Unique Castaway Couple Costume

My boyfriend and I wanted to come up with a really creative and unique couple’s costume that we have never seen before. We started thinking of ideas, but our Castaway Couple Costume idea didn’t form until one day in August. We were flipping through the TV channels, and we stopped on the movie Castaway. Tom Hank’s relationship with Wilson, the volleyball, striked us as an amazing idea. I quickly started researching paper mache and our idea quickly came to life!

Overall, our costume took about 5 weeks to complete. We bought a 42″ beach ball to be the template for Wilson. I applied 5 layers of paper mache, over 4 weeks using a paint brush, flour, water and about 25 newspapers. Once the ball was firm and dry, we removed the beach ball from the inside and started to begin painting him white. We used 3 different red paint colors to create the “blood” red of Wilson’s face. We realized it was much easier to paint his face with our hands for a more authentic feel. The back of the ball also has the Wilson Company Logo which was painted on with black paint and a paint brush. During the final week, we cut the holes out for my legs, arms, and head. We used an exacto knife and kitchen scissors. The cutting process took about 3 hours because we wanted the open areas to look very smooth and polished. I bought a headband at the Dollar store, and hot glued corn husks to the headband to create my headpiece/Wilson’s hair.

Tom Hank’s costume was a pair of old shorts and an old tank top that we cut up with scissors. We used dirt from our back yard to make the clothes look dirty, old and tattered. He also used a bandanna to “bandage” his hand. We purchased the beard and wig set. Overall we spent $18.50 making this costume.

Paint: $3.50
Beard and Wig: $14.00
Headband: $1.00
Newspaper: Our friends and family donated their newspaper
House hold items I already had: glue gun, corn husks, paint brushes, scissors, exacto knife

The reactions we got to our costume were amazing. Almost every person on the crowded Philadelphia street’s screamed “Wiiiilllllllllsoooooon” attempting to recreate Tom Hank’s pivitol scene in the movie when Wilson is floating away from his raft. People were amazed at the construction of the costume and how creative we were. Multiple people told us that it was the best costume they have ever seen. On the night of Saturday October 26th, we went to two different bars. The first bar screamed when we walked in, and multiple people asked for our pictures. On our walk there we had cars beeping at us, and passengers screaming “Wilson” out of open windows. We even had a few people buy us a drink!

Once we left our first stop and started walking to our next destination, people continued to praise us for our creativity. When we arrived at the next bar, around 10:30PM, it was a slew of compliments and smiles and laughter! as we passed by. The manager of the bar and the audience granted us winners of the costume contest, hands down. I danced in my Wilson ball all night, and had tons of people hysterical because of the movement of the ball. Overall, friends, family and strangers loved our creative and unique costume, and it was an absolute BLAST wearing it.

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