The pieces we suggest, from the left to right:

1. Feather headdress. Attach a length of Aztec pattern ribbon around the gold braid trim; you can use straight pins so as not to mess up the feathers. Finish it off with these turquoise and coral earrings or similar chandelier earrings, which can just hook onto the braid trim on each side of the headdress.
2. Black poncho top. Also available directly from the LotusTraders website here. Any plain black poncho top will do; you’re going to temporarily enhance it with ribbon and fringe in a V-shape, which will help give the effect of a quechquemitl. You’ll need two yards of the Aztec pattern ribbon and two yards of coordinating tassel fringe. Arrange the ribbon and fringe in a deep double-V-shape, with points in the front and the back, and attach with Res-Q tape or even just safety pins. If you get ambitious, you can also trim the edges of the poncho with fringe; you would probably need at least four yards for that. (If you want to try sewing your own quechquemitl, Mexicolore has a good page with instructions.)
3. The all-important jade skirt! LotusTraders has a wonderfully flowing, full-length aqua skirt in one-size-fits-all (up to 2X); they also have a 2X-3X-4X version. An alternate skirt that’s also the right color: dance skirt from ebellyfashion.
4. Chunky shell necklace. This glowing piece matches the skirt and really sets off the outfit.
5. Feather cuffs. You’ll need half a yard of feather trim to do both cuffs (9 inches for each cuff should be more than enough). You can also get the same kind of feathers here; you would probably need one pack for each cuff. Attach the Aztec pattern ribbon to the base of the feather trim with double-sided tape, then wrap the assembled cuff around your wrist. You can safety pin the ends in place.
6. Blue gladiator sandals. Aztec shoes vaguely resembled ankle-high gladiator sandals. If you don’t already have gladiators, these would be perfect.

Hair: If you want to try to do your hair like Chalchiuhtlicue, this sculpture in the British Museum shows you what you need to know. Basically we’re looking at two big fluffy pigtails/ponytails, one on each side of the head:

Costume illustration credits: In the upper right corner of our main illustration is Sandra M. Stanton’s wonderful oil of a resplendent Chalchiuhtlicue in feather headdress. The luminous center painting is by ladycat17 on deviantART. The insets are images of Chalchiuhtlicue from the Aztec codices.

Our costume is sort of a fantasy Viking mash-up of these ideas, though regrettably we are unable to include the cat chariot or flying pig. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Simple medieval chemise. This is for your base layer. You could also just wear a long sleeved white top from your closet and a white maxi skirt, since your mid-section will be completely covered up by the apron dress (#2). You’ll have some kelly green ribbon left over from trimming your apron dress; use it to trim the cuffs of your chemise or top. You can attach it with Res-Q tape.
2. No-sew Viking “apron dress.” This goes on top of your chemise. It’s nothing more than a yard of fabric wrapped around you like a bath towel, with the straps pinned on. The corset-style breastplate (#3) is what’s going to hold it all together and give you shape, so you don’t have to sew anything. We give you instructions below and a diagram on how to decorate your yard of fabric with faux fur, ribbon, feathers, and amber beads.
3. Breastplate. This corset-style breastplate is wonderful but expensive: 90 bucks. However, don’t despair if this is out of your price range! You can make your own with a longline bra and some metallic spray paint. Seriously, this works. You can get an inexpensive bra like this or recycle an old one. Then cover the whole thing in a coat or two of metallic spray paint like Rust-Oleum Aged Brass.
4. Three sprays of artificial pheasant feathers. Tape these inside your breastplate/corset so that they fan out below like a skirt.
5. Valkyrie helmet. We started with a plastic Thor helmet, and then improved the color with Krylon Fusion Blonde Shimmer spray paint on the wings and Rust-Oleum Aged Brass spray paint on the top. Then we wrapped some black faux fur trim around it (left over from trimming the apron dress) for a fabulous fantasy Viking look. An alternate choice is this beautiful but rather expensive metal winged helmet from the Village Hat Shop.
6. Brisingamen. Freyja’s prize possession is her magnificent necklace Brisingamen, which was forged by dwarves and imbued with all sorts of magical powers. It’s described as being made of fine gold filigree with amber and rubies, so you’ll want to wear something pretty elaborate. The piece we suggest has the right look.

Making the “apron dress”: This is by no means a proper Viking apron dress; it’s just a no-sew imitation. All you need is a big rectangle of fabric, 60 inches wide by 36 inches long. Use adhesive tape or glue to attach ribbon trim, faux fur, and beads to the fabric. Then wrap it around you like a bath towel and pin in place. The two straps are made from metallic ribbon and feather fringe, and then just pinned on. What you need:

• One yard of 60″ wide green taffeta fabric
• Two yards of 4″ wide black faux fur trim
• Two yards of kelly green metallic ribbon trim
• Three yards of 2″ wide metallic ribbon trim (two yards for the bottom of the dress plus another yard to make the shoulder straps)
• One yard of 6″ feather trim
• One package of imitation amber beads
• Res-Q tape, extra wide (1.5 inches) (this is for attaching the faux fur and ribbon trims to the fabric)
• Jewel-It Embellishing Glue (this is for gluing the amber beads on top of the kelly green ribbon)
• Safety pins

Illustration credits: The central image in our main illustration is by Jen Delyth, and depicts Yggdrasil, the cosmic World Tree in Norse mythology. The four rectangular images are all details from larger paintings. Clockwise from top left: 1) detail from a vintage Liebig Company trading card titled Freya, Göttin der Liebe; 2) detail from Freyja and the Necklace (1890) by James Doyle Penrose; 3) detail from the Freyja card in the game Age of Mythology; 4) detail from Valkyrie (1971) by Konstantin Vasiliev.

For the costume, we’re going with the Queen of the Underworld aspect of Persephone. It is Halloween, after all. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Black satin flat sheet. This is for your tunic. The Greeks wore simple draped tunics of dyed wool, a look which is easily replicated with sheets and safety pins. We give you instructions below on how to pin it together. A full size sheet will work for most people.
2. Black chiffon veil. The veil is 45 by 90 inches; drape it over your head and secure with the poppy wreath you’re going to make (next).
3. Red silk poppies. Get a few artificial poppies with wire stems and twist them together into a circlet. You can get a few extra to mix with your bouquet (#5).
4. Red stone flower necklace. This necklace is amazing. It has a gigantic red flower in the middle that looks like a poppy—made of stone—and is surrounded by beads that look like pomegranate seeds, all in a tangle of steel wire and black glittery bits. It’s as if Persephone personally commissioned a piece of jewelry to symbolize her mythic travails.
5. Dead flower bouquet with skulls. Skulls! Can’t get more Underworldly than that. Mix it with a few artificial poppy stems for a vivid and very weird bouquet.

Shoes: Simple leather sandals are best. Gladiators, thongs, something like that.

How to make the tunic: The simplest ancient tunic for costuming purposes is the Doric chiton, which consists of a single rectangle of fabric folded around the body. All you need is a flat sheet, some safety pins, and a belt or cord. (You can get a rope belt here in white, natural, or gold.) Here are your chiton instructions:

Illustration credits: The central painting in our main illustration is Death the Bride by Thomas Cooper Gotch. The painting on the right is Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

There were two very important statues of Athena on the acropolis in ancient Athens. The colossal statue inside the Parthenon was 38 feet tall, with the clothing made entirely of gold. The smaller wooden cult statue was life-sized, and dressed in a special gown made every year by the women of Athens. This dress was actually a tapestry, with scenes of mythological battles woven in purple and saffron. We can’t lay our hands on anything like that for our costume, but we are including a purple himation (wrapped cloak) with gold threads. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Gold satin flat sheet. This is for your tunic. The Greeks wore simple draped tunics of dyed wool, a look which is easily replicated with sheets and safety pins. We give you instructions below on how to pin it together. A full size sheet will work for most people.
2. Purple veil with gold and/or silver threads. Also available at Bells Online and Moondance; better prices at both places, but the pictures are tiny. This is your purple himation. Loop it under one arm and knot it on your opposite shoulder.
3. Greek helmet. This is from the movie 300, which is as close as we’ll get to a Greek helmet without paying a fortune. We suggest cutting off the nose piece. This is a very flimsy latex helmet, so don’t expect a lot. Another option is this helmet, which seems to have real bristles in the crest (not molded plastic). The helmet itself is definitely made out of fabric, so you can cut and trim it to suit.
4. Greek shield. Another 300 movie prop.
5. Greek spear. Same deal.
6. Plush 9″ barn owl. Adorableness is not a trait usually associated with Athena, but this stuffed owl is adorable. Use safety pins to attach it to your shoulder at the place where your cloak is knotted. The owl is Athena’s totem animal; in fact, when you get right down to it, Athena is an owl. She’s the Neolithic bird goddess: owl-eyed Athena.

Optional snake armband: The snake is the other animal associated with Athena. Her statue in the Parthenon was accompanied by a humongous rearing snake, worked in gold like the rest of the sculpture. If you want to incorporate some snake references in your costume, you might consider a fat snaky armband like this. Athena doesn’t wear jewelry, so this would be your only ornament.

Shoes: Gold gladiators would be ideal. If you don’t have those, just basic flat leather sandals will work.

How to make the tunic: The simplest ancient tunic for costuming purposes is the Doric chiton, which consists of a single rectangle of fabric folded around the body. All you need is a flat sheet, some safety pins, and a belt or cord. (You can get a rope belt here in white, natural, or gold.) Here are your chiton instructions:

And finally, the Gorgon situation: If you know your Athena iconography, you know our costume is missing something: the Medusa head on Athena’s breastplate. That’s because we haven’t found a good solution for that. The ideal thing would be a lightweight latex mold of a Gorgon, but we can’t find such a thing. The closest we can get is this cast stone wall plaque. It’s the right style and the right size, but it weighs two pounds. That would be one heavy necklace.

Illustration credits: The central painting in our main illustration is The Akropolis of Athens by Leo von Klenze. The painting in the lower right corner is Pericles And Pheidias Consult About Creation Of Statue Of Athena by H.M. Herget. We don’t know the provenance of the image in the upper right corner.

The Egyptians associated Isis with the color red, addressing her as “thou lady of the red apparel.” She’s usually depicted wearing the archaic Egyptian sheath dress, which was nothing more than a tube of fabric with straps. A modern maxi dress is a comfortable substitute (though if you want to try making an Egyptian sheath, this page has excellent instructions). The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Red maxi dress. A strapless gown like this works well with the collar (#2) and the wings (#5). A long sundress with straps would also work.
2. Egyptian beaded collar. This collar is actually from Egypt, so note the shipping time. (If this particular model is sold out, check the store’s pharaonic jewelry section for others; they seem to keep a selection in stock.)
3. Egyptian armbands. From that same eBay store in Egypt. These are brass cuffs with black elastic backs; get one for each arm.
4. Hathor crown. The Hathor crown was originally associated with the goddess Hathor—hence the name—but Isis wore it too. It represents the solar disk within a pair of horns, sometimes with two upright feathers as well. That costume item seems to go in and out of availability, so an alternate choice is this vulture crown. This was the headdress particularly associated with queens, and Isis was sometimes shown wearing it (Isis took on a lot of symbolism as her popularity grew).
5. Huge black feather wings. These are seriously big wings. They don’t move, but you’ll still look like a giant Black Kite (Milvus migrans, the bird form of Isis). Slightly smaller wings are available here.
6. Egyptian-style wig. If you can’t do your own hair into an Egyptian style, a wig like this will fix you up.

Makeup: You’ll want to do dramatic eye makeup, with industrial-strength eyeliner and the lines drawn all the way out to your temples. There are a plethora of YouTube videos and instructionals out there. Consider using green eyeshadow, since malachite was the Egyptians’ favorite cosmetic for eye color.

Shoes: Egyptian deities were usually depicted barefoot, while pharaohs wore exquisitely made sandals covered in gold foil. (The Discovery Channel has an interesting set of slides showing sandals from King Tut’s tomb.) Since you probably don’t want to go barefoot, we recommend going the pharaoh route with something like these Max Collection Mirage sandals in gold:

The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Solid color flannel sheet in evergreen. This is for your tunic. The Greeks wore simple draped tunics of dyed wool, a look which is easily replicated with sheets and safety pins. We give you instructions below on how to pin it together. A full size sheet will work for most people.
2. Orangey-gold faux silk veil. Loop this under one arm and knot it on your opposite shoulder.
3. Poppy garland. Layer this on top of the orangey-gold veil. You can also make your own poppy garland; just get some silk poppies and twine them together.
4. Chunky green necklace. This is a wonderful necklace for an earth goddess: it has green globes, flowers, and little clusters that look like berries. Also available here.
5. Wreath of artificial wheat. These stems are made of vinyl, which means they’re perfect for your hair. (Natural dried wheat tends to shatter.) Just cut apart the sprays and twine them together into a circle. Get a couple of extras to use in your cornucopia.
6. Cornucopia. Probably the easiest thing is to make a trip to a craft store that has a silk flower section and floral supplies. You can usually find cornucopia baskets in the fall; if you need to order online you can get them here. You’ll want to fill your basket with wheat sheaves, fruits and berries, flowers, vining greenery—whatever looks good. We shopped online at Save-on-Crafts for a selection of items that would be appropriate for Demeter’s basket. In the composite image below:
Top row, left to right: Wheat stalks. Red poppies. Birch branches with orange berries.
Middle row, left to right: Grape leaf garland. Yarrow. Ivy garland.
Bottom row, left to right: Grapes. Artichokes. Pomegranates.

Shoes: Simple leather sandals are best. Gladiators, thongs, something like that.

How to make the tunic: The simplest ancient tunic for costuming purposes is the Doric chiton, which consists of a single rectangle of fabric folded around the body. All you need is a flat sheet, some safety pins, and a belt or cord. (You can get a rope belt here in white, natural, or gold.) Here are your chiton instructions:

Illustration credits: The painting in our main illustration is Demeter and Persephone Throwing Seeds upon the Earth by Theodore Manolides. The large statue of Demeter holding a cornucopia is from the Museo Pio-Clementino, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City. The round image is a modern copy of an 18th century relief in the Versailles Municipal Library, France.

Dressing up as Mama Quilla is an exercise in creativity, since it seems her original cult image was just a silver disk. We’re thinking of something a little more human. For the costume, we’re taking our cue from the moon maidens at the annual Inca Festival of the Sun in Cusco; they wear white dresses with embroidered symbols, blue cloaks, and silver arm cuffs. We’re also inspired by the silver votive figurines that have been recovered from Inca graves. These little figurines are dressed in complete miniature outfits, including feather headdresses.

The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. White layered dress. LotusTraders makes a ton of long white dresses, but we especially love the floaty tiered layers on this one.
2. Royal blue ruana. There is surely no garment more graceful than a ruana. This one is a blend of wool and cotton, which gives you both of the classic Inca fibers in one go. If you want to keep it closed, a silver moon scarf pin would be ideal (like this, for example).
3. Woven sash from Ecuador. This multipurpose textile is 20″ x 60″ and features traditional Andean patterns. Just fold it lengthwise and wrap it around your waist as a sash. The store has these in different colors; we chose the light blue, which has all the same colors as the moon maiden outfits.
4. White feather headdress. When we found this item we were thrilled. White feathers plus silver sequins. If that store is out of stock, you can also get the headdress here or here.
5. Hammered silver disk necklace and earring set. A perfect echo of Mama Quilla’s original cult image. Hang the earrings from each side of the feather headdress.
6. Silver metallic foil board for DIY arm cuffs. Save a ton of money and make your own silver cuffs from foil craft board. A single 10×13 inch sheet will make two cuffs (each cuff 5×13 inches). Just roll the strips around your wrist and have a friend help you tape the ends together.

Shoes: The skirt is long and full, so your shoes won’t show much. But we suggest something silver (of course).

Illustration credits: The main photo in our illustration is from the annual Festival of the Sun in Cusco, Peru. The silver disk (inset image) is from the Chimor kingdom on the north coast of Peru; it was made sometime between 1000 and 1400 CE, before the rise of the Inca Empire. The silver votive figurine (inset image) is from an Inca burial.

Dressing up as Pele basically means dressing up as a volcano. But Pele is also supposed to be a beautiful woman, so, you know, a pretty volcano. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Black harem pants with red chiffon panels. We think these pants look for all the world like the cinder cone of a volcano with molten lava pouring down the sides. Don’t they? As soon as we saw them we thought, “Volcano pants!”
2. Black sleeveless turtleneck with sequins. We’re keeping the general cone shape going here; this top is the upper part of the volcano. The sequins remind us of volcanic glass. You can go cheaper (much cheaper) and just get a plain, sequin-free black sleeveless turtleneck here.
3. Lei to use as a belt. These aren’t ohia flowers, but it’s still a nice lei, with lots of ferny foliage. You’ll probably need to get two to make sure you have enough length to wrap around your hips. Position the belt at the bottom of the turtleneck, to cover up the transition between top and pants.
4. Crown lei. For your hair, of course. You could also just get one of those other leis and cut off as much as you need to wrap around your head.
5. Chunky red crystal necklace. We love this necklace; it’s so shiny and vivid. You can wear the earrings that come with it, or get the ones we suggest (next).
6. Lava rock earrings. Lava jewelry can be surprisingly expensive, but it seems only right to include some real lava in our costume. These earrings are nice and long. Alternative earrings available here.

Shoes: We suggest black satin ballet slippers or other similar black shoes. You might also wear dark stockings or tights to keep that whole bottom-of-the-mountain effect going.

The Maya also recognized a distinctly young moon goddess, who was frequently pictured as a nubile young lady sitting in the lunar crescent, holding a rabbit. (The ancient Maya saw the outline of a rabbit on the face of the moon.) Many scholars believe that this was just the youthful aspect of Ixchel: the waxing moon versus the waning moon. This young moon goddess also wears a blue sarong, and is sometimes shown with a snaky headdress.

The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Sequined embroidered sarong in blue. This is for your skirt. The color is wonderfully vivid—reminiscent of the famous “Maya Blue” paint that coated figurines of Ixchel—and the sequins evoke the stars that were sometimes embroidered on her skirt.
2. Blue half-sarong. Use this as your top; just tie it around you bandeau style.
3. One yard of faux jaguar fur fabric. Okay, really it’s faux leopard fur, but close enough. This fabric is 62 inches wide, so if you buy one yard you’ll have a big 36 x 62 inch rectangle. That should be enough to wrap around your hips as a sash, minus a few scraps you’ll need to snip off to use on your collar (#6).
4. Jewelry. Ixchel wears a distinctive necklace of big green jade beads. Assuming you don’t have any priceless jade jewelry on hand, this green necklace set is a good substitute. You’ll also need dramatic earrings, and here again we’re assuming you don’t have giant Maya-style earspools or the piercings to accommodate them. These long blue chandelier earrings look great and even remind us of sheets of rain cascading down—perfect for Ixchel. Complete your look with a green and blue cuff bracelet.
5. Headdress. This is just a couple of fair trade Guatemalan cotton scarves tied around your head (Ixchel is also the goddess of weaving!), with a cute plush snake toy tucked inside. We chose scarves in purplish blue and light greenish blue. You can get a plush snake online, or just go to the grocery store and look in the pet aisle for dog toys. Arrange it so that the head of the snake kind of pokes out over the top of the scarves. Accentuate the ensemble with this glass red snake from Firemountain Gems; just tie it on to the front of your headdress with thread.
6. Collar. Here’s a costumer’s trick: if you need to make a Maya costume on the cheap, you can start by cannibalizing some dimestore Egyptian stuff. The basic shapes are very similar. Here’s what you need:

• Egyptian collar
• Faux jaguar fur (use scraps left over from your hip wrap)
• Maya print fabric—you just need scraps so you can get sample sizes (also available here)
• Two packs of green brass drops
• One pack of teal brass drops
• Gold-tone straight pins with ball heads
• Fabric glue

Hair: If at all possible, pull your hair up into a big ponytail right on top of your head. A topknot would also work. You want to create a vertical line, since the Maya concept of beauty involved having a head that looked as much like an ear of corn as possible. You can accentuate your ponytail/topknot with some colored feathers.

What to carry: Ix Chel is shown pouring out the waters of life from her magical jar, so you could carry an earthenware-looking pot with you, perhaps filled with Halloween candy. The jar we show in our illustration is a real terra cotta vase from Mexico, which is gorgeous but probably much too heavy to actually haul around with you on Halloween. (It would look great in your house though.) We suggest you go to the local home & garden center and look for a lightweight resin pot that’s molded to look like earthenware.

And finally, a note about the end of the world: Does the Maya calendar really mean that the world is going to end in December 2012? No, of course not. But Ixchel is the goddess who’s shown pouring out the flood waters on the last page of the Dresden Codex, which is the page that led an earlier generation of Mayanists to think that a world-destroying flood was being predicted (they were apparently misreading both the Dresden Codex and the Maya calendar).

Illustration credits: The drawing of Ixchel pouring water from her jar is on page 39 of the Dresden Codex. The drawing of the young moon goddess (young Ixchel?) offering a plate of fish is on page 23 of the Dresden Codex. The warrior goddess figurine is from Jaina Island, and is identifed in The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya by Mary Miller and Karl Taube. The round painting of the Maya cosmos is An illustration of the Maya universe on a tiered pyramid by Ken Dallison for National Geographic; notice that the young moon goddess is sitting in the lunar crescent in the upper left portion of the sky. The background image is an old painting of life in Chichen Itza, artist unknown.

The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Lime green sarong for your base layer. Wrap this around your body just under your arms—like a giant bath towel—and pin it along the sides to shape it into a full-length gown. This particular sarong is extra-long; if you get regular or half-size sarongs, you’ll need to use two and layer them together (one around your waist for the lower skirt and the other under your arms for the top half).
2. Lime green scarf with gold coins. This velvet scarf is an easy way to transform your sarong into a jeweled extravaganza. It’s about 55 inches long by 9 inches deep, and has faux gemstones along the top edge and three rows of very shiny goldtone coins. Wrap this around you at the top edge of your sarong, just under your arms, and tie in the back.
3. Bolt of kente print cloth. The bolt is 12 yards long and 45 inches wide. You’ll need to cut off one 15″ x 72″ piece at the bottom for your headwrap; see below for a cutting guide and a video on how to tie it. The remainder of the bolt—about ten yards—you’ll use as a big toga-like wrap. Begin by throwing about three feet of the fabric backwards over your left shoulder. Wind the bulk of the material around you in a big loop, from front to back, and bring it up behind you to your left shoulder; pin in place. With ten yards, you’ll have enough fabric to do this loop around your body twice. Finish off by throwing the last three feet of the fabric forward over your left shoulder to hang down in front.
4. Artificial hops vine and artificial sunflower garland. The most popular libation to Asase Yaa is beer, poured out on the ground during naming ceremonies and other important rituals. This hops vine is 30 inches long and looks great cascading out of the headwrap. Cut individual blossoms off the sunflower garland to decorate your headwrap and to cover up the pins on your left shoulder.
5. Chunky green necklace and earring set. We absolutely love the color and gleam of these huge crystals.
6. Goldtone stretch cuff bracelet. Gotta have more gold. We show two of these cuffs, but really, just pile on as many as you can.

Shoes: Gold sandals would be ideal.

Bonus points: Carry a beautiful Bolga basket from Ghana. These are fair-trade imports from Tango Zulu, with lots of different sizes and prices. You could fill it with Halloween candy, fruit, flowers, or decorative ears of corn (corn is a huge crop in Ghana).

Making the headwrap: The full bolt of kente print cloth is 12 yards long. Here’s a scale diagram:

First cut off the bottom two yards (72 inches) from the bolt. (The other ten yards is for your main toga-like wrap.) This will give you a piece of fabric that is 72 inches long and 45 inches wide. From that piece, cut one headwrap that is 15 inches wide and 72 inches long. This is a good basic size for tying around your head. The leftover piece is 72 inches by 30 inches; you can also experiment with using that as a headwrap, especially if you want to do something very big and elaborate.

Here’s a great video from Dupsie’s that shows the basic way of tying a headwrap:

Modern depictions of Brighid typically show her with red hair, wearing green medieval-looking garb and carrying a flame or other symbol. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Green velvet cloak. This gorgeous cloak from Artemisia Designs gives a very goddessy feel.
2. Full-length chemise in white, cream, or yellow. The early Irish leine (chemise or tunic) was pretty simple. It could have straight sleeves, like this, or it could be a sleeveless unsewn chiton pinned at the shoulders, like the Greeks wore. By the 1500s the Irish were famous for dying their leines with saffron, but it’s not clear when this preference for yellow developed.
3. Optional white flat sheet. If you want to skip buying a chemise altogether, you can just use a white or light-colored bedsheet and do a Greek-style chiton (instructions below).
4. Red wig.
5. Celtic circlet.
6. Torch. This is a battery-operated Halloween torch you can carry around with you, set up as a bowl, hang on the wall, whatever. It might be available in your local party/Halloween store.

How to make a chiton: The simplest ancient tunic for costuming purposes is the Doric chiton, which consists of a single rectangle of fabric folded around the body. This became the jeans-and-T-shirt of the classical world, and was worn from northern Europe to the Mediterranean. All you need is a flat sheet, some safety pins, and a belt or cord. (You can get a rope belt here in white, natural, or gold.) Here are your chiton instructions:

Our costume design uses a kimono to approximate the look of ancient Chinese clothing. (This works because the kimono itself was inspired by Chinese dress.) The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Two satin lounge gowns in lavender and chocolate. This is your base layer. You’re going to wear both of them: the chocolate on top of the lavender. Or vice versa, depending on your taste. These will show at the bottom of your kimono, giving you a full-skirted multi-layer look.
2. Ivory kimono. It comes with an obi, which is great except for the pre-tied bow in back. You’ll want to remove that, since it looks too Japanese. Just wear the flat obi around your waist.
3. Phoenix crown. This is a modern bridal crown, but it will work fine for the Queen of the West. China Cart carries a variety of other crowns in all price ranges.
4. Long white wig. Let it flow down your back and over your shoulders.
5. Artificial bough of peach blossoms. Carry this with you.