Lumiere

Irvin's aunt's birthday in 2017 had a theme of housewarming, so Irvin decided to get a head start on his Halloween costume for the year: Lumiere. The costume is very DIY, with the candles being made out of carton paper and tissue-paper decorations, held together with faith, trust, pixie dust, and tape. In addition to the costume, Irvin and his family also performed a parody of "Be Our Guest"... in Russian, with lyrics written by Irvin. That was even more of a challenge than the costume itself!

For Halloween, the costumed had to be zhooshed up to meet the very high standard Irvin has set for his Halloween costumes. The key challenge was creating Lumiere's base, which flares out from his body. It was extra challenging given that Irvin had to walk a great distance in that base. Eventually, Irvin cracked it: elastic around the knees, sewn into yellow fabric, with metal wire giving shape to the bottom of it. Golden shoes ensured that no illusions would be shattered if the base didn't quite reach the ground.

In all, the costume was a masterpiece... until Irvin attempted moving in it, and the whole thing collapsed. Throwing lots more tape and a ton of safety pins at the problem, Irvin got a working mobile costume. But his candle "went out" frequently during the night, leading him to kneel and musically beg his friends, "Won't you light my candle?" The costume also came with the unforeseen challenge of having to keep one's arms up (as pictured) the entire night, in order to convey the essence of Lumiere. Irvin's arms were pretty much jelly by the end of the night.

At the last minute, Irvin talked his friend Beth into doing a couple's costume, so she threw together a Fifi the Featherduster. This led to a fun night of Fifi tickling and dusting Lumiere... unfortunately, neither half of the couple really had functioning hands in their costumes. They ran into several other Beauty and the Beast characters - Belle, the Beast, and two other Lumieres.

Irvin and his crew ambled through the village singing "Be Our Guest." On one memorable street corner, two middle-aged ladies dining outside a restaurant were very taken with the costume. One thing led to another, and Irvin ended up posing with them for photos as they fed him some very tasty garlic bread. So at least Lumiere wasn't marching in the Halloween parade on an empty stomach!