California CostumesDark Mad Hatter Costume

So I rarely do product reviews but I was pleasantly surprised with this purchase. The reason I bought this was because it was on a 82% and I thought I'd be a fool not to buy it. Plus it looked super cool and I needed a costume pretty quickly for a party that I have coming up. Anyway, I took the advice of some of the previous reviews and bought a size larger than I would normally have done. THIS IS GOOD ADVICE. I usually wear a size medium in shirts and jumpers and a 32" in trousers however the large fits me great! Everything is exactly as described. Because it's all packed to fit as small as possible, I noticed that the jacket and especially the hat where a bit squashed out of place. I noticed a lot of people complaining about the hat in particular, PEOPLE - there is no way the hat can be packed as is shown in the picture, it's just not feasible unless you wanted to pay extra for it to be packed separately in a box where it can't be squashed out of shape. Anyway, I found the simple trick of stuffing it with newspaper to be very worthwhile and I soon had a hat looking pretty identical to the one shown in the picture. The pants are quite thin and light but they do the trick. *NOTE* The pants do NOT have pockets. For this reason I'm thinking of wearing a pair of shorts underneath - particularly if it's going to be a cold night. The waistcoat fits snugly. The jacket is surprisingly good quality and even has shoulder pads to give it shape. I had to use a clothes pin in order to get the bow tie to sit properly. With a bit of tweaking you can get it looking pretty decent. The gloves and shoe covers are a nice touch! I have yet to wear this to a party.The picture I attached is myself trying it on for the first time. I plan on wearing a white shirt underneath the waistcoat. I can't wait to wear it out!

Summary:Overall this is a fantastic and almost complete costume (see below), which I got for under $40. I highly recommend it if you want a solid Mad Hatter on a budget price.Pros:The costume looks great. I got many compliments and even won "most creative" costume at a small party I went to. It was comfortable to wear, and easy to put on/take off. Nearly complete, great looking costume at a budget price. To make it "complete" you will need 3 (maybe 4) more items:- shoes- cup and saucer- card that goes in the hat- (maybe) wigAdd the above items (especially the card and the cup/saucer) and it is a perfect Mad Hatter!Cons:It isn't very "dark" in my opinion. It is a good start, but the only "dark" part of the costume is that the color is limited to black and white. Other than that, it isn't very creepy or dark in any way. However, this can be changed with some face paint/make-up.There are NO POCKETS in this costume... anywhere! For me this was a minor annoyance because I was at a party where I could throw my car keys on the counter and not worry about it. But if I were going out, this would be a big problem.The fabric is a little thin. I've only worn it once and so far it has held up fine, but with any level of abuse I expect it to fall apart quickly. Also, thin fabric means it does not provide much warmth in the cold.Other Comments:Size runs just a little small. Typically I'm borderline medium/large size so I went with the large and it fit me perfectly. The pants claim that they are for a 38" waist, but I'm a 34" and they fit me well.I was able to make the whole costume look much more dark/creepy by adding some face paint. Black around the eyes and white everywhere else to give a somewhat ghostly look coupled with this costume made for an awesome look. For the price, I don't think you can beat it!

I purchased this costume for Halloween 2012. Im a large/XL, so I purchased the XL and it fit perfectly. The costume was comfortable (though the pants are thin, so if you are wearing it during Winter/Fall, be sure to have some kind of leggings ready. I was able to wear jeans fairly comfortably, but I would suggest some kind of long johns). It required a few snips with some scissors, but nothing more then a few loose strings.I received a lot of compliments while wearing it at a house party, party bus and a pub crawl (and it survived all of those without issue). I would suggest getting a couple of accessories though... A watch on a chain would have really stepped up this costume (though obviously not needed). The hat isnt perfect, but it lasted the whole night and it looks pretty good.I opted out of using the foot coverings as they didnt fit well on my shoes and basically disappeared under the pants, but they are hardly needed to pull this costume together. I just used a pair of black shoes and while I didnt get any compliments on those, no one really noticed them due to the rest of the costume keeping their eyes off of my feet :)As with all costumes, keep in mind this is costume quality clothing, but in this case it was good costume quality.

Overall... I like it.Pros:-The fact that it includes virtually the WHOLE costume.-Fits well.-Looks pretty good...Cons:-The hat is the worst part of the costume. It will not shape properly. I have tried steaming, weighting, begging, and nothing works to get the shape right. :(-5 minutes after trying it on, one of the buttons flew off. An easy fix, but really?!?!...I am 5'10" and weight 190. I ordered the Large and it fits fine, but there is not really any extra room. If you are any bigger than me, go with the XL.I did not want to have to buy all the accessories piece by piece. This costume has everything except the shirt you'll wear under the vest (and shoes of course). The tie is a bit floppy and the hat is sadly shaped. Other than that it is a perfect costume. I am going to try heavy starch on the tie to get it look even a little like the picture. With the hat, I am at a loss... I guess I'll wear it as is, unless I get a stroke of genius before next Saturday! I would say that it is worth buying. Just be aware of what you're buying. :)Happy Amazonning!