Do-It-Yourself Melanie Daniels Halloween Costume (from “The Birds”)

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film, “The Birds,” left an indelible scar on our psyches. You can achieve much the same effect by dressing up as Melanie Daniels, the film’s tragic star.

Items you will need:

Blonde wig
Green two-piece suit (shirt, jacket and skirt)
Black high-heeled shoes
Brown purse
A pair of white gloves
Strip of white cloth
Bird cage with handle on top
Two fake lovebirds in cage
Three or four fake black crows
Fake blood
Hairpins
Sewing kit

Melanie Daniels was a very stylish young woman who managed to epitomize class even while being attached by killer gulls, crows and sparrows. Start with your dress. Find something green — a pale green. It should be three pieces if possible — a jacket, an undershirt and a skirt. Use the sewing kit to fasten a crow to the shoulder of the jacket, to the back and to the front of the skirt. Put on the suit with the birds attached and in “attack positions.” Put on the blond wig, set in a tight French bun and sprayed heavily to keep hair in place. Use hairpins to attach a black crow into the wig in a pose of attach. Wrap the white strip of cloth around your head and drip a line of fake blood down your face. Dab some fake blood on your hands, arms and legs. Fasten two fake lovebirds to the inside of the bird cage. Put on your white gloves and high-heels, grab your birdcage and you are ready to take on a whole aviary as Melanie Daniels, star of “The Birds” and of any Halloween party she deems fit to attend!

Frightening Fact:
The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to shoot. The birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they could not get away. See how authentic your costume will be? Just don’t use real birds. Please.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Halloween Decorations, Halloween Parties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.