A HALLOWEEN crazy mum has left people in awe after creating amazing optical illusion costumes for her son – leaving people wondering “which one is the little one?”.
Lauren Mulvey, 31, dedicates weeks to making stylish clothes from scratch for nine-year-old Ollie.
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Lauren Mulvey creates amazing Halloween costumes for son Ollie Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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She struggled to find Stay Puft clothes so she decided to make her own Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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People are always desperate to know what Ollie’s costume will be Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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This Pinocchio left people wondering who the Ollie character was Credit: Lauren Mulvey
He works as much as he can with the cardboard before scouring the charity shops for unique details and taking out his glue gun.
The mum-of-one, from Glasgow, told Fabulous: “Every year he makes me make all his Halloween costumes by hand. The amount of detail and hard work that goes into these costumes is unreal.
“There’s always some illusion for them. I think that’s what gives them a special touch.
“But Ollie is the real star of the show. He lets me make them and ultimately he models them.”
The DIY costumes started when Lauren struggled to get a Stay Puft outfit for Ollie when he was obsessed with Ghostbusters in the nursery.
Since then, the creative mum has challenged herself to go “bigger and more extreme” every year – leading to incredible results with Aladdin’s Ghost, Beetlejuice and The Mad Hatter.
But Lauren – a final-year photography student at Glasgow School of Art – admits that Pinocchio, along with the Geppetto ‘prop’, has been her favorite costume so far because it leaves people so confused.
After sharing pictures of the costume on social media last year, Lauren was inundated with comments from confused Halloween fans.
“It actually took me a few minutes to figure out what Ollie was,” admitted one,
Another echoed: “Honestly, I can’t say [what one Ollie is]. I’m zooming like mad.”
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A third wrote: “This doesn’t even seem real. I can’t even figure out where the withdrawal is. Confused but amazed.”
A fourth chimed in: “Oh my god!!! At first I thought Ollie was Geppetto, then I realized he was Pinocchio!!!!! Amazing again.”
A fifth exclaimed: “Where’s the chain? This is amazing, so much so I can’t tell if Pinocchio is a puppet or Ollie lol.
“You really had a blast in the park. I don’t think anything will top this. Outstanding effort.
“I swear I went back to look and I still don’t see him. This has got to be the best costume I’ve ever seen. You can usually tell right away where a kid is, this one blew my mind it’s so amazing.”
Meanwhile, a sixth agreed: “I can’t even begin to say what your little boy is, absolutely brilliant.”
Lauren told us: “Everyone was confused thinking my little boy was actually Geppetto, but his body was Pinocchio and then Geppetto’s legs. So it’s like an illusion.
“Some people say ‘I can’t believe you did that’. And then when they see my pictures, they say ‘oh my god, this is unreal’.”
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Laure created Geppetto’s face by molding the wax lines on the mask Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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It looked realistic with realistic eyes and eyelashes added Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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Ollie is transformed into PinocchioCredit: Lauren Mulvey
Lauren painstakingly created a lifelike face for Geppetto complete with waxed features, glass eyes and eyelashes, before adding a wig and plush body.
She then painted her little boy’s face to look like a wooden Pinocchio to ‘sit’ on Geppetto’s lap.
And while the costume was a big hit for Halloween, part of it has since been scrapped because it started to drive Ollie too crazy.
Lauren said: “We had to get rid of Geppetto because Ollie was scared of him. He’s like ‘mum I don’t want that in my room’.
“He has a big closet in his room, so we usually store the costumes in there. And he knew it was in there, so he said, ‘can you take it out now?’
“So we put him in the hall cabinet and he’s like, ‘no, I still don’t want him there’. So we had to scrap Geppetto completely.”
She added: “Do you remember when you were younger and you looked at a picture and every time you moved you thought the eyes were following you? That’s how it was with Geppetto.
– It is deadly strange because the eyes are obviously realistic, as if they are glazed.
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People have been begging Lauren to make costumes for their children Credit: Lauren Mulvey
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Lauren, pictured, said Geppetto had meanwhile been kicked out for freaking out Ollie Credit: Lauren Mulvey
Lauren keeps Ollie’s costumes a “top secret” every year – she doesn’t even tell her parents what she’s planning.
Every year she is inundated with messages from people from as far away as America asking her to know what she is planning and even asking her to make a custom costume for their child.
For now, though, he’ll continue to save his skills just for Ollie.
The talented mom has no formal training in SFX makeup or costume design, but has always been creative.
And she manages to create incredible costumes for her boy on a shoestring budget – not a single costume costing more than £80.
She said: “I don’t bark, I’m a complete perfectionist.
“I know I have to find the best stuff to create a costume, but I’m doing it on a budget. Because let’s face it, I’m not going to spend a fortune on a costume for a year.
“I know they’re brilliant, but I’m keeping it in the budget too. So it’s not like I’m going overboard and spending hundreds of pounds to make these costumes. I mean, you’re talking about less than £80.
“They were all under £80. I love getting pieces from charity shops, I’m always on the lookout for bits and pieces.”
Unfortunately, Lauren doesn’t have enough room in her apartment to store the costumes in all their glory and takes them apart as soon as Halloween is over.
She said: “I have to break them all, and they’re all in my cupboards, all over the house.
“I have nowhere to store them. So what I do with them is I’ll keep the parts that took the longest to make.
“If I had all the storage in the world, I’d keep them all, but I live in an apartment so trying to keep it, like storing everything, it’s just a nightmare.”
And this year could be her last in creating impressive costumes, much to the disappointment of fans.
But even if Lauren and Ollie take a break for 2025, they’ll be back with a bang next year for the ‘extra ‘special’ effort.
Lauren said: “Everyone kept saying please don’t say that last year. But I don’t know how Ollie will be next year.
“She’s getting older now. So she’s getting to that stage where she’s like, Mom, I don’t want to dress up next year. And I mean, well, we’ll see what next year brings.
“Halloween actually falls on a Saturday in two years. I have six nieces and nephews, so I want to have a great big party with all the kids, including Ollie.
“I’ll probably have to start before the summer if I’m going to do it.”
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The Mad Hatter was another hit for Lauren and OllieCredit: Lauren Mulvey
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education