A party at a friend's house!

What glee! Golly gee! A fancy dress halloween party! 
Yes, I was invited to a halloween party, it was good times. In the beginning, I was torn between going as either a headcrab zombie, or the Joker. The Joker was Nicoleymoley's suggestion, and though I didn't want to just do as I was told, it really did seem like a pretty good costume idea, and I'm all for batman-related things, so I decided on Joker in the end. In the week or two leading up to it, there was a good bit of exitement, as katie has thrown some fairly wild parties in the past, this was not to be missed. 

This is the costume creation section for those interested in going as the joker for whatever reason!

This is "The dark knight" Joker, as earlier joker, while still respectable and pretty insane looking, simply doesn't look as real as the new one. I would love to say "He's so much cooler too!" and while that may be true, old joker could be quite a heinous mass-murdering psychopath in his own right. That's what's so cool about the new movie. They don't have villians, they have people so real, people so believable, you feel like you could be nearly watching a dramatization of something that really happened.

Anyway.

Jacket: I didn't have a purple trenchcoat like he does in the movie, so I actually had to borrow a purple shirt that belongs to my dad that was about 4 sizes too big. It worked allright in the end, but definately was the weakest point of the outfit in my opinion.

Shirt: Just a shiny blue shirt that I have, it's slightly reflective and has a purple-blue kinda tint depending on the way the light's hitting it that really worked well. In the movie, it has a hexagon pattern, but that was just too much.

Tie: Just a Purple tie. Any tie'll do so long as it isn't too noticeable. In the movie he has a kinda darkish tie with little beige patterns on it, but as long as the tie isn't too noticeable, you'll do allright, as most of it'll be obscured by the waistcoat anyway..

The Waistcoat: Definately the most work was done here. A good waistcoat could cost upwards of 30 euro depending on where it's bought, as it is a fairly specialty item, I suppose. That was not going to happen, I was doing this on the cheap. I read some stuff online, and the general consensus was to take a long-sleeved shirt, cut off the sleeves, and make due with that. I had no green shirts, so I had a bit of an idea. Waistcoats are meant to naturally be fairly form-fitting, not loose, but not constricting either, just that little bit tight, so I thought I'd go with an old white undershirt that didn't really fit me anymore. But then, I noticed an old "Wifebeater" (Not too PC, but that's all I know how to call 'em!) t-shirt. How wonderful! someone had already gone to the trouble of taking the sleeves off of a tight-fitting shirt for me! I decided to go with this. But as it needed to be green, I emptied about a fourth of a bottle of green food dye into enough  boiling water (helps if it's boiling, so says my mom) to just about submerge the t-shirt (maybe half a litre or more) and left it to soak for about half the day, then hung it out to dry. It came out a little light I guess, so you might want to use more dye than I did, though I was really pleased with the shade, and wouldnt've added more myself, though it wasn't quite as dark as The Joker's, I was still satisfied.
It needed to come down a little bit, so after doing some rooting around, I consulted my anatomy studier (my brother's an art student, so he knows what he's talking about), and the cutting point seemed to wind up around the solar plexus (Just under your ribs), perhaps a little higher. Cut straight down from the top centre of the shirt, and stop just short of the solar plexus. Now you'll notice that it never actually comes in half, this is just to create the illusion that it does. Also, the little bits of cloth left flapping about from the cut make for pretty nice little sticky-outy bits, I have no idea what they're called, but I had to pin them down, as they do flap about a bit, as flappy things do, I suppose. Next, buttons needed to be stiched on, though not actually buttoning anything to anything else, like I said, it's all about illusion! I stiched on clear plastic buttons as I didn't have any dark green buttons like in the original waistcoat, but my dear mom offered to re-do these in darkish black buttons. Turns out it doesn't really make that big of a difference, like the tie, as long as it isn't too noticeable, you can get away with it. For finishers, my mom cut a little triangle at the bottom, once again to give the illusion of it being in half.

Trousers: In the movie, they used really dark purple pinstripes, but I just used black dress pants, nobody seemed to notice, I myself only noticed his pants were purple after looking very closely at pictures, hardly occured to me in the movie itself, like before, as long as it isn't too noticeable, you'll be allright.

Socks: Odds of people noticing your socks? About zero. But all the same, The Joker wears kinda old-fashioned grandpa socks that have kinda weird patterns on them, I just stole a pair of grey socks with little black squares on them. In the movie, he has purple/yellow kinda socks that match, oddly.

Shoes: In the movie, he has old, beat up old fashioned shoes, with a kinda seamline that seems to give the impression of spats. Most of his stuff is pretty old fashioned looking like that. I just borrowed a pair of my dad's brown shoes that had the same kinda pattern. Unfortunately, they were nice, shiny shoes, so it really would've been more convienient if they had been beaten up old piees of crap, but oh well! Their quality was also a bit of stress for fear that they'd be vomited on!

Face paint: Ok, you only ever need 3 colours: White, Red, and Black. I just bought a store-bought set of halloween facepaint, that was applied with crayons and that worked just fine, I don't think you need to be too picky on this bit. 
White: Start off with a total base layer of white, covering the entire face, and just a little bitunder the jaw. But not the neck. As told by Nicoleymoley, less is more, so don't completely smother yourself in it, just rub it around a bit, it's supposed to look a little patchy anyway, so don't fret. 
Red: Okay, this is a little more tricky: The shade is kinda important, just average "red" is what you want, too light comes off as pink and kinda crap, too dark could look allright, but you really do want something in the middle. Bright and vibrant, but not pink. It's a little tricky to get this on  properly, you don't want to go too laterally and you don't want to go straight up from the lips. Most of the red facepaint is on the lower half of his lips, though you do want a little bit above as well. It more or less follows a 45 degree curve kinda line, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. The end of the smile meets( in three dimensions)
Front of face: Just under the earlobes
Profile of face: Just behind the eyes
From above: Just on the other side of each eye
Look up some images online to help you with this, as it's quite tricky to get it right!

Black: This is pretty simple, just follow your bones' natural eyesocket, and go out just a little on the top and bottom outer sides, and it's important to get the eyebrows as well, with a little coming over the eyebrows on the inside as well (inside and outside being relative to the centre of your face)

Hair: You will need mousse for this, I used Bryllcream and it worked allright, but you really just want something to make your hair as slick as possible with as little holding effect as possible, if you have naturally wavy hair then you'll be allright, though I would still advise moussing it to make it look slick. 
For hairspray you'll want a very light green, don't be too afraid of going too light as if you have naturally dark hair like me, the dark parts'll still show through no problem. Go light green on this, trust me, otherwise unless you're in broad daylight the green can be really hard to see.
It is important to use the hairspray first, then the mousse, as, well, I'm not sure why, but from what I've seen and from what worked for me, this seems to be what works, and it did, so it seems like the safest option.

My that was long! The party itself was quite party-esque, it was fun to see all my friends dressed up, having a good time, seeing some pretty great costumes! I'll level with you, most guys comstumes are about either looking cool, or hair and gore, and most girls costumes are about wearing as little clothes as possible. but I always find a dark side in these sorts of occaisions. People were drinking quite heavily, and it's really painful to watch how it affects people. Most drank in fair moderation, and they were just goofier than usual, but for a lot, this caused an allowance of doing things they wouldn't normally do, like making out with people they don't know very well, or becoming the "Life of the party", or in some cases, fall over. This might just sound like "Oh ho ho, what crazy fun", but there's something sad in this to me, that people need this. They need to be inebriated to have the courage to put themselves out there with another human being, they need to be drunk to do what they really want to do, they need to be drunk to put a spin on the evening to make it enjoyable, they need, need, need this stuff. And the sad part is, it doesn't last. The next morning, a relationship with that guy you were crazy about last night doesn't seem like such a good idea, or your friends have lost some respect for you after you've lost your ability to stand, or all sorts of stuff. I am so sorry for these people. It's not just them, it's us. We're all messed up and try to escape life, ourselves, our circumstances in all kinds of ways, and it's awful that we can't just wake up and start digging up. That's just me though. Though I had undoubtably the biggest smile on my face out of the whole group of people, People kept saying I looked depressed, looked sad, because they could see my frown. It's terrifying to just watch someone just plain old fall over, slump down as if they'd just been shot, and when you shake them and speak to them and ask them to move, to responed, to come back to life, when nothing happens. It is so scary, because it is their decision to allow themselves to become that way, and there's not a lot you can do to change it. 

"Why so serious?" -The JokerPS: Someone falling unconcious is quite scary, but is it quite as scary as that?PSS: A big bunch of shoutouts to My family for helping me with my costume, my mom sewed the buttons on, pinned the lapels (So that's what they're called!) And just generally used her momly wits to help me, to My dad for letting me borrow his shirt and very, very nice shoes, and to my brother for attempting to put on scars even though I was a bit of an impatient douchebag about it! 
Next, to Nicole, Aoife, Laura, and Sadhbh for not drinking, my respect for you girls' defiance of the status quo is an inspiration to say the least! (Though Nicole did try to frame me as a drinker.)
And finally, to Bernard, Who gave me the card to begin with! :P