The Pinups of Betsy VanDeusen

Betsy Rewind…

A couple years back I spent my summer working on an independent film called “Pinching Penny.” While I did work on a variety of areas of the film, the thing I was the most excited about (and the thing I’m the proudest of) is what I called “The Penny Queen,” from the “Dream Sequence.” 

When I was told that I needed to make a costume for “a fantasy woman wearing nothing but money,” my creative mind took off immediately. As a designer with a lot of musical theatre experience, and a passion for pinups and burlesque, you can imagine why!

Here are a few pictures of my “Penny Queen” costume. The costume, wig/headpeice and makeup were designed and created entirely by yours truly, and worn by the lovely Brianna Lucas. 

The whole thing consisted of:

A pile of hand-dyed oversized $100 bills, 
3 hand-made polymer clay oversized pennies, 
300+ plastic pennies (drilled, painted, copper-leafed), 
Pink, purple, black, and white synthetic hair,
Various upholstery trims and ribbons, 
A large styrofoam ball,
A pile of Tulle.

Now, as pleased as I am with how that costume came out, I think designers always feel a pull to build off of -and improve upon- their past designs… So, in the coming weeks when you see me working on my “Treasure Chest Mermaid” costume, you’ll know where I’m coming from!  ;-)