How to Dress Like Nurse Ratched

Nurse Mildred Ratched is one of cinema's most famous characters, and deservedly so.

The big baddie of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has been ranked the second-greatest villainess of all time by the American Film Institute, the character even netting Louise Fletcher a Best Actress Oscar.

Let's just say this costume guide has been a long time coming.

How to make a Nurse Ratched costume

The story of the Mildred Ratched costume is the also the story of the nurse uniform. It has evolved a lot since the 1975 movie, so much so that hospitals and healthcare institutions have abandoned the iconic white cap-and-coat combo seen on Louise. Most have traded it for medical scrubs since the 90s.

Nevertheless, the nurse cap endures today as a Halloween costume staple. You can easily make DIY nurse caps with nothing but paper. Here's how.

If you want to copy the Sarah Paulson version of the villain, as seen on 2020's Ratched, get crafty with blue-green paper. (Or "surgical-green," as Ratched costume designer Rebecca Guzzi would say.)

The Netflix version of Nurse Ratched borrowed a silhouette from the 1940s, with lots of shoulder padding and cinched waists, and colored them all green. While it's not unusual to see nurses running around in green scrubs today, their post-WWII forebears traditionally wore white.

To show creator Ryan Murphy, this anachronism was fitting: Green represented lust, envy, oppression and violence.

How to do the Nurse Ratched hair and makeup

The 1940s setting extends to Sarah's hair for Ratched. Here's how you can imitate her post-war updo, which fits snugly under a nurse cap.

In the 1975 film, Louise wears a variation of Victory rolls, among the most popular hairstyles of the 1940s, of course.

Red was pretty much forbidden from the Ratched set and makeup design except for two things: lipstick and blood. And not just any lipstick — makeup artist Eryn Krueger Mekash used Bésame on Sarah.

She drives me crazy

While Nurse Ratched has somehow glamorized the image of the nurse, real healthcare practitioners have tried to push back against the stigma the character has brought to their profession over the decades. This just proves that Mildred is really bad medicine, even beyond the screen.

Comments

How to Dress as Bellatrix Lestrange

With the closing of the Harry Potter movie series in July, Bellatrix Lestrange has emerged as the woman to be for Halloween 2011. Who wouldn't want to be her? Witches are the empresses of Halloween. Wickedest of wicked witches, Bellatrix is not above placing Cruciatus hexes on you. Here's how to dress up as Bellatrix for Halloween: 1. Wand Get into character with a Harry Potter wand. Your Bellatrix getup is incomplete without it. Like its owner, Bellatrix's wand can be described as "unyielding." Her first and more iconic of two wands is curved and made of walnut, with dragon heartstring for core. You can make do with intricate wand replicas . 2. Costume Bellatrix is often clad in a black dress with detached sleeves held on to the top by way of strings. A leather-looking corset also girths her. You can get a good bargain on ready-made Bellatrix costumes here . But you'd be surprised how easy it is to DIY Bellatrix's costume using ol...

How to Dress as Morticia Addams

All Hallow's Eve is fast approaching. From now until the macabre occasion, Cautionary Women will give you tips and tricks on what is Halloween all about: dressing up! To start, let's try to get the look of Morticia Addams, one of the reigning queens of Halloween. Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams Now Morticia, the iconic matriarch of the Addams Family, is scarcely the evil woman pictured here at Cautionary Women. She is rather something of a paradox: scary-looking but kind (in the way she knows how), intimidating but approachable (again, in the way she knows how). She is just eerie, not evil. Carolyn Jones as Morticia Yet Morticia can give any superbly nefarious queen a run for her money. Whether on TV, film, or anywhere The Addams Family franchise is splayed, Morticia commands attention with her spine-tingling style. Sure she may be fundamentally good and all, but try running into her on a solitary road at night. Here's how to be Morticia Addams for...

How to Dress as Madam Mim

Photo via Heider Carlos Eat your heart out, Mystique. The magnificent, marvelous, mad Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone has the shapeshifting business down pat. With powers of transfiguration rivalled only by Merlin and Maleficent, Madam Mim is a one-size-fits-all Disney villain. This is the sorceress with the ability to turn herself from this: To this: Madam Mim can reverse ageing and shed weight for the fraction of time it takes Ursula to morph into Vanessa. In hindsight, Mother Gothel should have just asked Mim for tips instead of committing all those crimes in pursuit of rejuvenation. Hair via New Republic Be beautiful, lovely and fair, have some silvery voice, but never forget the long purple hair! The lavender wig is essential if you intend to channel the scourge of Camelot. If you want to be skinny Madam Mim, go for the longest wig . The older, plumper Mim would opt for a shoulder-length one . Either way, give the wig a little tousle for that truly ...

Cautionary Women

Search This Blog