Dexter and Victim: Halloween Costumes!

Note:

I apologize for the blurry pictures; please see disclaimer in righthand sidebar.

To see clear photos of these costumes, please check them out on my Shutterfly share site here.

Ever since I posted a photo of me dressed as Dexter's victim for Halloween in 2009 in my "Three New York Years" post, I have noticed that a lot of people are finding my blog by searching for Dexter's victim Halloween costume ideas. I have to say, I sympathize with this, because back when Eric and I decided to be Dexter and his victim for Halloween that year, I did lots of Googling myself, for ideas, inspiration, and basic "how to make this work" type of guidance. Honestly, there wasn't much to be found.

Sure, you can buy the "official" Dexter costume from Showtime, but it's pricey (currently on sale for a mere $60!) and comes with only a shirt, apron, and face slash tattoo. Weak! And why would Dexter even need a face slash tattoo? He doesn't slash his own face, people. And there's really nothing out there for you if you want to do a couples costume and include Dexter's victim in the fun, too.

So, I thought I would help all the Googlers out there find what they're looking for and tell you how exactly Eric and I created these Dexter and Victim Halloween costumes in 2009:

Dexter and Victim, Halloween 2009

Plus, Dexter starts back up this weekend, and I am psyched about that! So this seems like quite an appropriate time to get in the Dexter spirit, don't you think?

Let's start with Dexter himself. Eric wanted to wear Dexter's classic kill uniform:

Looks like Dexter has subdued his victim

Going in for the kill

So, to recreate this look, here's what you need:

The shirt: Dexter's kill shirt is American Apparel's Baby Thermal Long Sleeve Henley in color "Army," available here for $28. (When Eric was looking for this shirt in stores, the Army color was sold out, so he ended up with the Brown color. Not an exact match, but it worked.)

American Apparel Baby Thermal Long Sleeve Henley in "Army"

The pants: Dexter wears cargo pants along with this henley, and I believe Eric found a pair of olive-colored cargo pants at Old Navy for fairly cheap. They have a pretty decent selection here.

Shoes: If memory serves, Eric just wore brown or black shoes, nothing special.

Accessories: Eric accessorized his costume with a black plastic apron, which I believe we found on Amazon for fairly cheap (something like this, although I think we found something much cheaper at the time). I'm sure you could also find something similar in a hardware store, Target, WalMart, etc., but we went the online shopping route. He also picked up some black leather gloves from a street vendor (again, I'm sure you could find something similar at Target, WalMart, etc.), and of course, a bloody knife purchased at a Halloween store.

Really, Eric-as-Dexter came together very well:

Looking evil!

True, Dexter doesn't usually allow his victims to enjoy a lovely beer while killing them, but you get the drift.

As for me as Dexter's victim, that took a little trial and error, so this is where I give you all my tips.

As we all know, Dexter likes to wrap his victims in plastic wrap as he torments them with their bad deeds before going in for the kill:

That is one well-wrapped victim.

Here's how I was able to recreate that into a workable Halloween costume:

What to wear underneath: Unless you are far more daring than I, you will probably want to wear something underneath your plastic wrap. I opted for a nude tube dress, or more specifically, the Cotton Spandex Jersey Too-Short Tube Dress from American Apparel in color "Nude," available here for $29.

American Apparel Cotton Spandex Jersey Too-Short Tube Dress in Nude

The Plastic Wrap: Once you've got your tube dress on, it's time to wrap yourself up. This is where the trial and error came in. First of all, you do NOT want to wrap your full body in one continuous sheet of plastic wrap. What ends up happening there is as you go up and down to cover your top and bottom, you end up with the majority of the plastic being wrapped around your waist, which ends up making you look pretty thick in the middle. And honestly, ladies, who wants that? What you want to do is wrap your top, then cut off the plastic. Then start again just below your waist and wrap your bottom. When you're finished, add a little to the middle as needed so it looks continuous, but you should still have something of a waist with this method.

Another very important tip: do NOT keep your feet together as you wrap your bottom half. Let me tell you, that plastic wrap gets TIGHT. If you keep your feet together, you will end up unable to walk, sit, and...well, use the bathroom. I highly recommend keeping your feet at least shoulder-width apart as you wrap to give yourself a little room to move. To add extra wiggle room, I then cut small slits at each side of the "skirt" which gave me enough give that I could lift it, plastic wrap and all, as needed for bathroom breaks. You can probably best see my slits in this picture of me on the subway:

See the slits on the side of the skirt? You can see my nude tube dress peeking through!

I also added some clear packing tape to the top of my plastic wrap to make sure everything stayed put and there were no plastic wrap malfunctions during the night.

A word of warning: wrapping yourself in plastic is HOT. Not sexy hot (although maybe, if that's what you're into), but "OMG I'm so sweaty under here!" kind of hot. Be prepared to sweat like a maniac underneath all that plastic! Now that is sexy.

However, an unexpected bonus for me was that it was quite waterproof when we got caught in a sudden downpour. So multifunctional!

The bleeding face: Everyone knows that before Dexter kills his victims, he takes a souvenir drop of blood by cutting their cheek. I created my face cut with some makeup from a Halloween store: a fake cut, a little adhesive, and some fake blood that I over-applied until it dripped down my face a bit.

Pretty good look at my face cut

If you want to go extra bloody, you might try squirting a little fake blood into the inner layers of your plastic wrap at your belly, to look like you've already been stabbed! I planned to try that but hey, we were running late. That's life.

Accessories: My favorite accessory was my blood slide necklace, which oh-so-perfectly complimented my cut face. I found it on Etsy (something similar can be found here, or just search "blood slide necklace" on Etsy). I'm sure if you are crafty and/or have access to a blood slide it would be simple to make your own. I just loved that little extra Dexter touch.

This is the best shot I have of my necklace

And of course, I topped the whole ensemble off with a pair of deep red heels, red earrings and red nails. 

So there you have it - my tips on how to create a Dexter and Victim couples Halloween costume. If you try this, I would love to hear how it turns out! Happy Halloween, and Happy Return of Dexter this weekend!

I am so ready.