Wagner hell is going on?

I'm having difficulty deciding which 'look' to showcase next. Do I show you some of my past Halloween outfits, or save them for a couple of weeks' time? Do I jump straight in and show you what is definitely the most famous of my creations? Ah hell, why ever not!

One evening last year, whilst watching The X Factor, I decided to have a go and make myself up to look like that year's novelty contestant - Wagner Carrilho! For anyone who didn't watch The X Factor last year and somehow escaped the joy that was Wagner, here is the man himself:

How could you not love him? Plus, he is very distinctive looking which made him an ideal person to recreate the look of. The open-necked white shirt, the big hooped earrings, the dark/grey to blonde dutch ponytail, and of course the moustache - iconic. So I had a go, and here is my Wagner Tribute:

Tada! As luck would have it I happen to own similar earrings, and what passes as a very classy medallion. Plus only a couple of days beforehand I had 'ombred' my hair giving me that authentic roots look that Wagner has going on. The moustache was mascara, and the chest hair was all my own ;)

I was pretty pleased by my attempt and got very good feedback from the friends I showed it to on Facebook. I posted it on Twitter and sent it to The Guardian's Stu Heritage who writes their X Factor live blog and he and a few others retweeted it. But that wasn't the extent of my 'fame', oh no. I decided to tweet it at Matt Edmondson who, at the time, created the online fan based show the F Factor. The F Factor was, by that time, officially affiliated with the X Factor and was shown on the official website. The opening credits of each episode usually featured a drawing or photograph that fans had sent in. It turned out that they liked my Wagner so much that they wanted to use it, hurrah!

Check me out in the opening credits! FAME!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. I'd best not let my three whole seconds of national exposure go to my head. But yes, my Wagner had been seen by (according to the Youtube views) 25,619 people. Pretty impressive, no? I was pleased, at any rate.

Wagner isn't the only X Factor contestant that I mimicked, but I'll save the other two (three?) for another post.

Goodbye!

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Im Miss Guised, au Miss Guised, to Miss Guised!

Unfortunately every video I can find of the wonderful Willkommen from Cabaret (one of my favourite films) has embeddding disabled and not being savvy enough to figure out another way to have a neat wee version of the Youtube video below (if indeed there is another way) I shall instead include a bog standard link here. Do watch it if you get the chance - watch the film in fact, it's fantastic.

But where was I? Yes, welcome to Miss Guised!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love dressing up. Sometimes I dress up as famous people, sometimes I pretend I'm from another period of history, and sometimes I just like recreating the standards (witch, cowgirl, cat etc.). I've been told by a few people that I should find some sort of outlet for my creativity, and what better than a blog to showcase my 'looks'?!

How shall I begin? I know, a brief history of my obsession with dressing up and costume.

For as long as I can remember I have loved putting on an outfit and pretending to be someone else. Quite often this involved hoiking an old petticoat up to my oxters and draping a net curtain over my head to become a beautiful bride. At other times it simply involved putting on a nice hat.

That's me aged around 18 months wearing a hat that belonged to my late Gran. I loved that hat. Plus it disguised my relative lack of hair at the time.

Like almost every child I loved posing for photos (and videos), acting out whatever fantasy I was currently obsessed with - even if this did mean posing in a worryingly shiny shirt and pretending a maraca was a microphone.

Halloween was (and still is) a favourite time. Childhood costumes included a snowflake (NOT a fairy), a bag of flour and the Mona Lisa (complete with a picture frame around my neck). And didn't I make a very scary witch?

I would show you some other wonderful costumes from my childhood but I'm restricted to what I have on my laptop I'm afraid. Maybe we'll save some of the others for future posts.

Anyway, as I'm sure you've gathered, I have always loved dressing up. I even spent 4 years working at The Real Mary King's Close as a costumed, character tour guide! Don't worry, I'll post photos of my time there at a later date. I have some costume photos ready to go, taken over the last few years, but I plan to do some brand new ones too. If anyone has a suggestion or request of something/someone you'd like to see me 'transform' into then please feel free to say so in the comments!

For now though, I bid you auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, goodbye!