Time Warp:

• Red (auburn) frizzy shoulder-length wig with center part
  • Many Magentas just tease their hair. I found that putting my hair into 20-30 wet braids the night before worked best. Leave it overnight or til thoroughly dry. Undo the braids, frizz your hair up, hairspray, and back-comb. Using a crimper didn't get my hair kinky enough.
  • Insert a small bobby pin into your hair one either side to keep the hair from falling in front of your face - even more important if you're wearing a wig since they've usually got more volume.
  • I've had several Magentas contact me saying that they use their own hair and it looks right. If yours does, good for you! Mine does not. I have met one Magenta who uses her own hair whose hair doesn't wilt partway through the show...but only one. She's a former cosmetology student who does something with sponge rollers and rag curls; it requires sleeping in the rollers overnight and she warns that it will damage the hair long-term. She tried it on me - it was painful and my hair was wilting before I was even through Time Warp. Some of us just don't have Magenta hair.
  • If you have to tease/rat your hair to get it to look like that, a wig is kinder to your hair than abusing it every week, and you can change your hairstyle without worrying about how it impacts your Magenta 'do. A wig only needs to be styled once, and then touched up after washing. It's always the right length. And unlike your dye job, the color doesn't fade or require roots touchups.
  • You can get a fairly decent-looking Magenta wig without spending a lot of money, though you get what you pay for. If you buy a cheap wig, eventually it will turn into a giant snarl and you'll have to replace it. Even a cheap Halloween wig may look better than your real hair: few of us naturally have that kind of volume.
  • If you're getting a wig, visit the Wigs page for some general tips. Keep in mind that Magenta's hair is cut in layers; it's shorter on top, and it's not cut straight across at the ends in front. You'll see that when you assemble your reference photos. If you are getting a "nice" wig, you can order it in a variety of colors - most wigs are available in some shade of auburn. Your best bet is probably a spiral perm; I've had several wig specialists recommend it, and I've had good luck with them. (It takes some faith, but brush those spiral curls together and you'll see the look start to appear.) It will probably have to be trimmed - spiral perms tend to come in extra-long for some reason, so get one too long rather than too short and have it cut.
    • I recently learned, to my sorrow, that not only do looser curls not look right, apparently a wig with them starts to seriously rat sooner than a spiral perm - if you want a giant ratted wig on your head, great, but that's not what I'm looking for.
• White maid's cap
  {For a black and white photo, click here; for a good color view of the lace detail, try this.}
  • This can be made in less than an hour by hand with basic sewing skills. About a 5" diameter circle of white fabric edged with white scalloped flat lace ruffle (approximately 1.5" wide looks good) and an attached white bow at the back made of about 1.5" wide fabric. The ends should hang behind the cap a couple of inches. There are 3 radial folds (two look like they make up one box pleat) in the cap at the back, scrunching the cap a little so it's not a perfect circle.
  • Secure with bobby pins through little thread loops on the underside of the cap, or just bobbypin it. Caps attached to a comb or a barrette (or with only one bobby pin) tend to flip during Time Warp. (If you want to know how I make mine, I've included basic directions.)
• White apron with shoulder straps
  {For a photo, click here.}
  • The apron is made of thin material. The front panel is a rectangle wider than it is long, and its top is a little narrower than the bottom (it is tapered in with 2 vertical folds on each side that go about 1/4 of the way down the apron). The front panel extends from the waist about 2/3 of the way down the skirt. The apron's front panel is edged with a pleated ruffle (about 10 pleats on each side and 16 along the bottom).
  • The apron has a sash that goes across the top of the front panel and ties in a bow in back. The two shoulder straps each have 3-4 pleats. The straps are sewn into the center front of the sash right next to each other, and in back they attach to the sash on either side of the bow.
  • Authentic apron straps slip off the shoulders a lot. Make yours just a little too short so they won't. A couple of people suggested using velcro to attach the straps; after getting tired of fiddling with mine I tried it, and it works really well without being very noticeable. I recommend using sew-on velcro (you wash your costume, don't you?) with black on the shoulders of the dress and white on the apron straps. You don't need a lot; the pieces I used were maybe half an inch long. I put the soft half of the velcro on the shoulders to minimize my wig catching on it. Be very careful placing the velcro so the straps lie flat and look natural; I pinned mine in place and tried the costume on a couple of times to be sure.
• Black dress (white collar and cuffs)
  Synthetic fabric. (At least it looks like it, and cotton fades.) Knee-length; black fabric-covered buttons all the way down the front. Elbow-length sleeves with white cuffs. For some reason, the collar isn't quite attached for about the first inch on Magenta's right side but falls loose.
  

  Cuffs:

  • Probably cotton. The cuffs are a single white band of fabric folded up and over the sleeves. The short ends of the cuff aren't sewn together, forming a V-shaped gap.
  • Mina Smith notes that the stiff collar from a small man's white shirt makes a great cuff (check the size first).
  • Authentic cuffs fall down a lot. A wise Magenta tacks hers in place.

  Buttons:

  • The buttons run down the left side about 1.25" from the front opening of the dress. They are 3/8" or 5/8" diameter, covered with black fabric and fastened with button-loops.
  • You'll have to make both buttons and loops. (Covered buttons can be bought in white, but they're usually satin, which doesn't dye well.) Buy the button fronts and backs at a fabric store (they come with instructions and sometimes a little tool), cut little circles of material, and then snap the fronts and backs together. (Make a few extra.)
  • The easiest way to make the loops is probably to sew a long thin tube of fabric, then turn it inside out and cut it into sections. When fastened around the buttons, about 3/8" of the loop shows. Mina Smith suggests making them out of double-folded black bias tape, which is easier but gives you less control over the width. Do not make loops out of anything that ravels, and make sure they are securely sewed onto the dress, preferably with at least two rows of machine stitching.

  Pleating (dress and sleeves):

  • DRESS: There are three narrow (~ 5mm) sewed-down pleats ("pin tucks") all the way down the front of the dress on both sides of the front opening. They are about 7/8" to 1.25" apart. The tucks on Magenta's right side are about 1.25" from the center opening, and the the tucks on the left side are very close to the buttons.

    The best photos that show the front pleats are the Mick Rock outtakes of Frank, Magenta and Columbia. Click here and be prepared to squint. The pleats are hard to see; even a plastic photo page blurs out mine. Thanks to Larry Viezel's Rare RHPS Photo of the Week for the scan.

  • SLEEVES: There are also 3 long pin tucks on the sides of Magenta's sleeves. They are spaced ~1.25" apart and start wide at the cuffs, tapering to almost nothing at the top. They are pressed towards the front of the dress. I used to think they went from the cuffs 2/3 of the way up the sleeve. Now I'm no longer sure; they may go to a shoulder seam. After checking the photo evidence, the pleats on my latest dress don't. Decide for yourself.

    Check out the sleeve pleats picture here and decide for yourself. This is a larger image of the Mick Rock shot on the back of Poster Magazine Number One (with Frank on the cover), courtesy of Fox. The large video/DVD poster ("Go Both Ways") also shows the sleeve pleats.

Toucha Toucha:

• Black chiffon coverup with pinkish-brown marabou feather trim
  • For suggestions on sewing chiffon, check out the Tips and Tricks.
  • About knee-length, fastened fairly closely around the bust, full skirt, with loose elbow-length sleeves. The front is opaque while the back is not, so I'm guessing it's lined or overlaps in front.
  • The front neck has some sort of thin black ruffly trim, and the back half of the neck is trimmed with pinkish-brown marabou feather trim. (This is very hard to see. Watch how the trim floats and I think you'll agree it's a feather trim.)
  • Sleeves and hem are trimmed with matching pinkish-brown marabou feather trim. A black ribbon hangs from each sleeve, apparently over the marabou.
  • Some Magentas recommend threading the marabou trim through thread loops attached to the dress instead of sewing it on (for easy removal when laundering).
  • Marabou can be hand-washed; it will look ruined but isn't. Fluff up after it dries and it will be fine.

Dinner Scene:

• Black chiffon dinner dress
  {For clear shots of the dinner dress, click here and here.}
  • For suggestions on sewing chiffon, check out the Tips and Tricks.
  • Close-fitting wrap-around sleeveless negligee, just past knee-length. Wide shoulder straps are made of the same piece of material as the dress. The fabric comes down from the shoulders over the middle of the cups, crossing left over right below Magenta's bra, fastening and overlapping at her waist, leaving a triangle of bare skin showing below the bra.

    The bodice and the skirt of the dress are separate pieces attached at the waist (look for the thin horizontal line above Magenta's garter belt) and the "straps" are joined at the top of the shoulder with a shoulder seam. For details of the seams of the top of the dress, click here.

  • The hem is trimmed with blue(?) sequins, as is the crossover edge of the dress on Magenta's left from the collarbone to the hem. There are no sequins on the right crossing-over edge.
  • This dress can be faked by cutting a triangular hole under the bust of a sleeveless black nightgown with built-in bra and stitching a diagonal line of sequins down the front.

Takeover:

• Space wig ("Bride of Frankenstein")
  
  • Auburn, not black. If you have long hair, pin it up, stuff with paper towels, and put in white wavy stripes. (White hair spray doesn't show up well.) White strips of hair are fairly inexpensive; they can be bought and styled at wig shops. The white strips of hair should be waved (maybe with wave clips). Someone at the wig shop will know how.
  • Crappy Bride of Frankenstein wigs from a magic/novelty shop are only about $30, but your own hair will look better. (They are black and the entire wig, white stripes and all, is made of tight curls. They cover the ears and at best look like an ugly hat. Please don't do it.)
  • A good wig costs from $70 to $200. You will want to slightly modify a true Bride wig; the original Bride wig is wedge-shaped and taller; Magenta's is more spherical. The most common problem among good Magenta wigs is being too tall. My wig shop recommends synthetic hair (and LOTS of hairspray) for this style.