Clown Costumes vs Clown Accessories for Costumes

If you’re looking to dress up as a clown for Halloween or a party, you can purchase a clown costume that includes most of what you need for the event. But if you want to create a clown character, if you want your own style and personality to make an event really special and bring a big smile to everyone in the room, then you need clown accessories.

What are clown accessories?

Clown accessories are the many choices you make to put together a final character. They include clothing, such as shoes, socks, suspenders, buttons, gloves, and hats. Clowns pay special attention to their face, so some form of clown face paint or makeup is essential, along with perhaps a clown nose and skullcap or wig. And a unique clown personality will add decorative details to complement that clown character. Clown pins and jewelry, special glasses, or accessories like balloons and magic tricks are other clown accessories to consider.

So many options! Where to start?

It may be helpful to know that there are different ‘traditions’ or ‘types’ of clowning that have developed over many decades and even centuries. You can develop a character within one of those traditions, or for the more adventurous, incorporate different elements of all kinds.

The white faced clown

As the name implies, a Whiteface clown wears white-based facial makeup, like that of a classic circus clown. Despite the artificial coloration, whiteface makeup is not intended to hide, but rather to accentuate, or in some cases exaggerate, the clown’s facial features.

White-faced female clowns generally have one type of costume, but wear additional makeup to accentuate female facial features.

The male Whiteface clown has several varieties. The classic (European) Whiteface is a jester, with soft shoes, baggy pants, a loose-fitting blouse, a ruffle at the neck, and a soft pointed hat. You can replace the traditional pointed hat with a floppy hat or a black skullcap.

The Straight Whiteface Clown also dresses in baggy clothing, but wears either all-white clothing with a colorful trim or multi-colored clothing with a contrasting trim and ruff. Typical clown accessories are a skull cap and a wig.

The Grotesque or Comedy Whiteface clown often has more exaggerated makeup than the Straight Whiteface to reflect a more buffoonish character, as well as irregular body proportions such as long legs on stilts, a large butt, etc. Loose but tailored clothing is worn to highlight these irregular proportions and is often colourful, or even mismatched. This type of clown usually wears gloves and a wig among other clown accessories.

august the clown

The classic Auguste clown may seem at first glance closer to the Grotesque Whiteface than the Classic Whiteface, as the costume is often flamboyant, exaggerated, and uneven, sporting bold colors and large patterns. Augustes often wears clown accessories that are too big or too small, such as a big bow tie, a small hat, huge glasses, pants that are too small, or shoes the size of a boat. Suspenders and gloves are other important accessories for clowns. But the general point about Auguste’s clowns is that there are few absolute costume “rules,” and the character has more leeway in how to convey this guy’s “madness.” Auguste’s make-up includes white face, but may maintain partial skin tones, and otherwise complements the overall ‘exaggerated’ look with additional make-up that exaggerates features.

Female Augustas often sport long eyelashes, wear outrageous dresses, and carry handbags.

bum clowns

Tramps are the most common of another type of clown, sometimes known as “Character Clown”. In addition to drifters, character clowns can include “cowboy clowns,” “rodeo clowns,” and other types of modern or contemporary professionals such as police officers, firefighters, or nurses.

There are different types of hobos, such as “happy hobo hobo” or “sad unlucky hobo”, but the costume is similar for all of them. A heavily patched dark suit or tuxedo, battered shoes, a wrinkled bowler hat or top hat (often without the top), and fingerless gloves are the wardrobe staples. Trampy clown accessories include brightly colored vests, long dark coats with lots of pockets, and canes. Makeup may include white face, and sometimes “sooty” makeup from a supposed train ride may also be applied to the face. (The “Boom” guy didn’t travel, so he probably wouldn’t have “soot” on his face.)

Vagrants, called Bag Ladies, typically wear sneakers, a scruffy dress, a cheap scarf or costume jewelry, and a bandana or floppy hat.

So that’s a start for building your clown personality. Whether you want to be a ‘traditional’ type of clown or create a wildly original character, clown accessories are the building blocks for your very own clown character. Good luck and happy Clown!