(no subject)
So yesterday was Halloween! I went to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dracolytch's party, because I am given to understand from movies and books and things that that is what twentysomethings do on Halloween. I spent the morning at the church's rummage sale selling my possessions for pocket money, and we were supposed to come in costume, so I was basically in costume all day.
...actually I was basically in costume from 8: Saturday morning until late Sunday evening, because I didn't get home from party until 2 pm the next day. Um.
Costume was interesting. I threw it together at the last minute - I hadn't decided what I was doing until I acquired the hat for it on Friday night, and then it came together.
Here is what various people thought I was:
a Jedi cowgirl
"ooh, you're dressed up all businesslike!"
English riding outfit
Van Helsing
Mary Poppins
Etta Place
Annie Oakley
Which isn't bad if you take the average of them all, considering all I was going for was "generic steampunk-Old West-Late Victorian schoolteacher". It is interesting that most people, when confronted with a costume they don't immediately recognize, automatically assume it's meant to be a particular character. I've never really done costuming as a particular character unless I was part of a group: even as a kid I was a princess, a Colonial girl, a witch, a beetle. I suppose I've never wanted to be somebody else when I dress up - I just want to be me, but me in a different context.
That's really my costume philosophy overall: I don't want something that looks like a costume, I want something that looks like what I would be wearing if I were that person, which means practical, sturdy, well-worn, and only vaguely in the right style. This actually leads to an interesting contradiction: when I'm in a costume I quite like, strangers compliment me on it, and people I know don't actually realize I'm in costume, because it just looks like a moderately more cohesive version of the sort of thing I usually wear.
(Yes, people who know me in RL saw me in that outfit and didn't realize it was a Halloween costume. :D)
Key:
1 The HAT: A fabulous hat is the anchor of any proper outfit.
Donated to the church rummage sale by Mr. Pat, who only likes caps, not hats.
It is not the highest quality hat - it is "100% WOOL MADE IN USA ONE SIZE FITS ALL PATENT PENDING", but on the other hand, it is 100% wool felt, one size fits all, which means it's warm, keeps the rain & sun off, will be pretty durable and doesn't give me a headache.
And it is *the* classic bad-guy-in-a-cowboy-movie wide-brimmed black fedora. I put it on while helping set up the rummage sale and have basically only taken it off to sleep since. :D
So I knew it had to be the basis of my Halloween costume, and that meant either a '20s-gangster-Carmen-Sandiego look, or an Old West/1890s look, and as I don't have a proper trench coat, and I'd been reading too many steampunk AUs, Old West it was, especially as a fedora actually was *women's* fashion in the late 19th century, & I wanted to really own this hat.
2. The HAIR:Hair is pinned up in a basic twist in the back with early-20th-century wire hairpins I inherited from somebody, partly to stay in period, mostly because my hair is too strong for modern bobby pins, it chews them up, eats them & then spits them back out.
I actually really need to learn how to do some proper period updos that work under hats. Or any updos at all, actually, the simple twist is about the limit of my skill, which is sad.
3. Pewter artisan broach with a persian cat among lilies, marked "seagull pewter 1987 canada", which I rescued fromxerahanadu's jewelry box discards when she was clearing it out, because it is lovely, and a nice medallion-shape that works with all sorts of looks. Being used to hold down the neckcloth, because I don't really know the proper way to tie a neckcloth for the period, so I figured heavy pewter couldn't possibly hurt the look.
4. Blue denim longcoat, marked denim & co. Bought at a church rummage sale somewhere in Loudoun County, for <$2.
Bought this thinking I would never wear it and it looked really 1990s and I shouldn't, but it fit really nicely and it was a LONGCOAT and blue denim and had nice pockets, and it was warm, so I did, and I am so glad I did, because I *love* it, and every girl needs a longcoat, and it turns out that when worn with a nice hat and a long skirt it looks far more 1890s than 1990s. I approve, and tend to wear it a LOT in the fall. Sometimes with a denim skirt and denim newsboy cap, which is a bit overwhelmingly denim, but *still* manages to look more Newsies than anything.
(Even if it does turn out that denim & co is a QVC brand, which backs up my original conviction that it is very, very '90s.)
5. Slate gray heavy knit frock coat with black velvet trim, DBY ltd. Bought at an eviction sale at a self-storage place, ~$1.
This is another coat I wear a lot more than I thought I would when I bought it: it's warm, insanely comfortable, fits me like a glove, and I love the way the skirts give shape to my figure while at the same time concealing it. It required a tiny bit of repair to the cuffs when I bought it, and they've never quite got the right shape back, but other than that it is perfect. And gives a period look to any outfit (I love wearing it over jeans) while being clearly enough modern materials & etc that it doesn't look costumey unless I want it to.
Every girl needs a frock coat, too.
6. Underwear: Ribbed cotten chemise & drawers. amusingly enough, the only home-made part of this costume was the underthings: muslin drawers (& cotton sanitary pads, because being a girl is always maximally inconvenient). Like the hairpins, not made specifically for the costume, but because I find the old-fashioned forms more functional. And at the same time, I think suitable underwear is really essential for any costume; even if nobody sees it, it helps you feel the part, & it helps you *move* right, which can be just as important.
And, of course, if you're creative, at *some* point you'll find an excuse to flash your period underdrawers anyway. :D
I actually really badly want more pairs of 19th-century-stlye drawers, & chemises, in more different lengths & have been looking for good historical underwear patterns I can do up in cheap muslin for ages.
7. Ankle-length black polyester skirt. The label is "Flexible", which is impossible to google, honestly. Probably bought at Goodwill for ~$2
I first starting collecting long, full skirts around the time I got my first period, when I was 14; I was deeply paranoid about anyone being able to tell (getting your first one at summer camp when you've packed nothing for two weeks except short-shorts will do that to you) but once I realized how versatile, and comfortable in all conditions, and striking they were, and than it meant I never had to shave my legs, I never looked back. I *love* long full skirts - trousers are nice sometimes, but skirts are better for everything else - and I haven't quite figured out why people in general stopped wearing them.
This particular one is actually one of the first I got; I love the cut and the fabric-weight, and it's got nice pockets and a really interesting high waist which gives it a regal feeling to wear, and I need a plain black formal-ish skirt sometimes, and it's surprisingly hard to find long-and-full in plain black. But I don't really wear it much because I don't particularly like the detail of the line of buttons down the front; it's fussy and inelegant and messes up the drape. About ten years ago I actually sewed up the front and keep meaning to just take the buttons off, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Though what that means is I've never used it frequently enough for the black to start to fade, which is good: I'll miss it when it finally leaves the wardrobe.
8. Cotton peasant skirt in Southwestern pattern, marked Pier One. Probably bought at Goodwill for ~$2; altered by me.
This skirt was about six inches too long when I aquired it, and now has a ruffle on the botton that it didn't before. For the costume I'm wearing it as a petticoat, safety-pinned up into a bustle in the back, because late Victorian means a bustle. I do, in fact, have acutal period petticoats - one of which was my mothers back when a wide petticoat was a basic wardrobe element for a girl - but I had to improvise because I forgot until Saturday morning that all the petticoats are in my costume tub in storage. (Yes, the only bit of this whole outfit that I class as "costume" rather than "everyday wear" would be the antique petticoats, and that's only because I know if I wear them everyday I'll rip the lace to bits. Layering-to-the-infinite-power is one of the coolest things about big skirts.)
9. Ruffle-front white cotton dress shirt, Chadwick's. Given to me by - I think a cousin - because it was brand new and I was the only person she knew who might fit it.
I actually had this shirt in a bag of stuff to sell at the rummage sale, but pulled it back out after I rescued the hat. Unfortunately in anything *other* than explicitly Old West period garb, it just makes me look like a waitress. But it worked quite well with the costume.
10. Reproduction souvenir handkerchief from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, reproduced by the Smithsonian Institution, 1976. Bought at a garage sale for $.50.
...I collect souvenir handkerchiefs, and wear them pretty much all summer, mostly under straw hats to keep my hair out of the way. The first of the collection was printed with Lady Godiva, but I acquire a couple more interesting ones a year, so I have one for every occasion now! I should actually learn how to properly wear & tie them as neckcloths for less casual outfits, at some point; I even have some really nice designer silk ones with '50s mod prints that were my grandmother's that I've never figured out how to wear.
11. Medium's ring, from my grandmother's collection.
This ring is quite gaudy and ugly; it's a huge, clear glass cabochon in a cheap brass setting. What this means, though, is that it's effectively a fisheye lens: once you've learned it, you can effectively get a three-sixty view around yourself at all times without anyone knowing you can. So quite good for doing mind-reading tricks, cheating at cards, and keeping an eye out for the sheriff: a medium's ring.
I don't know how my grandmother got it, or why, but I grabbed it right out of the box when the cousins split up her costume jewelry a few years back. (She may, in fact, have had it because it was a medium's ring: my grandmother was that sort of awesome.)
12. 4.5mm air rifle, c. early 1970s, from the attic.
You'll put your eye out!
(First most important part of the outfit: the hat. Second most important part: the weaponry.)
13. Knee-high ribbed black stockings, from who-knows-where.
Whyyy is it so hard to find knee-highs these days? When did they stop being standard socks? They are the only socks I can where, because any others slump down and end up gathered around the arches of my feet after about ten minutes of walking. (Plus, of course, they're warm and comfortable and look nice. I don't know why those three concepts are so hard for the modern fashion industry to figure out.)
14. Stompy boots, Splash fashion footwear, $6.99 at Salvation Army.
These were the only part of this outfit actually purchased as costume gear, for my Aayla Secura Jedi costume a few years back. I kind of assumed they'd be dreadfully uncomfortable, as they have huge heels and are all-man-made-materials, but it turned out that they're actually the most comfortable walking shoes I own, and are reasonably warm and rugged. *And* they work with everything from goth schoolgirl to interview outfit to SCA garb.
Mom seems to think that wearing them with long skirts makes me look like Granny Clampett. Mom doesn't seem to understand that looking like Granny Clampett is a good thing. :P
The difference between "halloween costume" and "things I would wear to everyday event": the rifle, the jewelry, and the neckcloth would be gone; I would wear a different skirt (probably a plaid or a brighter color) and a turtleneck instead of a collared shirt. ....that's about it, actually.
dracolytch's party, because I am given to understand from movies and books and things that that is what twentysomethings do on Halloween. I spent the morning at the church's rummage sale selling my possessions for pocket money, and we were supposed to come in costume, so I was basically in costume all day....actually I was basically in costume from 8: Saturday morning until late Sunday evening, because I didn't get home from party until 2 pm the next day. Um.
Costume was interesting. I threw it together at the last minute - I hadn't decided what I was doing until I acquired the hat for it on Friday night, and then it came together.
Here is what various people thought I was:
a Jedi cowgirl
"ooh, you're dressed up all businesslike!"
English riding outfit
Van Helsing
Mary Poppins
Etta Place
Annie Oakley
Which isn't bad if you take the average of them all, considering all I was going for was "generic steampunk-Old West-Late Victorian schoolteacher". It is interesting that most people, when confronted with a costume they don't immediately recognize, automatically assume it's meant to be a particular character. I've never really done costuming as a particular character unless I was part of a group: even as a kid I was a princess, a Colonial girl, a witch, a beetle. I suppose I've never wanted to be somebody else when I dress up - I just want to be me, but me in a different context.
That's really my costume philosophy overall: I don't want something that looks like a costume, I want something that looks like what I would be wearing if I were that person, which means practical, sturdy, well-worn, and only vaguely in the right style. This actually leads to an interesting contradiction: when I'm in a costume I quite like, strangers compliment me on it, and people I know don't actually realize I'm in costume, because it just looks like a moderately more cohesive version of the sort of thing I usually wear.
(Yes, people who know me in RL saw me in that outfit and didn't realize it was a Halloween costume. :D)
Key:
1 The HAT: A fabulous hat is the anchor of any proper outfit.
Donated to the church rummage sale by Mr. Pat, who only likes caps, not hats.
It is not the highest quality hat - it is "100% WOOL MADE IN USA ONE SIZE FITS ALL PATENT PENDING", but on the other hand, it is 100% wool felt, one size fits all, which means it's warm, keeps the rain & sun off, will be pretty durable and doesn't give me a headache.
And it is *the* classic bad-guy-in-a-cowboy-movie wide-brimmed black fedora. I put it on while helping set up the rummage sale and have basically only taken it off to sleep since. :D
So I knew it had to be the basis of my Halloween costume, and that meant either a '20s-gangster-Carmen-Sandiego look, or an Old West/1890s look, and as I don't have a proper trench coat, and I'd been reading too many steampunk AUs, Old West it was, especially as a fedora actually was *women's* fashion in the late 19th century, & I wanted to really own this hat.
2. The HAIR:Hair is pinned up in a basic twist in the back with early-20th-century wire hairpins I inherited from somebody, partly to stay in period, mostly because my hair is too strong for modern bobby pins, it chews them up, eats them & then spits them back out.
I actually really need to learn how to do some proper period updos that work under hats. Or any updos at all, actually, the simple twist is about the limit of my skill, which is sad.
3. Pewter artisan broach with a persian cat among lilies, marked "seagull pewter 1987 canada", which I rescued from
xerahanadu's jewelry box discards when she was clearing it out, because it is lovely, and a nice medallion-shape that works with all sorts of looks. Being used to hold down the neckcloth, because I don't really know the proper way to tie a neckcloth for the period, so I figured heavy pewter couldn't possibly hurt the look.4. Blue denim longcoat, marked denim & co. Bought at a church rummage sale somewhere in Loudoun County, for <$2.
Bought this thinking I would never wear it and it looked really 1990s and I shouldn't, but it fit really nicely and it was a LONGCOAT and blue denim and had nice pockets, and it was warm, so I did, and I am so glad I did, because I *love* it, and every girl needs a longcoat, and it turns out that when worn with a nice hat and a long skirt it looks far more 1890s than 1990s. I approve, and tend to wear it a LOT in the fall. Sometimes with a denim skirt and denim newsboy cap, which is a bit overwhelmingly denim, but *still* manages to look more Newsies than anything.
(Even if it does turn out that denim & co is a QVC brand, which backs up my original conviction that it is very, very '90s.)
5. Slate gray heavy knit frock coat with black velvet trim, DBY ltd. Bought at an eviction sale at a self-storage place, ~$1.
This is another coat I wear a lot more than I thought I would when I bought it: it's warm, insanely comfortable, fits me like a glove, and I love the way the skirts give shape to my figure while at the same time concealing it. It required a tiny bit of repair to the cuffs when I bought it, and they've never quite got the right shape back, but other than that it is perfect. And gives a period look to any outfit (I love wearing it over jeans) while being clearly enough modern materials & etc that it doesn't look costumey unless I want it to.
Every girl needs a frock coat, too.
6. Underwear: Ribbed cotten chemise & drawers. amusingly enough, the only home-made part of this costume was the underthings: muslin drawers (& cotton sanitary pads, because being a girl is always maximally inconvenient). Like the hairpins, not made specifically for the costume, but because I find the old-fashioned forms more functional. And at the same time, I think suitable underwear is really essential for any costume; even if nobody sees it, it helps you feel the part, & it helps you *move* right, which can be just as important.
And, of course, if you're creative, at *some* point you'll find an excuse to flash your period underdrawers anyway. :D
I actually really badly want more pairs of 19th-century-stlye drawers, & chemises, in more different lengths & have been looking for good historical underwear patterns I can do up in cheap muslin for ages.
7. Ankle-length black polyester skirt. The label is "Flexible", which is impossible to google, honestly. Probably bought at Goodwill for ~$2
I first starting collecting long, full skirts around the time I got my first period, when I was 14; I was deeply paranoid about anyone being able to tell (getting your first one at summer camp when you've packed nothing for two weeks except short-shorts will do that to you) but once I realized how versatile, and comfortable in all conditions, and striking they were, and than it meant I never had to shave my legs, I never looked back. I *love* long full skirts - trousers are nice sometimes, but skirts are better for everything else - and I haven't quite figured out why people in general stopped wearing them.
This particular one is actually one of the first I got; I love the cut and the fabric-weight, and it's got nice pockets and a really interesting high waist which gives it a regal feeling to wear, and I need a plain black formal-ish skirt sometimes, and it's surprisingly hard to find long-and-full in plain black. But I don't really wear it much because I don't particularly like the detail of the line of buttons down the front; it's fussy and inelegant and messes up the drape. About ten years ago I actually sewed up the front and keep meaning to just take the buttons off, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Though what that means is I've never used it frequently enough for the black to start to fade, which is good: I'll miss it when it finally leaves the wardrobe.
8. Cotton peasant skirt in Southwestern pattern, marked Pier One. Probably bought at Goodwill for ~$2; altered by me.
This skirt was about six inches too long when I aquired it, and now has a ruffle on the botton that it didn't before. For the costume I'm wearing it as a petticoat, safety-pinned up into a bustle in the back, because late Victorian means a bustle. I do, in fact, have acutal period petticoats - one of which was my mothers back when a wide petticoat was a basic wardrobe element for a girl - but I had to improvise because I forgot until Saturday morning that all the petticoats are in my costume tub in storage. (Yes, the only bit of this whole outfit that I class as "costume" rather than "everyday wear" would be the antique petticoats, and that's only because I know if I wear them everyday I'll rip the lace to bits. Layering-to-the-infinite-power is one of the coolest things about big skirts.)
9. Ruffle-front white cotton dress shirt, Chadwick's. Given to me by - I think a cousin - because it was brand new and I was the only person she knew who might fit it.
I actually had this shirt in a bag of stuff to sell at the rummage sale, but pulled it back out after I rescued the hat. Unfortunately in anything *other* than explicitly Old West period garb, it just makes me look like a waitress. But it worked quite well with the costume.
10. Reproduction souvenir handkerchief from the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, reproduced by the Smithsonian Institution, 1976. Bought at a garage sale for $.50.
...I collect souvenir handkerchiefs, and wear them pretty much all summer, mostly under straw hats to keep my hair out of the way. The first of the collection was printed with Lady Godiva, but I acquire a couple more interesting ones a year, so I have one for every occasion now! I should actually learn how to properly wear & tie them as neckcloths for less casual outfits, at some point; I even have some really nice designer silk ones with '50s mod prints that were my grandmother's that I've never figured out how to wear.
11. Medium's ring, from my grandmother's collection.
This ring is quite gaudy and ugly; it's a huge, clear glass cabochon in a cheap brass setting. What this means, though, is that it's effectively a fisheye lens: once you've learned it, you can effectively get a three-sixty view around yourself at all times without anyone knowing you can. So quite good for doing mind-reading tricks, cheating at cards, and keeping an eye out for the sheriff: a medium's ring.
I don't know how my grandmother got it, or why, but I grabbed it right out of the box when the cousins split up her costume jewelry a few years back. (She may, in fact, have had it because it was a medium's ring: my grandmother was that sort of awesome.)
12. 4.5mm air rifle, c. early 1970s, from the attic.
You'll put your eye out!
(First most important part of the outfit: the hat. Second most important part: the weaponry.)
13. Knee-high ribbed black stockings, from who-knows-where.
Whyyy is it so hard to find knee-highs these days? When did they stop being standard socks? They are the only socks I can where, because any others slump down and end up gathered around the arches of my feet after about ten minutes of walking. (Plus, of course, they're warm and comfortable and look nice. I don't know why those three concepts are so hard for the modern fashion industry to figure out.)
14. Stompy boots, Splash fashion footwear, $6.99 at Salvation Army.
These were the only part of this outfit actually purchased as costume gear, for my Aayla Secura Jedi costume a few years back. I kind of assumed they'd be dreadfully uncomfortable, as they have huge heels and are all-man-made-materials, but it turned out that they're actually the most comfortable walking shoes I own, and are reasonably warm and rugged. *And* they work with everything from goth schoolgirl to interview outfit to SCA garb.
Mom seems to think that wearing them with long skirts makes me look like Granny Clampett. Mom doesn't seem to understand that looking like Granny Clampett is a good thing. :P
The difference between "halloween costume" and "things I would wear to everyday event": the rifle, the jewelry, and the neckcloth would be gone; I would wear a different skirt (probably a plaid or a brighter color) and a turtleneck instead of a collared shirt. ....that's about it, actually.
no subject
"I'm a member of the middle class in late fifteenth-century Florence during the time of the Bonfire of the Vanities! What did you think I was, a princess?"
no subject
Very cool outfit!
no subject
I endorse the "Jedi cowgirl" interpretation. :D
no subject