Gene Simmons from KISS Costume

I came up with the idea for my Gene Simmons “Kiss” costume because for one thing, I am a big Kiss fan. I guess this shows my age as being a High School student in the early 80’s. I also choose Gene Simmons from the band because his costumes always stood out over the costumes of the three other band members. He wore the spiked armor, platform boots, had a small ponytail on top his head and made his trade mark with sticking his long tongue out. Gene Simmons dressed in several costume types, ranging from spiked armor to just black leather with bat wings. So this gave me the idea to incorporate both types into one costume.
In order to accomplish this, I collected and utilized the following items for my costume:
Football should pads
Baseball shin guards
Old pair of Army Boots
Black vinyl material
A piece of 4”x 4” lumber
A piece of 2” x 4” lumber
A roll of left over Aluminum flashing metal
Chrome spray paint
Black 1980’s Rocker-Type Wig
Costume face paint
Pack of stick-on sequins

In order to help you get a good grasp of the process that I went through to construct this costume, I will walk you through the steps I took in constructing it.

1. This was the first stage where I collected many pictures from the internet of Kiss and Gene Simmons in his outfits, so that I could get ideas of what I needed to construct the costume.
2. The first item I got was a pair of old baseball shin guards that I had in storage from coaching a Little League Baseball team and a girl’s fast pitch softball team. I took the shin guards cleaned them up and spray painted them with a can of Chrome paint.
3. While waiting for the paint to dry, I went and found an old pair of Army boots that I had from Basic Training, many years ago. I started off by tracing the bottoms of the boots to a piece of 4” by 4” piece of lumber. I then cut the pattern out for the platform boots. I glued the boots onto the wood blocks and secured them with a couple of long wood screws down through the soles into the wood. I also spray painted the boots with the chrome paint.
4. So that the boots themselves looked taller, I made two vinyl sleeves approximately 16” tall that would fit down over the boots. These were also painted chrome.
5. Next I retrieved an old set of football shoulder pads from storage, so that I could make the armor. Before going any farther, I cut and shaped to a point, six (6) 3” tall spikes from a piece of 2” by 4” board. I attached four of the six spikes to the shoulder pads with wood screws. I made a stomach plate from the aluminum metal and riveted it to the front bottom of the shoulder pads. Then the shoulder pads were spray painted with the chrome paint.
6. I took the remaining two spikes and attached them to two pieces of aluminum sheet metal that I used for forearm guards. To make the forearm guards, I rolled the aluminum into cylinders that would fit over my forearms. The aluminum was riveted together and to top off the pieces, they were painted chrome.
7. Now I needed to create the bat wings. I took a piece of the black vinyl (the kind used to make car seats and interior with) and laid it out on the floor and hand drew two identical bat wings. I cut them out and painted lines down each seam and around the outside of the wings with the chrome paint. I attached rows of the stick-on sequins down each seam for a glittery effect. Three loop straps were attached to the top of the wings so that I could place my arms through them to hold them on when wearing the costume.

8. I also took a piece of the black vinyl and traced out a flat piece to make a thong type piece connected to a 2” wide belt, that I glued Velcro to that was used as a fastener to hold it on. I then placed the remaining sequins on the front in an upside down pyramid shape to give it the look of a glittered underwear item. This was to be worn over my pants for the costume.

9. Before putting on any of the costume items, I proceeded to apply the face paint. I patterned the face paint from the pictures of Gene Simmons that I got from the internet and applied it in front of a mirror. When completed with the face paint, I took the black wig and fastened a small ponytail on the top with a hair band, before putting it on my head.

10. Now I reached the stage where I put on the costume. I started with the boots. I first placed the two sleeves on my legs then put on the boots. The two sleeves were then pulled down over the boot tops to give the look of tall silver boots.

11. I attached the shin guards to my legs over the boot sleeves. I then slid the sequined thong-type garment over my boots and pants. I secured it over my pants with the Velcro straps. Now the bottom end of the costume was done and on.

12. I put the bat wings on over a black T-shirt I was wearing, before putting on the shoulder pads. After fastening the shoulder pads, I put on the forearm guards on my arms, between the first and middle loops. Then to top off the costume, I put the black wig on and adjusted it in front of a mirror. Now that I was dressed, it was time to get to the Halloween Party.

In the beginning, I found that I had trouble walking in the platform boots; I looked like an awkward woman trying to walk in her first pair of high heel shoes. But after some time had passed, I was walking fine like a fine tuned and experienced lady in heels.

This was the first time that I received such attention in a Halloween costume. Everyone that saw me commented on how they really liked the costume. I took a lot of pictures for us and others. I even had strangers run up to me and ask if they could have their picture taken with me. I think everyone knew exactly who the costume was except for one small girl around 8 years old. She came up to me and asked, “Who are you supposed to be, Mister?” I went on to tell her that I was Gene Simmons, a rock star from the band named Kiss. She then told me “I don’t know who that is, but I think you look like you came from outer space.” We all got a big laugh from that response.
But in closing, this costume was very inexpensive and not really hard to make. It cost me approximately $26.00 which was dispersed as the following: $12 for the wig, $8 for the face paint, $1 for the stick-on sequins and $5 for a can of chrome spray paint. But one thing for sure, this costume received a lot more attention than the more expensive costumes. We had a great time at the Halloween party and because of the costume; we had many pictures taken that night.