the journey to madonna...

It all began when my fantastic friend Jen decided to celebrate her birthday by doing it throwback 80's style.  We had done this once before in our college sorority for an 80's skate party which resulted in me throwing together an outfit at last minute with a random purple dress from Goodwill, black tights, my trusty crimper, and some ridiculous bright make-up. 

I obviously wanted to redeem myself when I realized that another 80's skate party was occurring in my life, so I decided to go all out.  And when you put 80's and going all out together, you instantly get MADONNA.

So how exactly do you become Madonna?  It's certainly not easy and there were definitely times I didn't think I was going to pull it off... so I thought it was only appropriate that I share my journey to the top. 

• The first thing I knew that I really needed was an amazing outfit.  Where in the WORLD was I going to get an outfit fit for Madonna?  I knew instantly that if this part didn't work out then it was over from the start.  I headed for the thrift stores full of hope and aspiration that surely someone had retired their fantastic 80's formal wear that they once rocked just because Madonna wore a similar outfit.  And that's when I saw it.  A gold and black lace tight bodice dress on top that flared out at the bottom.  Madonna would SO wear that.  Nevermind the fact that I did not even think to look at the size and my friends decided that I should try it on over my million layers of clothes (if you know me at all, you know I love layers) in the middle of the store.  The Goodwill guy definitely walks by and says "Lookin' good!"  My proudest moment.  As I try to get the Madonna outfit off of me as quickly as possible after we decide that it's perfect, I definitely hear something rip.  Oh yeah, definitely the zipper.  $5.99 and a lot of safety pins later, it still was my perfect Madonna dress.
• Obviously there was now an even greater need for a jacket to go over the dress.  No one I seemed to know owned a fantastic black leather bomber jacket.  The responses I got from people were hilarious.  Some people seemed offended I would ask.  Some people seemed to wish they owned one.  Some people just owned 'conservative' ones.  People, don't you realize these jackets were in style last year?  Well anyway, the person that came through in the clutch was my mom.  Oh yeah, she's hip with the hop.  Don't mind her, she just has it lying around from when she wore it to the motorcycle rally.  She would SO make Madonna proud.  Major shout-out to the Mom for being so hardcore!
• Accessories are an essential when it comes to Madonna.  Hello lacy gloves and huge bow!  I was on a hunt and did not have to go far because the party store offered these to me for a low price.  They obviously wanted me to be Madonna as well.  Fishnet stockings were also available at this party store so check, check, and check! 
• Jewelry are of course accessories but I feel the need to make it separate when it comes to Madonna.  Thankfully between my sister and I, I wasn't hurting too bad in this department.  We are a lover of the jewelry so I had huge black and gold hoops, tons of gold bangles, black beaded bracelets, pearl beaded bracelets, white beaded bracelets, a huge gold bracelet, and tons of black and pearl and gold necklaces to wear.  I did find myself in Forever 21 though where I purchased a cross 2-ring and a massive black ring.  Wouldn't have been Madonna if I didn't have SOME sort of religious accessory.
• The last accessory that made it complete was a pair of gold and black sunglasses.  Just didn't feel like Madonna would want to make eye contact with anybody.  She's obviously way too cool for that. 
• The shoes that became the winner was a pair of my gold heels.  Definitely got asked at the party if I bought those at Goodwill.  Nope... I own them and have owned them for probably about 6 years.  Guess Madonna and I just have the same style.
• I felt like the best way to get Madonna hair was to crimp it with my trusty crimper and then tease the ever living daylights out of it.  Well I crimped it alright... and let's just say I don't really do that often now that I have super short hair and am not used to it at all.  Which now I have about 50 million burn marks to prove it including one on my neck... which looked like a hickey all night.  You just can't be Madonna without having a hickey on your neck.  The pain came when my roommate had me lean over and start teasing the super-hairsprayed-crimped-down hair into the Madonna-craziness-poofy-80's hair.  If she did that everyday, she earned every single penny of those millions.
• The make-up was the final touch which required some bright colors for the eyes but also some dramatic smokiness to go along with it.  Quite the balance, that Madonna.  She never did anything halfway. 

Once the outfit was complete, Madonna was ready for the party.  Definitely have never felt as hardcore as that night.  We went to The Magic Time Machine for dinner which was probably the only place we could have appropriately fit in with our outfits... I've obviously shared my thoughts about this place before.  As soon as we walked in the door, a little girl asked us to sign her little book because she thought we worked there.  Her father stated how could we blame her and explained to the little girl that we were probably apart of a jazzercise group! 

Needless to say, we got quite a few looks and people of course called out to Madonna.  Who wouldn't?  It's MADONNA.

What is the 80's without skating so we headed to the rink next.  Madonna of course rocks on the skates so tons of fun was had as we all went round and round and round the rink groovin to the tunes.  And proud to say that none of us fell... even though became a little worried for some at times.  Definitely not Madonna though... way too hardcore for that. 

After it was all over and the bright make-up was all washed off and the crimped teased hair was brushed and washed out and the gold and black lace dress was hung to the back of the closet... I've got to say that it was definitely one of the most awesome nights ever.  I absolutely loved being Madonna... even if she is utterly and completely inappropriate and I'll never be half as hardcore as her.  For that night I'd like to think that I was.