Family wins Halloween with Fyre Festival-themed costumes
While Fyre Festival may have proved to be a massive failure (and was deemed fraudulent), one family's Ja Rule and CEO Billy McFarland-inspired costume was a huge success.
In honor of 18-month-old Jack's first Halloween with his adoptive family, Rachel Taylor and her husband Matt decided to give him the official Taylor treatment.
Since 2016, Rachel and Matt have been dolling up their 5-year-old daughter, Jada, as different pop culture figures, which have taken the internet by storm due to the spot-on costume design and clever photo editing by Rachel, who runs RaeTay Photography.
Their first venture into pop culture-inspired outfits was the result of bath time.
"We had just given Jada a bath and Matt gave her this awesome side part with her wet hair. I was like, 'Dang, Matt. She has the exact same hair as Pablo Escobar,'" Rachel tells Yahoo Lifestyle, adding that the couple had been binge-watching the Netflix drama Narcos.
After creating an outfit, mostly from items obtained from Goodwill, Rachel took a few photos of Jada as the infamous drug kingpin, thinking it would be funny to share with their family and friends. Instead, it went viral.
"After that first Halloween people asked over and over if we'd do another costume, and it just evolved from there," Rachel says.
The next year, donning a full beard, Jada picked up a paintbrush and posed as "Baby Bob Ross."
"Our daughter needed some donut bribing during the Baby Bob Ross photo because she hated the beard, but other than that, she enjoys participating," Rachel says.
The year after that, Jada became the uncanny resemblance of a young Cardi B, based on a photo the rapper shared which was quickly turned into a meme.
However, it is now Jack's turn to take the reins. This year, the theme was Fyre Festival, which was called the "world's biggest festival flop," left hundreds of attendees stranded in the Bahamas and resulted in the 27-year-old founder, McFarland, receiving a six-year prison sentence.
"Our pop culture Halloween costumes are something that is kind of always on the back of our minds throughout the year. We pay attention to popular pop culture moments and try to pick ideas that won't be overdone," Rachel explains. "For example, with Baby Cardi B and Fyre Festival costumes, the memes were super-popular for about two weeks, and you didn't see much of them after that. It seems to be a good formula for a successful costume because a lot of people have seen it, but it's not on the top of their minds as Halloween approaches."
Getting an 18-month-old to pose with his hand in the air to replicate a photo of Ja Rule and McFarland, with Matt stepping in to play the latter, seemed like an impossible feat. However, with some string, a "good sport" and some "Photoshop magic," the finished product is pretty uncanny.
“We try to not use Photoshop as much as possible but this year we had to with our Fyre Festival costumes since we live nowhere near a pretty beach,” Rachel says, not mentioning the hilarious Photoshopped tattoos on Jack.
While the kids are a bit too young to understand the costumes, they still have a fun time recreating the looks. Of course, the couple lets their children pick their own costumes when it comes to trick-or-treating on Halloween and other festivities.
The Taylors plan to continue their Halloween tradition, with the ultimate goal being a “shoutout from Ellen [DeGeneres].”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Mint Chocolate Twinkies are here — just in time for the holiday season
Police sergeant facing discipline over anti-Muslim Facebook posts launches free-speech lawsuit
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
