The Halloween Queen

Halloween night was a special event for our own Kalina Isato — she went out as her favorite female role model, and she has plenty of photo to share from her time spent at the Henry David Halloween Ball.

Ever since I was a youth, I was always obsessed with the character of Wonder Woman as portrayed by Lynda Carter. There was something magical about her appearance; her gorgeous fall of hair, her beautiful blue eyes, and that killer smile and seductive lips that always warmed my heart. I vowed to someday make myself look like her, to channel her Wonder Woman spirit, to be her.

Of course, wanting to be someone and actually succeeding at being a commendable imitation are two entirely different things. I had seen numerous pictures of girls and guys trying their best to imitate their icons and they always fell short of pulling it off. Like any icon, you have to give serious attention to all of the little details that make the Wonder Woman image successful.

I’ve been growing and styling my own hair for the past year, but it wasn’t long enough to do the classic WW image justice. Flowing, full-bodied, shoulder-length hair was a must and the only way I could achieve that in a reasonable amount of time was to wear a wig, so I bought one called Shelby from René of Paris. Those of you who know wigs recognize that this particular wig sells for over $300. It’s not meant to be an exact replica of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman hair, but more like the DC Comics version of Wonder Woman.

Lynda Carter’s a goddess, so I didn’t dare try to make myself look like her. Instead, I examined my own features and Wonder Womanized them. Our eyes are very different. Lynda’s are blue, mine are brown, but mine are fairly big almond-shaped eyes. Advantage: Kalina. For my brown eyes to work, I had to line them right and find the perfect shade of eyeshadow, so I found it in Chanel Amethyst.

Lynda’s nose is small and narrow like a Barbie doll. Mine is wide and flat like a typical Asian. Advantage: Lynda. In order to draw an onlooker’s attention away from my nose, I had to make my eyes and lips look perfect. The one feature I have that I can honestly say evenly matches Lynda’s is her smile, the kind of pearly white, perfectly aligned, toothy smile that lights up a whole room, elicits praise, and wins contests. I have my parents to thank for that. If I made my lips look awesome, the rest would fall in place.

A Wonder Woman costume has always been a sore point for me because the two store-bought costumes I own are kitschy and cheap-looking. They served their purpose for my Monday Night Tgirls parties, but at parties like the Henri David Halloween Ball where a couple thousand partygoers can see me, I had to wear something more impressive. I wanted a costume that resembled Wonder Woman down to the golden lasso and metal bracelets, so I bought one made by Brenda of Custom Exotic Costumes. I’ve seen countless custom-made Wonder Woman costumes from other designers and most of them look no better than the store-bought costumes. Brenda’s costume allowed me to pick and choose the elements I wanted without paying for unnecessary items I’d probably discard later.

Overall, I like my costume. The bustier, made of gold lamé sewn onto a red tubetop, looks a bit cheesy, but the rest of the costume was reasonably accurate as a Season 2 Wonder Woman costume. The cape really added a nice finishing touch to the costume and did a good job of covering up the problems with the bustier. My biggest gripe with the bustier is the belt is too short for my long torso. I later discovered that the belt is height adjustable by moving the safety pin that attaches it to the red tubetop. However, if you move the belt too far down, there’s too much red space between the wings and the belt, so a connecting piece between the two is needed. I’m sure this is correctable. I sent Brenda email about it.

The wings of the eagle are sewn onto the tubetop, but I wish the belt were sewn on as well. The bustier looks good from certain closeup angles, but from afar, you’ll see in most of my pictures that my belt was too high. My photographers took pictures of me with over 150 party people, including our beloved Governor Ed Rendell. Over 100 of these people asked if they could take pictures with me as Wonder Woman! Many of these people recognized me from previous years. For some odd reason, many people assumed I was some sort of authority on Lynda Carter, so they asked me plenty of questions about her.

One partygoer dressed as Beetlejuice wanted to have his picture taken with his arm wrapped around me. After a bit of flirting with me, he paused and said, “Wait… you’re a girl, right?” “Of course I’m a girl!” I said with a raised eyebrow and a big grin on my face. I should’ve flexed my biceps as proof.

For more Wonder Woman pictures, please subscribe to my web site, KalinaIsato.com (link will open in new window), which helps support the existence of my Monday Night Tgirls parties (link will open in new window). For a great book and video that can help you with glamour makeup, see my book and video called “Secrets to an Awesome Makeover” available here (link will open in new window).

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment