Proud Peacock Costume

I decided to be a peacock this year for Halloween after seeing see a few pictures of the Victoria’s Secret peacock themed fashion show. I thought I would try to make a peacock costume of my own inspired by them. I also thought it would be a great way to finally embrace my height and confidence I have been lacking for a long time.
I bought the peacock feathers off eBay over the course of a year. Yes, I know, sounds crazy but I knew I would need a lot and had a small budget to work with. I had a limit I would bid per feather and once it went over that amount I bid on other feathers. There are an abundance of peacock feathers in China! I took a few trips in that time to that outlets and stopped by Maidenform and other stores that sell corsets. I was looking for something plain, since it was going to be covered in feathers, something with boning to help hold its shape and something cheap! I ended up finding the perfect fitting corset for only $10.00! Such a great buy! Also, found a pair of High Waisted briefs from H&M for $10. I bought a size larger than I normally wear so it wasn’t too tight, nothing like trying to take off a pair like spanx without squishing the fabirc! Taking them on and off after they are covered in feathers is a bit of a pain if they are too tight! (I learned the hard way).
Once I had the corset, the undies and the feathers I was ready to start gluing. I started with the corset, cut off the eyes of the feathers and just started to glue. I bought some extra peacock feathers called swords and other small feathers but really didn’t use them much. I decided to stick with the 10” feathers and just cut off the eyes from the stems. I glued them in a line across each part of the corset, the front and then two sides and after I was done I added feathers where I could still see the black of the corset.
For the undies, I will skip the part about the trial and error, well maybe not, it’s quite comical. I bought my first pair of undies that were basically like high waisted spanx that had clips on the bottom by the crotch (thought this would be a great idea for using the bathroom all night). I glued feathers on them, tried them on to make sure they looked good before I went further and then tried to take them off without ruining the feathers. This was the hard part. They fit so well to my body that I couldn’t squeeze out of them without bending or crunching the fabric which would ruin all the feathers! Needless to say, I had to wake my sister up at 1:00am to pull them off over my head! She was not happy but I couldn’t stop laughing! More trial and error led me to realize I needed the undies to be stretched out when I glued the feathers on rather than laying down flat otherwise once you put them on the feathers will pull in each direction and come off. I made a fake mannequin out of a pair of stuffed jeans! I stuffed them with work out clothes, and tied the legs off in knots. It looked a little creepy but served its purpose. I then glued on the feathers all over the bottoms while it was on the fake mannequin.
Now for the real eye popping part of this costume, the tail. For this I used a piece of cardboard and a about 160 35” tail feathers. I cut a rectangle piece of cardboard that fit in the back of my corset. Next I placed the feathers on the cardboard in a V shape as far as I wanted them to fan out and started gluing! I did the next row the same way but a little lower, cutting off the extra parts of the stem from the bottom so they would all be in that V shape on the cardboard. I did this for 4 layers on each side and then cut the left over cardboard to match the V shape of the feathers.
I wore this costume with a pair of 5 ½” heels which made me 6’ 3 ½” and the tail still towered over my head. I had to duck in and out of doorways but it was awesome. I used A LOT of hot glue in the process of making this costume, burned a few fingers tips over and over but it was totally worth it! There are about 460 feathers on this costume and it cost a little over $100 to make. I had to fix a few here and there that got beat up from a night of partying but overall they held their own. Two tail feathers on the end of the fan broker off in the wind and only one feather came off the bottoms I think from sitting down. I was really surprised and really happy at how well the costume still looked after three nights of wearing it. Everyone absolutely loved this costume! I went out 3 different nights since Halloween fell on a Thursday this year and each time I went out I had so many people compliment the costume and take pictures of me or with me. Everyone asked where I got the costume and when I told them I made it they couldn't believe it! It felt fantastic! I couldn't have asked for better reactions from everyone and it made me feel super accomplished I was able to make a costume everyone loved so much.