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Be the Hat!

how I found inner peace through making Halloween costumes

By Anastasia KarelPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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painting a t-shirt for Halloween, 2014

Making Halloween costumes brings me inner peace. For ten years I worked at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and for nine of those years I participated in the Hall’s annual Halloween costume contest. There are no official statistics for winners of this contest, but if you compared my wins to a baseball player’s average, I’d be better than Ted Williams.

The first year was an utter flop though. I was still a relatively new and shy employee, with an office two miles away from the museum, and I didn’t have a clue at what it took to win. I dressed up as Marc Bolan from the band T. Rex and had a lot of fun buying or repurposing items for my outfit. But when I was up on stage with the other contestants, the director of Human Resources dismissed my costume with a “that’s it?” remark, as if to say, you didn’t try hard enough.

The following year I knew that I needed a gimmick, something that would set my costume apart from everyone else’s. A week or so before Halloween, the Rock Hall hosted its American Music Masters program with Chuck Berry as that year’s honoree, and one of the special guests paying tribute to Berry was none other than Lemmy Kilmister from the band Motorhead. With that man’s iconic image fresh in everyone’s mind, I decided to dress up as Lemmy for Halloween and even found a fake wart to put on my face! Needless to say, the costume was a hit and I won for Best Artist. This was also when I learned the rule that timeliness matters.

Lemmy!

In 2013, my intern Carla gave me my costume idea, which was to dress up as Cleveland’s pioneering female rock critic Jane Scott. Scott had passed away in 2012 and the Rock Hall Archives received her papers as a donation the following year. A local artist created a bronze statue of Jane with a notebook in her hand, and for several years it was on display in the museum (it currently resides in the Library & Archives reading room). While my outfit might not have been quite on point, all the other details were, from her red glasses to the peanut butter sandwich tucked in my purse. When the director of HR came down the line, I asked her Jane’s most popular question, “what high school did you go to?” and I won Most Creative as everyone cheered.

Me interviewing Jane

I continued my streak for Most Creative in 2014 when I put together a group costume involving the four women who played in place of Nirvana at that year’s Induction ceremony. This took a lot more work, since I needed to find people willing to dress up as Kim Gordon, Joan Jett, and Lorde. I went as St. Vincent, and it was while I was crafting my outfit that I first felt that elusive sense of inner peace. For this costume I painted a t-shirt to mimic the dress that Annie Clark wore, and while making it I felt like all the stress in my life disappeared as I applied the fabric paint and glitter. I used baby powder and hair spray to tease out my naturally curly hair and formed new relationships with co-workers as we put ourselves together as the “women of Nirvana.”

l-r "Kim Gordon, Joan Jett, St. Vincent, and Lorde"

My costume in 2015 was a little too conceptual and confusing to win, and I learned that if people have to ask what or who you are, you’re trying too hard. In 2016, though, I might have won if not for the death of David Bowie earlier that year. I went as Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize, and the medal hung around my neck with a large chain to make it seem more like a weight or anchor around his neck. The credit for that idea goes to Mark Lewisohn, the Beatles author who was doing research at the Rock Hall when the Nobel announcement was in the news. But two of my co-workers dressed up as Bowie, and they won the hearts of the audience. I also failed to win in 2017, but my idea that year to go as a hippie during the Summer of Love was not very inspired. Still, the act of drawing an oversized psychedelic rock poster that I carried gave me that same feeling as painting the t-shirt.

"I'm a poet, and I know it. Hope I don't blow it."

I bounced back in 2018, though, when Devo was announced as a nominee for the Hall of Fame. The idea came to me as I was going to bed one night, and I wrote on the note pad by my bed, “Be the hat!” That’s right, instead of dressing up like a member of Devo, I decided to instead dress up as the red energy dome hat used in the music video for “Whip It!” This costume required a lot of creative construction using materials that cost under $25. I forgot to mention my personal rule was that no costume should cost more than the prize money, which was $25. And then there was the issue of being able to walk while wearing it! A couple of people didn’t immediately catch on to what I was supposed to be, but enough of them did that once again I won Most Creative.

I guess my costume does look a little like a ketchup bottle...

Finally, the 2019 contest saw me trying something super conceptual and unusual to the point that I had to put myself into position on stage before the contest began. Earlier that fall I read a biography of the band Soundgarden, who, like Devo, had been nominated for the Hall of Fame but would end up not getting enough votes. On the first page of the book was a photo of the 1983 sculpture by Douglas Hollis that inspired the band’s name, and that gave me an idea: what if I could build a costume that looked like the sound garden? I used PVC pipe, dowel rods and duct tape for the bulk of the structure, and the museum’s exhibit designer printed me a label as though I was on display. I felt a little weird going up to the stage early to get set up, and indeed I needed help climbing inside the cage I’d built. But I stood there proudly like a statue would and went on to win my fourth Most Creative prize.

Sound Garden

When it became clear that there would be no Halloween costume contest in 2020, I felt a little bit lost with no craft project to dream up. Chances are I’ll never again work for a place that holds a themed contest like the Rock Hall did for their employees and volunteers, but with 5 out of 9 wins I set the bar pretty high for those that will follow in my footsteps.

the real Sound Garden in Seattle

entertainment
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About the Creator

Anastasia Karel

I’m an archivist by trade, and creator the rest of the time! I love to tell stories about the places I’ve been and things I do.

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