one of the ringtone options, all I had to do was set an alarm to go off every 15 minutes and drop the phone in my pocket, it was too loud to hear it at the party of course but so not the point!
Of course, all of those elements take a while to put together. I had the hair done at 5:00, and it was finished by 5:45, after which I went straight to dinner, and after about six times of my asking what time it was (my watch is currently non-fuctional) Amras finally says
You have stuff to get ready don’t you?
Yeah, I have rather a lot to do..
Go! I’ll see you later…have fun!
So I left him and our tablemate to the rest of their supper, cranked up “Time Warp” as loud as it would go, and begged the assistance of my roomie to help me do up lacings and buttons that I was just never going to be able to reach myself. And doing up jacket buttons with nails that just refuse to dry? That’s just not going to happen, I actually had to ask my cabin steward to do it! Because Tolly had had to go up to work.
That said, that is just what I wore for the passenger party. All told the TARDIS is nearly a $700 costume (and it’s probably worth a pretty penny more than that but my seamstress gave me an exceptionally generous rate), and it’s satin…if anything gets spilled on it that’s a good cause for a heart attack. It’s not something I could risk wearing to the crew party, and there is – after all – one costume I never mind repeating.
How to go from elegant to pin-up girl in ten minutes.
The change to Green Fairy from almost anything – even something as elaborate as the TARDIS – does not take me long. I’ve been donning that costume for so long that I could most likely put it together in the dark.
Thankfully, the hair-style fits both costumes (one of the reasons I wear it that way actually) it was a simple matter of unclipping the bow from my hair and shaking the curls down.
The Green Fairy costume was built to withstand the Halloweens I used to go to the bar – it can handle more abuse than even a crew party can throw at it. And, because it’s built on a leotard it’s no more risqué for me than wearing a one piece bathing suit. That said it looks much more risqué than that; I could feel the eyes following me as I walked down the I-95 to the elevator. Normally the attention would kind of cow me, but there are times that you just feel confident, that costume makes me feel confident.
The cool thing for us was that the ‘Cats played the party, our party, the real party which is actually much preferable to playing the public party. The pax party is really a pale shadow to the below decks party; for one thing, we aren’t reserved – because it’s the one place we don’t have to be, and for two, we know how to show a band they’re appreciated. In response to that the musos kick everything up a notch, and I feel the floor start to vibrate under my feet. It always is, and always has been, all about the bass line. All of a sudden I was back at that dive bar that has long since closed its doors, not caring what anyone thought of me, not caring how many eyes were on me (well, except for the ones that perhaps mattered), and just…allowed to be me for the first time in what feels like ages. Don’t think, don’t worry just move and everything else will fall away from you. It had been a long long time.
On whim a few nights before Amras had asked me if I wanted to sing; now keep in mind, singing for a crew party is not quite like singing for any other audience – for one thing it’s much much louder, and for two, there’s so little pressure that even I wasn’t nervous. I just climbed up on the stage, said a tiny little prayer in the back of my mind and looked over at Amras who was grinning at me impishly
Ready?
Let’s do this…
Rrrright now he’s probably slow dancin’ with a bleach-blonde tramp and she’s probably getting’ frisky
Right now, he’s probably buyin’ her some fruity little drink ‘cause she can’t shoot whiskey
Right now, he’s probably up behind her with a pool stick showing her how to shoot a combo…
The tempo kicked off too fast and I found myself almost unable to keep up with the words – no one’s fault, these things happen; and the crowd couldn’t have cared less which is yet another confidence booster; all the crowd cares about is that it’s one of their own up there and they can make as much noise as they want.
Overall, despite the fact that the next day we were all a bit bleary eyed and slow-moving, it did us all so much good.