Costume - Bearded Oysters

LED Isis dance wings with adjustable sticks

Footwear

The most important thing about your footwear is that you are comfortable and can dance the length of the parade. Longer parades are 5 miles while others are only a mile. It is recommended you wear sneakers or marching boots. Sneakers can be decorated at our craft parties! If you would like to purchase marching boots, I recommend Dinkles.

Tights & Leggings

During cold weather parades you may want to wear tights or leggings. You can wear white, silver or nude colored. Dancer tights with a convertible toe are great for staying warm as well as compressing your legs to prevent fatigue. Fleece lined leggings are a great way to stay warm and cozy.

Beards and Make Up

Bearded Oysters wear beards and mustaches too. Don’t be scared, embrace it, it is part of the fun. There are endless options from a big, bushy beard to smaller drawn ones. Lovely ladies have used fringe, glitter, self adhesive rhinestones, temporary tattoos, henna and makeup to create magnificent beards.

Stay Warm

Often our Carnival parades are as low as 35 degrees. You can still have a great time is you have great gear to stay warm. Wear lots of layers and cover all your bits. Hats, wigs, scarves, earmuffs, jackets, furs, vests, long johns, fleece lined leggings, layers of tights, legwarmers, pants, boots, gloves, etc.

General costume guidelines

Bearded Oysters embraces sisterhood while encouraging individuality and personal expression. We ask that members and guests wear white and silver costumes. Wigs and merkins can be whatever color you would like. Any lights you wear should be white. Nude colored tights and bodysuits are acceptable along with white and/or silver.

Merkins

Bearded Oysters are famous for their unique merkins or pubic hair wig. Many Bearded Oysters choose to wear one to enjoy the attention they receive when they lift their skirts for the audience.