Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera: Full Costume

This was my Halloween costume for 2013; Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, from the 1925 film adaptation of the novel. This is not a mask. *Photos adjusted for exposure and saturation only*

Head to toe:

- A second-hand black wig I cannibalized. It was originally styled as a pageboy bob. I moved the hairline way back.

- A glatzan vinyl bald cap to hide my very long hair and my natural hairline, using Michael Mosher's brilliant techniques.

- Brown contacts.

- A nose prosthetic designed from a plaster lifecast of my nose that is specific to this costume and was captured while wearing an original rig I devised, different from what was speculated to be Chaney's method. There was no other way to force a natural look for the grotesque, up-turned nose. Needless to say, it was very uncomfortable and not at all practical for long-time wear at all. Trust me.

- Two cheekbone prosthetics originally sculpted onto my lifecast, but then "floated" off and flattened slightly for a two plate molds. Doing it this way helped me save some time and resulted in universal skeletal cheekbones that I can use on anyone for future projects if needed.

- False upper teeth I shaped with a dremel tool to recreate the look of Chaney's rubber teeth, and then embedded into pink acrylic puttied onto a plaster cast of my teeth to form dentures.

- All coloring was done with cream makeups and some eyeshadow to pay homage to the theatricality of the original design, and for optical accuracy's sake.

- A faux-velvet cape with a modified collar to look more wide and angular like the original.

- A frog for the cape made from old buttons and some cording, along with a western style bowtie simply made from ribbon.

- A great paisley waistcoat I scored from ebay.

- A set of vintage tails borrowed from a friend. They're amazing.

- Dress pants and shoes.

I had a really fun photo shoot with a pipe organ and some other great backdrops. I hope you enjoy!