Cute and Sexy Katy Perry Costume

I decided I was going to go all-out on my 2010 Halloween costume, and Katy Perry’s outfit from her California Girls video seemed like the most fun to attempt. I combined a few different elements from different costumes she wore in the video, since it’s too cold in Portland to do the bikini thing for long!

What I used:

A long purple wig (I also purchased one in blue, but ended up going with the purple to contrast the dress.)
A Blue Fairy costume dress (This came with a layer of fine mesh over the blue skirt, as well as a bunch of LED ‘wires’ running through the skirt. I ripped these out very delicately…)
I found little cupcake, pastry and ice cream cone plush toys on Amazon, then sewed them all over the dress.
Strawberry heels (Pleaser Contessa-58 Strawberry Mary-janes… you can find them for $30-40 online.)
Pink opaque thigh-high stockings with satin bows at the back
Pink garter belt to hold up said stockings
Glitter glue (to add sparkle to the dress)
False eyelashes
Lots of glittery eyeshadow, blush, and lip-gloss
Nauseatingly pink nail polish
Little girly jeweled necklace from the Dollar store candy bracelet
Endless supply of lollipops to hand out/devour over the course of the evening

It was definitely the most expensive and time-intensive costume I’ve made so far. The biggest piece to tackle was preparing the dress, as you might have guessed. I sewed on all the little decorations by hand, but it was definitely worth the effort. My cupcakes ended up a little bit wonky, but did I care? Nah. And I suppose I could have gone even crazier with the bedazzling, but it was very obviously a Katy Perry costume to everyone in attendance. People were taking pictures with me all night, which was a lot of fun. (And inspired me to go as Kesha the next year…)

The weirdest part was actually trying to hot-glue, then sew candy onto the skirt. It was easy enough to attach lollipops, but I actually sewed tiny paper cupcake liners onto the dress, then tried to put gumdrops into them. They kept falling off, but eventually I got most of them to stick. They definitely kept dropping off throughout the evening… next time, I would have used more candies with wrappers instead!

This costume also doubled as a unicorn costume later on… I took off some of the candy and turned one of the ice cream cones into a unicorn horn by swirling glitter glue around it and pinning it to my wig. Presto!

PS. And yes, I attempted to get my English boyfriend to go as Russell Brand, but he ended up settling on Harry Potter instead. (Fun tip… get a graduation gown, then make your own Gryffindor crest on cardstock! We also made a Snitch out of dollar-store Christmas ornaments, then sewed a stuffed owl onto the shoulder of his gown. Sorry, no pictures…)

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