Sissy Spacek in 'Carrie'

In the Stephen King adaptation of Carrie, colors play a huge part in telling the story. The color scheme consists of white, pink, and red. White representing purity and innocence. Red representing sin and fury. Pink being the happy medium and happy is how Carrie feels in the one scene she is wearing the color. The religious connotations in the film put further emphasis on this color platte. 

This film deals with the idea of femininity. The entrance of the color red happens in the opening scene where Carrie gets her period for the first time. Blood is strongly correlated with the color throughout the film. Her mother, who believes herself the most pure, always wears white and so does Carrie in the first half of the film. It’s important that her mother sees her pink prom dress as red, kind of a foreboding. Red replaces the pink when pig’s blood is poured on her during her prom queen coronation. Dark red lights flash on after and are soon replaced with the blood of her classmates and flames. 

Butttt, prom is a magical scene. A scene we want to remember, capture, and, dare I say, recreate.

Adjust your tiara and look up before you take the stage, as we recreate this 70's dream dress:

The three key pieces to this look are:

Flowy 70s Maxi Dress. At many vintage/thrift stores they have separate racks for floor-length and short dresses. This makes the search for the perfect 'prom' gown much easier. You want something that accentuates the waist, while the rest is slightly loose. The dress from my recreation has a tied band around the waist, saving it from being a batwing Mumu. The batwing sleeves stand in for a sheer scarf around the shoulders. Keep the colors in the baby pink/cream category. If there is a pattern, keep it small, no bigger than the floral print of my dress. If you can imagine yourself in the 70's, slow dancing to 'Strange Magic' by ELO, then you've chosen the correct dress.

Tiara & Flowers. The tiara and flowers are both from a dollar store by my apartment. I know they sell both things in pretty much every dollar store I've visited in the USA. For all Halloween props, start at the cheapest places (where you will most likely find everything). If worst comes to worst, there is always Amazon Prime.

Fake Blood: (And someone to dump it on your head) Apparently, this blood recipe washes out of clothing. It's made from a mix of red & blue WASHABLE TEMPERA paint and water to thin it out. Add the blue paint after the red because it's easy to overdue it and have a very non-realistic purple mess. The blood washed out of my cotton top. I didn't try it on the actual dress. I strongly suggest doing a test on a piece of clothing made from the same material. Also, wash the garment separately or hand wash.

My Recreation: 

photo cred: Jesse Jan Driessen

The Breakdown:

Dress: Goodwill-23rd St. NYC

Tiara:  Dollar Store

Washable Fake Blood: Recipe 

"They're all gonna laugh at you!"

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