Tuesday, June 15, 2010

musical wigs

Lisa is one of the haute mamas in what she calls "Coco" (Contra Costa ) County, a green and bucolic land just minutes through the tunnel from Oakland.

She knows how to throw a party. So when she turned 40 we were wondering what the heck she was going to come up with this time.  Lisa pronounced a wig party. This was pretty inspired. Have you noticed how three quarters of the population shudders at the thought of a costume party, but everyone is happy to wear a wig.

A Jamaican bobsled team member (my husband) rubbed shoulders with Wonder Woman (Lisa, birthday girl), Braveheart,  a punk rocker (her husband Peter),  mulleted dudes, hippies and Marilyn Monroe.

I wore my vintage 1960 "Madmen-type" dress. I then decided to go unglamorous (always opt for dorky, more fun) and also plonked on my son, Jackson's, raging red Mad Hatter wig. "Mad All Over" geddit?



All the wigs circulated furiously as the night wore on. A veritable musical wigs, and it is not without some pride that I admit that my fuzzy red wig was the most popular.

Lisa found a band at the Walnut Creek Farmer's Market called the Smokin J's who played all our college favourites and we showed our age by singing along and knowing all the words.

The Gourmet Burger and Bubbles Bar (teeny weeny burgers with all the doings) from Barbara Llewellyn was just the ticket when you're wigged up and intent on showing off your best moves.

I ripped the top of my Madmen dress doing some interpretive dancing on the lawn. That net and silk handmade frock lasted 50 years perfectly preserved and just one night with me.



Lisa got her Wonder Woman costume and her husband, Peter's, punk stuff from Costume Corner in El Sobrante.   She found the owner really helpful: "The store is deceiving because it's so small but he seems to have everything you can think of, including an adult-sized lady bug costume. "




The huge hit of the night was the Vintage Photo Booth. All and sundry piled into the booth for photos of themselves. It ejected two copies, one for you to take away and one to paste in Lisa's scrapbook (she also provided stickers and coloured sharpies to decorate the pages). Here you see the photobooth pic of the Lisa herself.

Lisa has the last word: "Fire extinguishers to blow out the massive amounts of candles....Ace Hardware."

1 comment:

  1. Awesome huge orange wig! It reminds me of my mother who loves to attend wig parties. She's always the Queen of the Night at every locally-hosted wig party. That's how my sister turned into a wig collector. Both of them love to horde lace wigs, synthetic wigs and motown tress wigs. I'm grateful that you've shared this amazing post!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...