Grapes & Grape Press Costume

My boyfriend Justin and I decided to create a unique couples costume that would be humorous, sexy and illustrate something we love to do together. Since we love visiting wineries and (of course) trying new types of wine, what better to dress up as than grapes and a grape press!! ;)

For my boyfriend Justin's Grape Press costume, we used a drill to screw long wood boards into a barrel shape and secured with mesh and wire. He then attached strap-like suspenders to the top so he could easily take the barrel off and on. At an antique store, he found a little wood spout that he attached to the bottom of the barrel (wear the grape juice would flow out) and even found an antique metal handle for the top of his hat. We attached some imitation grapes around his hat and to the front of his barrel and painted a sign that said "Grape Press" and hung it from the front of the barrel.

For my Grapes costume I wired together almost 500 imitation red and white grape clusters over a bra and hip belt, with 10 rows of grapes hanging all the way to the floor on either side of my hips. I wanted to give the impression of a plentiful abundance of grapes! I then painted over all the grapes with gold and red glitter paint so they would sparkle under the lights.

I also created a Grape Trellis Headdress, which I built by hand. I went out into the forest with my saw and chopped down dozens of twisting vines that were hanging from the trees and dried tendrils from bushes. I started with a wire headdress frame as the base that fit around my head. And then I wired various size twisting vines and tendrils to the frame to look like a grape trellis. I then added imitation grape clusters in different spots on the trellis, and even added some foam insulation from home depot under the forehead portion of the headdress so it would be more comfortable and snug of a fit around my head.

For my shoes, I wired clusters of red and white grapes around dark sandals, and for my makeup, I used green and purple glitter around my eyes/cheeks and red lipstick. And to top it off, we drank wine as our beverage of choice (only fitting after all!! ;))