Anna Vigorito won the ‘Diana Moseley Prize for Best Costume’ for her outrageous Slightly Mad Freddie costume, photographed in various places during the day. Diana Moseley particularly like the way Anna fitted a penguin and a gorilla into her pictures.
Here Anna tells us about her day as Slightly Mad Freddie…
Usually I wake up in the morning as Anna Vigorito, but September 3rd was different. That day I woke up as Freddie Mercury - the great frontman from Queen. However, I couldn't dress as Freddie so soon that day, for I had school and I attend a private school where the children wear uniforms. Instead of wearing my usual jumper and blouse, I wore black pants and and a white shirt because that day was Freddie for a Day (a day to dress as Freddie in honor of his birthday) and since I couldn't dress up at school, I went as schoolboy Freddie Mercury for the first part of the day.
I felt natural as schoolboy Freddie, especially during choir class and art class. I tried to take pictures, but the school prohibits taking pictures during class due to safety regulations. After school, I went to violin lessons in my outfit. Too bad my violin teacher didn't notice the outfit… But this was only the beginning of my Freddie adventure!
As soon as I got home, I immediately changed into my main outfit - my Slightly Mad costume. My outfit consisted of a store-bought blazer and pants, my school blouse, white socks, dress shoes, and a home-made cumberbun, gloves, and ascot. To make my hair spiky, I applied Got2Be Glue hairspray to my hair. (I had a hard time keeping my hair in place because my hair is so thick!) Lastly, I applied my make-up. I caked on layers and layers of foundation since Freddie did the same for the Slightly Mad music video. I also applied many layers of purple eyeshadow and added a hint of eye-liner for intensity.
To show off my costume a bit, I went to the local mall with my friend, Stacie. When she appeared at my front door to drive me to the mall, I greeted her with a cheerful, "Stacie! It's Freddie for a Day, darling!"
Stacie wasn't embarrassed around me -- she felt bad for not wearing a costume! I received plenty of stares from people as I strutted around the mall. I even tried to act outrageously and playful as Freddie's stage persona. I sometimes called people "dear" or "darling" for a good number.
Stacie took plenty of pictures of me and my antics around the mall. When we stopped to eat, she snapped a picture of me eating some stromboli. I wanted to eat curry in honor of Freddie's favorite food, but it wasn't available in any of the restaurants. She also took a picture of me looking happily at the toys in a vending machine. We stopped by Victoria's Secret and I, feeling devious, asked her to take a picture of me holding a pair of woman's underwear. Of course I had to find the skimpiest pair. My personal favorite photo taken at the mall was the photo of myself on the kiddy ride. I got in the car-shaped kiddy ride and shouted "I am the king of everything!" It was a riot! I took a photo of Stacie in the ride as well. She needed to be the star of attention that day, too!
We visited many shops and bought a few things here and there. I took the time in the music store to hunt for some Queen merchandise, but I was out of luck. They had all the Queen CDs that I already owned. I checked Hot Topic for some Queen shirts and I was out of luck there as well! (Shame on this mall for their lack of Queenie supplies!)
We stopped by the dollar store in the mall to buy some candy to take into the movie theatre close by. I almost slipped from the smooth surfaces of my shoes' bottoms against the slick carpet! The lady behind the cash register noticed me and asked, "Is it Halloween already? Why are you dressed up?" I grinned and said to her, " I'm Freddie Mercury, dear! It's to support the Mercury Phoenix Trust." She replied with a nod (but I think she was a little lost on why I was dressed up) and took my money for the candy I bought.
After leaving the dollar store, we went to the movies to see some cheesy vampire parody. The movie theatre was cold to Stacie, but I was comfortably warm in my costume. The only problem with my costume, however, was eating foods. Whenever I ate, I had to take off my gloves so they would not get messy. I felt so naked without the gloves and I hated to remove them because I was worried some people would see me and not recognize my costume without the gloves!
After the mall, I, still in costume, went with Stacie to the zoo in Columbus. The zoo was ridiculously hot and I was wearing black clothes to top that. There were many excellent exhibits in the zoo. There was a particular exhibit about the animals of Zanzibar but, sadly, it closed before we arrived. One exhibit that I wanted to see were the penguins. I wanted to take a picture with the actual penguins but I decided to take a picture with the penguin statue next to the exhibit. It was less messy and less smelly than being with an actual penguin. There were plenty of people who stopped to stare at me when I posed with the penguin!
The troublesome part of the zoo was the miserable heat. Not only was I wearing layers of clothing, I was also wearing black clothing! I was worried that if I sweated too much, my make-up would melt! Of course, the zoo didn't have a make-up artist on site for touch-ups. We thought the indoor manatee exhibit would be cool, but to our surprise, it was very hot and also very crowded.
After the manatee exhibit, we explored the zoo more and stopped to eat at a cafeteria. I ordered teriyaki chicken since I heard that Freddie enjoyed teriyaki as well. After eating, we continued our journey into the African safari exhibit. We saw plenty of monkeys and birds, but I wanted to see the gorillas! Right when I saw the gorilla statue, I ran over and asked my mother to take my picture. She suggested I should pose with my hand scratching the gorilla's chin and I exclaimed "Oh, that's perfect!" She than snapped the picture of me with the gorilla. She took a couple other pictures of me, Stacie and the gorilla, but the chin-scratching Slightly Mad Anna was by far the best of the gorilla shots.
We later went into the indoor reptile exhibit to see the lizards, snakes, and turtles. They had the largest snake on exhibit in Ohio, or so they claimed. I'm slightly afraid of snakes so I moved on to admire the turtles and the iguanas.
After the reptiles, Stacie, my parents, and I went to the indoor marine exhibit. I enjoyed this one very much because it was chilly and air-conditioned. The first thing that greeted us when we walked in was a petting aquarium and Stacie and I agreed to go over there and check it out. We petted horseshoe crabs and starfishes. I had to take off my gloves and roll up my sleeves so my costume wouldn't get soaked. My parents were getting exhausted and they told us that they would meet us by the huge tank with the sharks and fishes. Stacie and I exchanged photo snaps of us petting the aquatic animals and we met up with my parents to admire the beautiful sight of the huge tank with all of the sea animals.
Then, we went outside to see the lions. It was around the afternoon, so the lions were tired and snoozing in the sunshine. Seeing the lions made me ask myself "If Freddie was an animal, what would he be?" I remember in one interview he said when he dressed in leather, he fancied himself as a black panther. He would make a charming panther, but I think he would make the most ideal house cat. A Persian cat, to be precise!
The last exhibit we saw was the Asian exhibit. They had a presentation about extinction and how endangered the species of tigers are in the world. This was a depressing fact to see, since I love these beautiful cats. Luckily, they had a couple at the zoo in healthy shape! We saw the tigers out and about in their zoo habitats. One was enjoying the shade of his cave as the other greeted us from behind the glass. It was sad to see them not in their natural habitat, but it is good to know how these zoos are trying to preserve the dying species. I'm sure Freddie would have loved to see these creatures happy just as I do.
It was close to the end of the day and we went to the gift shop to see the goodies. There were shelves stuffed with darling plush animals! My favorite stuffed animal was this adorable purple squid. Stacie loved this one plush wolf, but the toy was very expensive! Since she couldn't have the wolf, I decided to take a picture of her hugging it. We found some reasonably priced animal toys that were small enough to fit the palm of a child's hand and there was a good selection of them, too! Stacie bought one of a wolf cub while I bought a tiny penguin in honor of the ocasion. We purchased our goods and finally left the zoo and ended our magical day.
Indeed, it was a magical day! A very Slightly Mad, but joyous day and it was a day fit for our beloved Freddie Mercury!