Taylor Final Project Proposal: The Mad Hatter

As I was thinking about my favorite costumes in this world, I was led to an inspiration of mine: Coleen Atwood. Coleen Atwood, as I have previously presented to you is very well known for  movies, such as Edward Scissor hands, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Alice in Wonderland. I figured out the challenge that I want to take one: I want to be the Mad Hatter!

Make up is crazy

Many of you know Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The aesthetics in that movie are phenomenal. The movie is a dark, colorful play on the original book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, brought to you by the oh so famous "acid trip." 

The Mad hatter is interesting.  His character was inspired by the phrase "mad as a hatter," referring of course to the fact that back in the old days, felt fabric used to be cured with mercury. The hat makers would thus inhale the mercury fumes and go mad from the neurological damage otherwise known as Hatter's disease. The Hatter is quite crazy. The things that he says makes no sense and the things that he does are peculiar. His facial expressions match that of one who is criminally insane. I feel that the reason he's my favorite character is because he is crazy.

There are many reasons why I want to costume as the Mad Hatter. When I thought of the Mad Hatter, a light bulb hit me in the face with inspiration (figuratively speaking of course). The Mad Hatter is a beautiful character, much more complex than the Old Disney version let on. He's insane, but he's good in his own way.  At least, this is the portrayal given by Johnny Depp, one of my all time favorite actors. He brought out a human side to the character. I liked it.

Another big reason why I want to be the hatter is because of all of the colors. He's eccentric. I want to be very dark and colorful, similar to what Colleen Atwood did. I want my make up to be crazy and my hair to be crazy. I'm just glad that my hair is already red so I can cross a wig off of my to do list. I hate wigs.

There are a few things that I need to do in order to bring this costume about.

1. Firstly, I need to see what the upstairs costume closet has. I know that there's a mad hatter hat up there.  I intend on using it and making it my own at the same time.

2. I need to get any eccentric cool fabric that I need to make this thing. I want this Mad Hatter to be female, obviously. I plan on putting her in a poufy eccentric skirt.

3. I'm going to need a sewing machine and a serger. If I make the overcoat or whatever, I'm going to need to make that inside nice.

4. I'm probably going to need help on following a pattern. There are some things that I don't perfectly remember from my principles of clothing construction class.

I'm stoked, dude.