I enlisted the help of Ailys – the woman who helped me find the Caitlyn Jenner outfit last year.
Of course the suit didn’t just exist as is (because as I said yesterday, approximations of Hillary’s clothes at the consumer level are practically impossible to find).
So, Ailys found this coat-ish thing for the top. It was like a… I don’t totally know how to describe it. But originally, it just came to together at the very top (under the neck), and then that big front opening fanned out to the bottom.
So, even if you got a bigger size than you needed (which we did), you couldn’t just pull the sides together. It wasn’t built or designed that way. So, she found similar fabric at a store, cut the sides of the jacket, and added fabric panels in a V-shape to make it so the top would close like Hillary’s.
She also moved the pocket flaps (that had faced sideways) to facing downward (like Hillary’s). And, she found red pantsuit-pants, and even cut off the top and made them of a jersey-type of material so they’d be easier to run in, but look like a pantsuit to anyone who’d see me.
She also found earrings to match Hillary’s. So, thank goodness for Ailys (and TaskRabbit, where I met her).
As far as the wig was concerned, she didn’t have time for that business with all the work she had to do on the costume.
I did a little searching online, but all the wigs I saw labeled “Hillary wigs” looked kinda cheap and not totally like her/her haircut.
I kept kind of putting the wig off because there was other stuff to do (in life in general, not just with this race).
And as I was on the plane to Los Angeles, the day before the race (to pick up my packet), I got wifi and hired a taskrabbit to get the wig. He kept sending me pictures, and the women in the seats on both sides of me helped saying, “Too golden,” “too short,” etc. until we all agreed – that’s generally the color. It’s long, but I’ll just get someone to cut it.
Now, looking back on it, it was perhaps a dumb decision to get someone to cut it because wouldn’t it have been easier to just have a wig that was already the right length and not add an extra step? Yes. Yes it would’ve been.
But it just seemed like a good healthy looking wig and the right color. So, how hard could cutting it be?
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow!