ORION COSTUMES Men's Albert Einstein Mad Scientist Fancy Dress Costume

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His intellect made Einstein famous, but it was his appearance that made him an icon. Few understood the implications of his work – “ 4,000 bewildered as Einstein speaks,” wrote the New York Times – but his image, spread via the accelerating technologies of print and television, was eminently approachable. The frazzled hair, the frowsy jumper, the caterpillar moustache, the hangdog jowls and those sad, galactic eyes. “He was slovenly,” Robert Schulmann, a former editor of the Collected Papers of Einstein told me. “And at some point, it began to work in his favour.” Einstein’s image endeared him to the world, suggesting that here was a mind too occupied with higher questions to spare much thought to, say, a comb.

Evelyn died before she had her day in court. But shortly after her death in April 2011, a case was heard in California that, it seemed, would settle the question of Albert Einstein’s ownership for good. Einstein understood the power of images. Throughout his life he conjured simple scenes to illustrate complex ideas: a plummeting elevator, a train speeding through a lightning storm, a blind beetle creeping along a curved surface. To explain his special theory of relativity he would joke: “A minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour, but an hour sitting with a pretty girl passes like a minute.” In time, he too would become a symbol, the purest embodiment of that enigmatic quality: genius. A brown vest worn over the shirt is an essential part of the costume as it helps to create a more formal and dressed-up look. Are you ready to channel your inner genius and transform into one of the most iconic scientists of all time? Look no further, because in this guide, we’re going to show you how to make a costume that will have you looking just like Albert Einstein! From the wild hair, to the lab coat, we’ll cover all the details to make sure your costume is spot-on and accurate. Albert Einstein Costume Whenever he walked into the living room of his parents’ house in the town of Washington, New York, Roger Richman saw a framed photograph of Albert Einstein standing with his father. Richman’s father, Paul, had befriended Einstein in the 1930s when they worked together to help German Jews resettle in Alaska, Paraguay and Mexico. (At the time, most of the US was closed to those fleeing Nazi oppression.) Richman’s father died in 1955, three months after Einstein, but the Richman family remained close to the keepers of Einstein’s legacy.Richman considered himself the underdog. “Oftentimes I became despondent over the power and influence of the opposition,” he wrote in an unpublished memoir. “I was fighting major advertising agencies, broadcasters, film studios, manufacturers and publishers – a belligerent field.” He was energised, however, by what he considered to be a moral cause. How could anyone, Richman wrote, “not want to remove a presidential dildo from the marketplace?” Six decades after his death, Einstein’s earnings show no sign of slowing. That Einstein remains so in demand is a function not just of his otherworldly brilliance and unforgettable appearance, but also the values he embodied. It has always been easy for diverse groups to embrace Einstein – a short, dyslexic hypochondriac from a persecuted minority – as their own. His seemingly contradictory positions – he opposed the creation of a Jewish state and deplored the victimisation of Palestinian Arabs, while raising funds for Zionist causes; he disdained the idea of divine revelation, but believed in God – made it possible even for opposed groups to adopt him as their figurehead. In 1905, Einstein published a series of papers that laid the foundation for modern physics. These papers included his theory of special relativity, which explained how the laws of physics change at high speeds, and his famous equation, E=mc². In 1915, he published his theory of general relativity, which explained how gravity works by warping the fabric of spacetime. To add legal heft to his threats, WC Fields’ grandson, Everett, suggested that Richman draft a celebrity rights law. At first, Richman thought the idea preposterous. But when the California senator William Campbell expressed interest in drafting such a law, Richman wrote more than 80 letters to “widows and orphans of celebrity greats”, and amassed a group of powerful supporters, including Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley’s ex-wife Priscilla and Bing Crosby’s widow Kathryn. After two rejections, the California Celebrity Rights Act passed on 1 January 1985. In California, at least, heirs could now legally inherit the publicity rights of their celebrity ancestors who had died in the state. With a legal precedent established in California, Richman was in business. It was time, he decided, to come to the rescue of his father’s old friend, Albert Einstein. While researching the law, Richman found a case involving the son of Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian-American actor best remembered for his performance as Dracula. In 1966, Lugosi’s son sued Universal Pictures, claiming that he and his stepmother owned his father’s image rights, not the movie studio. Lugosi’s son won the case at trial, but the high court overturned the ruling on the grounds that his father had not sold his image for commercial purposes during his lifetime. Richman deduced, then, the heirs of any celebrity who had sold his or her image during their lifetime had a claim on their publicity rights.

The task had fallen to Rosenkranz after Ehud Benamy died in late 1990. The academic deliberated over each request with a scholar’s sense of duty, balancing his speculation as to what Einstein may have wanted with the pressure he felt from Richman to greenlight anything that did not carry an obviously harmful association. “It was basically an issue of taste,” he recalled. “Sometimes I didn’t think the product in question, or its design, or the accompanying text were sufficiently ‘lofty’.” The university seemed happy to keep a low profile while Richman fought its profitable battles. “I didn’t get the impression that people were at all aware of the university’s role during this period,” Rosenkranz told me. “But Richman had the reputation of being a tough cookie in the negotiations – which was in the university’s interest.” Emboldened by success, Richman even began to target companies that used Einstein’s name without any intended association with the physicist. The Einstein Bros Bagel company caved to the university’s demands, despite being named after its own founders. For one academic at the Hebrew University, Richman’s aggressive stance presented a troubling ethical dilemma. Einstein died in 1955 at the age of 76. His death was a loss not only to the scientific community but also to the world at large. His contributions to science and his dedication to peace and civil rights continue to inspire people today. His name has become synonymous with genius and his work continues to be studied and debated by scientists and non-scientists alike. During World War II, Einstein left Germany and immigrated to the United States. He accepted a position at Princeton University, where he spent the remainder of his career. He continued to work on his theories and also made important contributions to the field of quantum mechanics.

A humanoid robot with a face resembling Einstein at the World Robot Conference, Beijing, September 2021. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images A business leather belt is an important accessory that helps to complete the formal look of the costume.