Jessie (Pokemon)

Costume Debut: Halloween 2016

With the resurgence of Pokemon in popularity in 2016, Irvin and his friends hit upon the idea of doing a Pokemon costume for Halloween.  The leads - Ash and Misty - were too easy.  Everyone would be doing them.  So Irvin decided to attempt the altogether much more difficult Team Rocket group cosplay, since a group costume had turned out to excellently the previous year.  Janet immediately called dibs on Meowth, and Irvin proved the only one willing to take on the challenge of Jessie's hair.

The rest of the costume was fairly simple - some thrift shopping, a little velcro for the red R, and an investment in thigh-high boots that's sure to pay off in future.  But the hair proved to be Irvin's most difficult costume undertaking to date - there was just no getting around the fact that gravity was in direct opposition to Irvin's goals.  It was more engineering project than costume, and several cosplayers Irvin consulted were convinced it couldn't be done.

But stubbornness, vision, and trial and error finally succeeded.  Wrapping air pillows in red duct tape, and chopping up two of the longest red wigs available on the Internet, succeeded in creating the wig.  It was held together with a lot of glue and a fervent prayer, and it mostly held up for two nights of Halloween festivities, though it'll need a bit of rehabilitation before the next outing.  The biggest challenge was keeping the construction on Irvin's head; in the end multiple wigs and headbands combined to make it happen.

October 30th, a dry run with the costume was had at a house party in New Jersey, which came with the additional complication of torrential rain that could have destroyed everything.  After surviving that, Halloween itself was approached without fear.  With Matt as James, Janet as Meowth, and Kyle as a Rocket Grunt, Team Rocket was ready to blast off into the Halloween parade.

Irvin's fears about the ubiquity of Pokemon Halloween costumes were well-founded - he ran into multiple Ashes, along with Misty and Brock. The whole team ran into several Pikachus, which they immediately tried to grab and steal.  Jessie would then immediately launch into a soliloquy about how "We've been hunting this electric rat for nineteen years..."  Throughout the night, no opportunity was passed up to recite Team Rocket's motto, since Jessie the one who initiates it.  And when out of breath, there would just be demands issued to the crowd: "Give us your Pokemon!"