Lara Croft is an iconic sex-symbol gaming icon from Tomb Raider, played by Angelina Jolie in the film adaption. I dressed as her for a party. Check it out.
Lara Croft is a gaming icon, and is one of the very first female lead roles in a gaming franchise, Tomb Raider.
Croft is presented as a beautiful, intelligent (she is fluent in several languages after all) and athletic English archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world. She is a heroine that was perfectly brought to life on the big screen in 2001 by Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (whom by the way is one of my favourite actresses of all timel). Jolie perfectly brought to life Lara’s combination of power, strength, grit and beauty to movie screens worldwide.
She is considered a significant game character in popular culture, being also one of the first video game characters to be successfully adapted to film too, as well as being one of the first sex symbols in the gaming industry.
Lara Croft is like the female version of Indiana Jones, always simply dressed and ready for action. Despite her simple outfits, she oozes outrageous amounts of sex appeal, with her heaving breasts in tight tank tops and long, toned legs.
Lara Croft is depicted as an athletic and fast woman with brown eyes and long reddish-brown hair that is frequently kept in a plait or pony tail. The character’s classic (and original) costume is a turquoise/aqua tank top, light brown shorts, black belt with golden buckle, calf-high brown boots, black fingerless gloves, eyeglasses and thick white socks. In later games, Croft’s outfit varies, wearing a crop top, camouflage pants and black or light brown shorts. When she explores, she often carries two pistols.
As Lara Croft has been around a while, there are variations of her outfits, and all of them are pretty simple to replicate when on a budget. If you’ve ever wanted to break out in a sexy but still comfortable and fun costume, Lara Croft is the perfect character to choose. I went as her to a Superheroes Vs Villains birthday party, basing my outfit more on the Angelina Jolie look from the original film of which she is sporting a tight black tank top, dark shorts and boots. Basic, but effective nonetheless.
You will need:
- Long dark wig (if you’re not a brunette to begin with)
- 2 fake handguns
- Leg holsters (I accidentally bought just one, but two is recommended for each thigh)
- Tall black boots
- Black tank top
- Shorts
- An amazingly padded bra that will give you that famous Lara Croft heaving chest
Costume Tips:
- If you don’t want to spend too much money on the costume, you can create the leg gun holsters out of black duct tape (if you’re okay with having hairs ripped out then sure, that’s an alternative)
- Making the costume yourself will look more realistic than a store-bought costume, pretty sure Lara Croft is a DIY sort of girl, anyway.
- Don’t use real guns for the costume. Using real guns will get you thrown out of parties and bars and will lead you to getting arrested. Toy guns all the way.
- If you do end up wearing a wig – do not dance around open flames, as synthetic wigs can be flammable and this is dangerous if you’re whipping your hair back and forth.
- I cannot keep stressing enough the importance of a magnificently padded bra for this costume. It is vital.
Considering I left this costume decision right down to the last minute, it worked out pretty alright! I seriously just decided to be Lara Croft 6 hours before the party started.
The great thing about spending money on a Lara Croft costume is, compared to other fictional characters to dress up, at least hers can be worn again as practically everyday wear. Unfortunately I left my toy guns on my bed and my darling dog chewed them up, but otherwise it was a fun night dressing up as a sexy heroine.
And yes, I finished the night off with shisha, because Lara Croft is cultured and so am I.
