I recently got to fulfill a childhood dream by dressing up as Marty McFly from 2015 for Fliss’ works halloween party. The costume was as accurate as we could get it in the time available, save for the chest pockets on the jacket and the hi-top basketball boots.
I say “we”, but the reality is that Fliss slaved away on both our costumes in the weeks running up to the event. This resulted in not only a great futuristic jacket and convincing looking hoverboarad for myself, but a fantastic spider costume of her own.
Unfortunately we failed to impress the judges and did not sweep up the best costume prizes, which was even more galling considering the female winner had rented hers. I thought Fliss’ spider costume was brilliantly realised, although it was very dark in the basement bar, so maybe the dark furry spider suit just wasn’t visible enough to seal the victory.
Aside from the competition it was a great night just for laughs. Alongside those who had hired a costume, plenty of people had put good effort into their outfits, and coming up with an idea and executing it is half the fun, I think.
I attempted to stay in character the whole night, but it was like an oven in the bar and many a wolfman, space rocket, and superhero had to discard part of their costume as the hours went by. In the end I had to shed the jacket, but kept my lenticular cap on the whole time. Mostly because I didn’t want it snaffled by someone – I’ve had it for five years or so in anticipation of getting the chance to wear it for good reason.
We had a great night from start to finish, staying in a hotel up in Glasgow so we could drink and stay late. Although I don’t think we’ll go to as much trouble with the costumes next year, it’ll be fun to see what we can come up with.
Oh yeah, 1989 was when Back to the Future Part 2 came out. Twenty years later and I was living the dream! 😉
