DIY (LATE) HALLOWEEN COSTUME - LOLA FALANA
I know we’re past Halloween but today I’m brining you one of my DIY costumes as promised!
Last year, I had all plans of highlighting two inspiring women (who coincidentally share the same first name) and even shared clues and played some fun guessing games on Instagram but unfortunately ran out of time to execute and decided to do them this year instead. These past few months have been incredibly busy/exhausting and I simply didn’t have the time or energy to bring these costumes to life in time for official Halloween 2020.
I still wanted to do the costumes and a quick IG poll revealed that you were fine with me sharing the Lola looks after Halloween/before Thanksgiving so here we are with the first costume highlighting the fabulous Lola Falana!
My initial costume plan from 2019 entailed a pink feather look (click & swipe to see the inspo) but I didn’t get the pink bodysuit and decided to go with a different look from Lola’s “Song For You” performance which you can watch below.
Loletha Falana better known by her stage name Lola Falana was born September 11, 1942 and is an American singer, dancer, model and actress.
In the early Sixties, Lola arrived in New York from Philadelphia taking dancing jobs mostly in Harlem clubs and it is said that Falana was discovered by Sammy Davis Jr. who gave her a featured role in his 1964 Broadway musical Golden Boy. After the musical, Falana launched her music career recording her first single, "My Baby" which was released in 1965.
She was a major star of Italian television and was known as the "Black Venus". In 1970, she made her American film debut in The Liberation of L.B. Jones and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Lola would go on to do many things including appearing in several TV shows, posing for Playboy Magazine, being the first black woman to model for the Faberge "Tigress" perfume ads and bringing her act to Las Vegas. By the late 1970s, Falana was considered the "Queen of Las Vegas" and at the time, she was the highest paid female performer in Las Vegas.
Later in life Lola would suffer from multiple sclerosis and was partially paralyzed. On her healing and recovery path, Lola decided to devote her life to her faith; founding The Lambs of God Ministry which focuses on helping children who have been orphaned in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her last known musical performance was in 1997, at Wayne Newton's theater in Missouri and she now leads a quite life in Vegas.
This costume was an easy one to do and involved wearing a tiger swimsuit I borrowed from my sister (thanks big sissy), gold arm cuffs; one of which is my Mom’s from the 70s, vintage earrings which were also my Mom’s and feathers stuck in my hair. The feathers were the only thing I purchased and I got them off Amazon.
