Coolest Ken and Barbie Costumes

I came up with the idea to do Barbie and Ken costumes with my boyfriend because I usually do something crazy or dress like a goof. This year I wanted to be more girlie so that my boyfriend would appreciate my creativity. So the Barbie idea was perfect!

I always feel the need to make my costumes (whatever character they are) be more like cartoons. I think it gives them more of a “WOW” effect. So the main thing I wanted to do with the Barbie costume was to make her hair big and blond. But definitely not use a wig. So I decided to use bed foam. The kind of foam you roll out to put under sleeping bags. The foam comes in different patterns for padding purposes, so I decided to use 2 different patterns. One was the wavy side and the other was squiggles. I used an old baseball cap and cut the rim off to use as a base. I cut three pieces to start (the back and 2 sides. I hot glued them to the sides and back and then to connect them all we hot glued there corresponding edges to each other. At first, for both the sides we put holes in the sides for my arms to come out. This allowed the foam wig to stay close to my sides. As if the hair was laying on my chest. After I decided to cut the 2 sides and pin to my chest, so that my arms weren’t restrained. That worked much better and the back naturally laid flat. I spray painted it yellow. Then cut out the bang pieces with the squiggly pattern. Hot glued them to the front and then there edges to one another. I moved the bangs quite a bit during the process to make them just right. The great thing about bed foam is that when you need to recreate you can just tear it apart and re-glue. After the bangs were on we glued a piece to the top of the head. The hair was much longer to start. So I cut the bottom off and took a chunk off the back to make it lay more.

After cutting and trimming the hair and also reshaping it the hair was complete. I wanted the Barbie to be more like the Barbie I remember when I was a kid. So I wanted her to have a lot of pink and she definitely needed a bow. So we took foam, folded it in the shape of the bow wrapped it with sequence fabric hot glued and then wrapped pink ribbon around it to give it the drooping effect. I pined the bow on, because it was too big to glue. After the hair was done, it was time for the outfit.

I found this pink dress at an old homecoming store. It was totally 80’s pink sequence, with ruffles and of course a bow! I hemmed it to fit and needed a bit higher to pin the hair to my dress. I found some pink shoes and made a sequence bow from the sequence material used for the bow on my wig.

Jewelry I wore was found at a kids store, pink necklace and bracelet. I had a costume ring I used for more sparkles. I got spray tanned to look more fake. I made tags for our wrists. I found logos online and printed them on pink and blue paper and had them laminated. I tied them to our wrists with pink and blue ribbon. I had my nails painted with pink sparkly nail polish and found some great pink sparkly lipstick to go with it. I wanted to find heart sunglasses but didn’t so I used these old pink white glasses to give it a more character look. To top it off I had a metallic pink bow purse to go with it!

For the Ken costume, I tried to make Ken hair but had a bit of trouble laying the foam flat. So my boyfriend already looked like Ken so we just did his hair with gel and he was all set. He wore a white coat and white pants we already had. I had him wear a pink polo and to pop his collar. I made him a pink sparkly tie to hang low and had him roll his sleeves. Again, going for the 80’s Miami vice look, but obviously the Ken look more than anything. I found these great light pink aviator glasses that went perfectly with his outfit. We threw the tag on his wrist and he was good. OH and I forgot to top it all off, we had glitter on BOTH of us from head to toe. Its hard to see in the pics but we had glitter on us for days)

Price:

Foam: 2 rolls 10$
Spray paint: 2$
Dress: 20$
Fabric: 2$
Glitter: 2$
Shoes:6$
Tags: 1$
Nail Polish:2$
Glasses:9$
Spray tan: 18$

Total for Barbie and Ken 82$ Was money well spent!

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