You know how it goes. Bettlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

It was such a cult classic movie that those of us who are old enough to have seen Beetlejuice during the late 80s or 90s tend to associate chunky black and white stripes with the character. I own a bold black and white striped Jenny skirt from Pinup Girl Clothing that almost always spurs people to say ‘Beetlejuice!’ at me whenever I wear it, no matter what other colours I add into the style. Because of that, I thought I’d add Beetlejuice into this pinup Halloween costume series as I know a lot of pinups have a passion not only for vintage style but also for all things dark, spooky, moody and creepy.

If you want to get really accurate with a Beetlejuice costume then you’ll have to commit to blackened eye sockets, mouth crust and crazy frizzed out hair, as well as a striped suit. But taking some creative license to make him a little bit more pretty, feminine and vintage friendly, for my costume I simply darkened my usual makeup so that my winged liner was accompanied by heavy under eye dark shadows and a more defined crease, my red lipstick was replaced by a dark ombre, and I hollowed out my cheekbones with dark contouring.

For my lips I used the Makeup Academy Luxe Lip Lacquer (each £3) in Reckless across my whole mouth, then used their new black shade, Potent, with a lip brush in the corners and towards the inner third of my lips to create a smudged ombre lip. You can stick with fully red lips if you want or else go fully black.  When it comes to hair I left my brushed out pincurls in pretty shape, but you can backcomb to create a bit more mania or else not brush out your pincurls so smoothly so that you have a slightly frizzier set.

I created my look entirely from items I already own, so I wanted to layer up any stripes I had with all things black and brooding. Along with the Pinup Girl Clothing Black and White Striped Jenny skirt from their Goth Capsule collection I wore the Hell Bunny striped black and white Dolly top, the Collectif black Elizabeth bolero, some black faux leather half gloves from eBay, a PUG wide faux leather belt, seamed stockings, and some black spiked stiletto heels from eBay. Considering all that, you can obviously use whatever striped, black or creepy items you have or can get your hands on to make your own Beetlejuice inspired costume, but since the stripes are what’s so recognisable about the character below I’ve compiled a gallery of striped items that from the repro world that I came across for this purpose. Any other particularly pretty or creepy prints were added in as well. The usual brand and price ranges are covered.

If you get creative you can make this outfit as intricate or as accurate as you like. But until then, I think I’m gonna wrap this up before the man himself has any chance to wreck havoc. Time to say goodbye. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.