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A 'Real Guise' - Halloween - 1983
Maureen W. Clifton
(see more by this artist)
This was Halloween in 1983 – at work! “Maureen Whitaker – perhaps as an Egyptian Princess of the Desert Sands,” said the photographer & reporter where I worked & added, “So, dance & pose for me like an Egyptian Princess!” She liked the SCA aspects & had previously in the year written an article about it. Other views of this complete costume ‘look’ are under the items titled: ‘Egyptian Necklace Collar & Earrings’ ( <= The Set is now for Sale, as of September 4, 2009) – ‘Head Band (Agal), Veil & Scarf (Keffiyeh)’ & ‘Dance Like an Egyptian.’ About my Egyptian Make Up: Closer views (2 of them) are included & one is in color. It took me 1.5 hours to carefully apply the make up the first thing in the morning. I arrived to work on time & shocked my office co-workers when I walked into the office! I had never worn make-up that bold, nor ever that dark! After 2 layers of the dark foundation, I painted on black eye liner, used tan & light brown eye shadow, filled in my eyebrows almost to my hairline – ‘Egyptian Eyes’ style with dark brown eyebrow pencil & used black eyelash mascara. I used an almost brown lipstick I found at the beauty supply store. I wanted to see if I could pull off a ‘Complete Disguise for Halloween’ activities at work. I managed to do so fairly well. I had to buy dark make up base at a beauty supply store, as in those days, finding it at other stores was nigh unto impossible. I did not want to use the kind sold for Halloween that was equally difficult to find & often not so good for fair & delicate skin. I had asked my hairdresser where I could find such makeup & he even told me what brand to buy. I am quite fair, have blond hair & blue eyes. My ethnic heritage is Northern European & Celtic Cultures, including Black Irish! I could not change my eye color, as in those days, I had clear contacts. I do not believe they even had colored contacts then, except in Hollywood for movies! To make sure I looked like an Egyptian, I ran the make up base down my neck & under the line of my shirt (Kames), as well as wrapped around the back of my neck – so no light skin showed. I did the backs of my hands & lower arms, as the Kames had long sleeves. If someone did not know I was Caucasian that day – they might not know – except for my features & eyes are so blue that perhaps those were the give-way, though read on, as this gets better! The blue of my eyes against the jet black eye make-up & dark skin was an intense contrast. Many people commented on it. The interesting thing is that I know black people with blue eyes! An x-ray tech I knew was of black & French heritage & he had blue eyes! He was one of few people who recognized me all day long! He said the give away was that I was sitting with the ladies from my office at lunch & he knew I had blue eyes. Then, he said he looked closely at my features. It was really cool to do this disguise! I only have these photos because the journalist from the hospital in which I worked took them & gave me copies. She loved my make up & came to my office later in the day to take black & white photos, which turned out really neat. I turned the original black & white photo into sepia tone, as I like how it looks. I overlaid it with the Great Pyramid of Cheops a behind me. See the original black & white photo & a close up in color herein, as the color photo shows the intense contrast of my blue eyes with such brown skin. Another black lady I knew told me that I would/could pass for a Northern African, though my eyes were the wrong color. She said I looked good as ‘a black person.’ While chatting with her, I mentioned that I have cousins from my Black Irish decent who have darker skin, curly, black hair & that comes from the Moorish influence in the ‘Black Irish.’ She thought that was really neat! So, when we think of ‘a world people’ (‘We are the World’ – the song), consider those of us who come from a multitude of cultures in our heredity, as “We are the World!” It really is pretty cool to be ‘international!’ It was great fun to do this & the next day, some people did not think I had been there for Halloween activities! So, I told them how I was disguised! They had seen me, though did not recognize me, so my great efforts in an artistic application of make-up to disguise my looks for Halloween worked quite well! It took me 2 hours to remove all the make up once I got home!
Thank you for visiting my Medieval Art Gallery. © All Photos, Artwork & Costume Designs Created by Maureen & Posted on this SCA Medieval Art & Costume Gallery on Yessy. No image posted may be used without permission of Maureen W. Clifton, aka: Countess Dierdriana of the Misty Isles, Member of The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. (SCA: www.SCA.org ). Nothing within Maureen’s/Dierdriana’s Medieval Art Gallery represents any SCA policies, regulations &/or laws in any way. Please See Maureen’s Bio & Other Yessy Art Gallery.
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