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DIY Crazy Eyes Costume: How to Dress Like Orange Is the New Black’s Most Unforgettable Character

There are characters that live at the edge of a scene, and then there is Suzanne Warren. Known to everyone at Litchfield Penitentiary as Crazy Eyes, Suzanne was introduced in the first season of Orange Is the New Black as someone the audience was meant to find unsettling, maybe even comic. Then Uzo Aduba started playing her at full depth, and something shifted. What looked like a punchline turned out to be a fully realized human being, and the audience felt that shift in a way that stayed with them long after the episode ended.

The DIY Crazy Eyes costume draws from one of Netflix television's most celebrated characters, Suzanne Warren, known as Crazy Eyes, played by Uzo Aduba in Orange Is the New Black, which premiered in 2013 and ran for seven seasons. Aduba won two Emmy Awards for the role, making her one of a rare group of performers to win acting Emmys in two different categories for the same character. The costume's simplicity, a gray sweatshirt, tan scrubs, and box braids, places the full weight of recognition on the performer's physical presence and expression, making it one of the more demanding and rewarding character costumes from the prestige streaming era.

Orange Is the New Black premiered on Netflix in 2013 and ran for seven seasons, becoming one of the most culturally significant television series of the decade. The show built its reputation on doing exactly what it did with Suzanne Warren, taking characters who existed on the margins and insisting that the audience look at them directly. Suzanne was not a background figure. She was one of the most complex characters on a show full of complex characters, and Uzo Aduba played every layer of that with a precision that did not go unnoticed.

Aduba won two Emmy Awards for the role. A Supporting Actress Emmy in 2014 and a Guest Actress Emmy in 2015, the latter coming after the show moved categories. Winning in two different acting categories for the same character is an exceptionally rare thing, and it speaks to what Aduba was doing with Suzanne that went well beyond the wide eyes and the intensity that first introduced her to the audience. She was building a person, not a performance, and the person she built became one of the most beloved characters in recent television history.

A DIY Crazy Eyes costume works because the visual is immediately recognizable and the character behind it is genuinely worth inhabiting. This is not a costume that hangs on a prop or a single clever piece of clothing. It hangs on commitment, on the willingness to hold an expression and a posture that communicates everything about who Suzanne Warren is before you say a single word. The clothes are simple. What you do inside them is the whole costume.

For anyone who watched the show, this costume lands with immediate recognition and a specific kind of warmth. Suzanne was someone you rooted for even when she frightened you, and that combination is rare and worth honoring. For anyone discovering the character through this costume, Orange Is the New Black is worth the watch, and Suzanne Warren is worth knowing.

👗 Step 1: Create the Base

The clothing for a DIY Crazy Eyes costume is straightforward, and that is not a weakness. It is an honest reflection of the character's circumstances. Suzanne Warren wore prison-issued clothing, and the simplicity of that is part of what makes the costume work. There is no ornamentation. There is no personalization. The uniform is the point.

You need a long-sleeved gray sweatshirt and tan or sandy scrub pants and top. The sweatshirt should be plain, no logos, no graphics, no text. A heathered gray reads most accurately to the show's costuming. The scrub pants should be in a warm tan or khaki tone rather than a cool beige. Medical scrub pants are the easiest and most affordable source for the bottom half. Online retailers, medical supply stores, and thrift shops that serve healthcare workers all carry them at low price points. Look for a relaxed fit rather than a tapered one.

The fit of both pieces should be comfortable and slightly unstructured. Suzanne was not wearing tailored clothing. She was wearing what she was given, and it fit the way institutional clothing fits, which is to say adequately and without any particular concern for the wearer's preferences. If your thrifted sweatshirt runs a size large, that is fine. It is probably more accurate.

Find other Easy DIY Costume Ideas Here

💇 Step 2: The Hair

The Bantu knots are the single most recognizable visual element of a DIY Crazy Eyes costume, and they deserve real attention because getting them right is what takes the look from generic to immediately identifiable. Suzanne's hair was styled in dozens of small, neat Bantu knots worn close to the head and distributed evenly across the scalp. The uniformity and sculptural shape of the knots created a very specific silhouette that reads instantly on screen and reads just as instantly in person.

A Bantu knot is created by dividing the hair into small sections, twisting each section tightly, then wrapping it around itself until it forms a small knot that rests against the scalp. Each knot is secured so it stays firmly in place. If you are working with natural hair that has enough texture and length to hold the style, a braiding salon or stylist experienced with natural hair can create the look before your event with excellent results.

The finished result is a series of small coiled knots sitting evenly across the head, each one tight, round, and distinct from its neighbors. If you are working with natural hair that has enough texture and length to hold a twist, a braiding salon or a stylist experienced with natural hair styles can install these before your event and the result will be exactly right.

For everyone else, a Bantu knot wig is the practical solution and the category has improved considerably in recent years. When shopping for one, look specifically for the term Bantu knots rather than a general natural hair style description, because the knot shape is specific and other styles will not read as Suzanne Warren. The knots should be small to medium in size, evenly distributed across the cap, and the color should be a natural dark brown or black.

Costume shops, beauty supply stores, and online retailers all carry options at a range of price points. When fitting the wig, make sure it sits naturally at the hairline and does not ride back on the head. That is the most common fit issue with styled wigs and the one that reads as obviously artificial from across a room.

Whether you are wearing natural Bantu knots or a wig, the hair should sit close to the head and frame the face without falling over it. The knots contributed directly to the wide, unobstructed quality of Suzanne's expression by keeping everything pulled in and upward. The face is the whole costume, and the hair is what clears the frame for it.

💄 Step 3: Makeup

The makeup for this costume is minimal, and saying so plainly is more useful than manufacturing tips that do not belong here. Suzanne Warren was an incarcerated woman in a federal prison. She was not wearing makeup, and the character's visual power comes entirely from her natural face and what Uzo Aduba did with it expressively. Trying to add theatrical makeup to this costume would pull it in the wrong direction.

What you can do is make sure your skin looks clean, even, and awake. A light foundation or tinted moisturizer to even out the complexion and a small amount of mascara to make the eyes read clearly are all that is needed. The eyes are the most important feature in this costume, and they need to be visible and expressive, not decorated. Clear or neutral lip balm keeps the look grounded without pulling attention. Everything else belongs to the expression, not the makeup bag.

🕺 Step 4: Movement and Presence

This is where the DIY Crazy Eyes costume actually lives, and it cannot be skipped or approximated. The clothes and the hair establish who you are. The expression and the movement confirm it. Uzo Aduba built Suzanne's physical presence from a very specific set of choices, and they are all observable and learnable.

The eyes are the foundation of everything. Suzanne held a wide, unblinking gaze that communicated intensity without aggression, though the line between the two was sometimes thin. To practice this, open your eyes slightly wider than feels natural and hold your focus on a fixed point without letting your gaze drift. Do not squint. Do not narrow. Hold the openness even when it starts to feel strange, because that strangeness is exactly the quality the expression needs. Practice in a mirror until it feels less effortful.

The posture is upright and slightly forward, as if Suzanne was always about to say something important or had just thought of something that no one else in the room had considered yet. Her weight was balanced and grounded. She did not slouch, and she did not fidget. She occupied her space with a kind of earnest certainty that was both endearing and unnerving depending on the moment.

The head tilt is one of Aduba's most specific physical choices for the character. When Suzanne was processing something emotionally, or building toward a declaration, her head would shift slightly to one side. It was not a comedic gesture. It was a genuine physical expression of someone working something out in real time. Use it sparingly and it will read immediately. Use it too often and it loses the specificity that makes it work.

Suzanne also had a quality of complete sincerity in everything she said and did. There was no irony in her, no protective distance between what she felt and what she expressed. Inhabiting that at a party means playing every interaction as if it genuinely matters, because to Suzanne, it always did. That sincerity is both the comedy and the heart of the character, and Aduba balanced them with a precision that is worth attempting even imperfectly.

📸 Step 5: Capture the Moment

For photography, the DIY Crazy Eyes costume is built entirely around the face, which means lighting the face well is the whole job. Natural light from a window positioned slightly to one side will illuminate the eyes clearly and give the expression the depth it needs to read in a photograph. Avoid overhead lighting, which flattens the face and kills the intensity that the expression depends on.

A plain background in a neutral or dark tone works best. The costume is simple by design and the background should not compete with it. A blank wall, a dark curtain, or an outdoor setting with a simple backdrop behind you all work well. Portrait mode on a phone will soften the background further and pull the face forward, which is exactly right for this costume.

For the pose, face the camera directly rather than at an angle. Suzanne met the world head-on, and the photograph should reflect that. Hold the wide-eyed expression, let the braids fall naturally around your face, and hold the frame for a beat longer than feels comfortable before the shutter goes. That extra moment of held stillness is often where the best frame lives.

🏆 Why Go DIY? Wrap-Up

Building a DIY Crazy Eyes costume honestly means accepting that the power of this costume is almost entirely in the performance rather than the construction, and that is not a limitation. It is a challenge worth taking seriously. The gray sweatshirt and the tan scrubs are easy to source and easy to wear. The braids require some planning but are entirely achievable. What requires real effort is the expression, the posture, the held gaze, and the quality of complete sincerity that Uzo Aduba brought to Suzanne Warren every single episode.

Suzanne Warren mattered because the show refused to let her be only one thing. She was funny and frightening and heartbreaking and loyal and completely herself in a place that worked very hard to erase the self. Aduba played all of that without flinching, and the two Emmys that followed were a recognition of something the audience already knew. This was exceptional work built on a character who deserved exceptional work.

When you put on this costume and hold that expression and walk into a room with Suzanne's particular combination of earnestness and intensity, you are doing something small but real in honor of a character who asked the audience to look more carefully than they expected to. That is worth doing. Suzanne would think so too.

🕸️ Related Costumes to Try

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Further Reading & Resources

📖 Read: Orange Is The New Black Seasons 1-5 [DVD]
🔍 More: Orange Is the New Black - Wikipedia