A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 9: Pete's hair and makeup

If you are blessed with longish, shoulder length, dirty brown hair, then you are already set for being Pete. But if you are like most of us, you will require a wig. The makeup is pretty minimal, so even a manly guy should be able to swallow his pride and become authentic. I found trouble finding an inexpensive wig with a similar color, so I got a cheap wig on eBay that was a similar color called the wavy 70s layered brown wig:

It was around $20 shipped. It is too long, but the hair color was a better match than the others I could find. I am going to simply cut the hair to the proper length. I suggest you wear a nylon wig cap to cover your own hair. These are under $10.

As far as the makeup, Pete has metallic dark blue eye shadow surrounding his eye, as well as an outer ring of pinkish eye shadow. He also appears to wear an orange tinted lipstick. MAC Cosmetics has a shade called Deep Truth and another called Passionate, which are dark blue metallic and pink, respectively.

The lipstick that looks closest is the MAC Cosmetics Meltdown lipstick. It is a subtle orange.

EDIT: For a cheaper alternative, try Target and get the following products:

COVERGIRL Shadow - 610 - "saphhire sparkle"

COVERGIRL Shadow - 460 - "knock out pink"

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 8: Pete's cuff links

Pete has large cuff link on each arm. It is difficult to tell what they are, so I am going to say this is a part of the costume with which you may take liberties. I am probably going to use something like these star links:

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 7: Pete's epaulettes

These are hard to see, but Pete has bloody eyeballs on his shoulders, similar to Alex's cuff dressings. You can get these on eBay sometimes, but they are generally a part of the entire costume, which makes it costly. You can make them easily from either doll eyes or bouncy balls (I got some at Target in the Halloween section that already have eyes painted on) with a section of the bottom cut off in a slant so that it is looking up at you (the eye pointing toward you if your forearm were at a 90 degree angle) along with some fake blood and some hot glue. I will post instructions when I actually do it, since there are none available. I will say, if you are doing it for Alex, to be authentic, you should actually put the eyeball on a tan, not white, background to match the codpiece. See this image.

Here is a close-up of the some eB eyeballs Alex wears, which are ostensibly the same as Pete's (only on cuffs instead of shoulders).

I have been measuring several photos and it seems like Alex's hand, from wrist to where his pinky finger begins, is right at four inches. His cuff is around three inches, and the measurements of the off-white patch where the eyeball sits is:

6cm x 5.5cm

So far I am experimenting with khaki (his patch seems a bit off-white) as well as a light vinyl leather looking fabric.

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 6: Pete's beret

Pete's beret may be of French origin, but it may be British airborne. I have not found a clear winner in this area, but I can say that the modern US army issue berets look a lot like Pete's. His is definitely a military beret and is not a casual beret. The only issue with finding a US army beret is that many of them already have the Flash emblem (a blue shield), but if you look on eBay you can find one without the Flash for around $20. The reason I chose this beret is because it is freely available and it is also a fitted hat, so you won't look like an idiot with a one-size-fits-all elastic beret on your head. I used this size chart to estimate the proper measurements of the hat, and they generally range from 7-8 on websites.

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 5: Pete's weapon

Pete fights with a walking stick (I also see Alex using the same stick during certain scenes). It is difficult to see, but here is a photo from the scene where Alex beats on his droogies:

This is likely a custom Irish walking stick. I found a good, cheap, durable walking stick that looks similar - the Irish blackthorn walking stick. It is around $50-$100 for a one, depending on the material used. The knob is a tiny bit off and it is a bit darker in shade, but it is very close.

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 4: Pete's pants

(Notice Pete is the smart one and avoids being beaten by Alex).

Pete's trousers are similar to the other droogs. You may notice that their waist areas tend to be puffy. I am not sure if this is due to the shirt or if there is padding around this area (probably a sexual statement), but I'll know when I get receive my clothes. The pants seem to be made of a poplin material. It is not that easy to find white poplin pants, and I looked at some other materials like linen for ease of shopping, but I settled on a very suitable pair of Ralph Lauren white poplin pants (some of them actually had suspender buttons on them!). While these aren't perfectly screen accurate, they actually look very Kubrick-esque, so much that I think they are acceptable.

These pants are around $85.

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 3: Pete's shirt

Pete has a very different shirt than Alex and the other droogs. For one, it has no collar. This is no big deal, except that the only shirts you are going to find with no collar are probably going to be in some formal shop or in the bargain bucket at JC Penney's and is going to be made out of sateen or some shit.

His material is clearly poplin cotton, is thick, well-worn and soft, not thin and painfully sharp like the type of shirt you will find in a mall.

So what is the shirt? Well, it is could be custom, but I think I've found the shirt, or at least the inspiration for the shirt.

It looks like a German M43 heer shirt from WWII. I am fairly confident because a) I counted the buttons b) the style and thickness or the collar and the area where the shirt is buttoned look very similar to Pete's. c) this would go along well with his military themedboots and suspenders (and would be ironic, considering he would be wearing a German shirt, British suspenders, and American boots, and a French beret, thereby showing that his historical perspective is weak or at least his rage is just an outlet for his youthful angst, and his military inspired outfit is just for show. Notice Billy Boy and his gang have military inspired clothing, so it is not surprising that Alex and the droogies would have military clothes.

Here is the shirt I purchased - it was about $60 shipped from a reenactment seller called Spearhead. I had to purchase a reproduction due to difficulty finding an original and, most likely, the prohibitive cost. Depending on the look of the shirt (it is slightly off-white), I will probably stain the pants I get in a Coca Cola solution to match the shirt and the grungy look of the droogs.

Pete unbuttons his long-sleeved shirt and wears a regular cotton collared undershirt. Thankfully, this is much easier to find =)

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 2: Pete's suspenders

This was a hard find. I believe I am the first to correctly identify these. If you look at the typical A Clockwork Orange costume, people basically look like idiots. They find their dad's khaki's and some cheap, white suspenders and even ::gasp:: a belt. Now Pete's suspenders, for one, aren't white. They are more of a taupe or sand color, and they match his codpiece. They also don't clip to his pants - they have leather trouser savers (let me know what these things are called) that button to the inside of his pants.

Now look at the back - they look nothing like normal suspenders or even Y-suspenders (which are what Alex wears).

After scouring the innernette, I have determined what these suspenders are: British WWII trouser braces. These were worn with battle-dress trousers by all Commonwealth troops (British, Canadian, Australian, Scottish, etc). They are stamped with the year of manufacturing, and the suspenders I have are dated 1945. Good luck on your hunt!

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 1: The boots worn by Alex and co.

After doing some research, it seems like all of the droogs as well as Alex wear the same pairs of boots. I was worried at first because I thought I'd have to shell out big money to import some British army boots, but it turns out that the boots are clearly US issued military boots. Specifically, the boots are vintage split-sole Corcoran paratrooper jump boots.

Unfortunately, that means getting a pair can be difficult and expensive. I have been looking at eBay and many of them are a brown/rust color; I believe these are from WWII and the Korean war. Therefore, any newer than that should be black. You can get new paratrooper boots for around $150, but the droogs boots look well-worn and have an older style shine and sole.

Look at the heels and count the pins holding them in place: 13 exactly.

It is also very difficult to find the split-sole shoes that Alex and co. wear. The regular sole jump boots from the 60s look virtually identical to the ones Alex wears. I purchased a set for around $75 in good shape. Any set of used Corcoran model 1500 boots will look good, and the only detail it won't have is the split sole (I can't imagine anyone calling you out on this detail, but if they do, give me their info so I can congratulate them).

The problem with Pete from A Clockwork Orange

Pete is obviously smart. He doesn't screw with Alex much and is often spared punishment. He is also quite stealthy, and spends the least time in front of the camera. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to reconstruct his outfit. And while a casual viewer may say "They all wear the same thing," this is not true at all. Georgie has a downright bizarre outfit with a knit shirt and bloody bullet nipple things, and Alex has some sort of Edwardian or military, double pocket shirt, as well as those eyeball cuffs, among other details. Dim has a stripped shirt and eyeball suspenders. And Pete, well pete has a completely different shirt (no collar), different suspenders, that black beret, a totally different weapon, different eyeballs, large white buttons, and some bitching makeup. We'll get to all of this shortly but suffice to say, it is not easy being Pete.

Making a Clockwork Orange Costume

Dressing as a character from A Clockwork Orange for Halloween. I am sure thousands do it each year.

It is well and good, but I immediately several issues come to mind:

1) This is a pretty generic costume idea, ruined by emo douchebags throwing on a cheap dress shirt from Wal-Mart, some eyeliner, and some grannie panties or a jock strap, otherwise ignoring all of the details of the real costumes.

2) Alex is over-done so why not be a droog? (I will be Pete, the one with the beret and little screen time).

3) If I am going to do this, it will be the most authentic A Clockwork Orange costume ever.

4) This will take a lot of money and effort, and it will be best if you have a girlfriend or mom to do some minimal sewing.

So I thought I would show you how to make the perfect Pete droog costume. I feel this will be the most amazing Clockwork Orange costume I've ever seen, at least for Pete, and it will run around $400 after all of the clothes and accessories are purchased. I will also mention some specifics for the other Droogs and Alex if I run across specifics in my research, but I will focus on Pete.

Special thanks to the incredible site http://www.malcolmmcdowell.net/ for the incredible costume information and original photos necessary to get started on the Pete the Droog project. Now on with the show, thou globby bottles of cheap stinking chip oil!