Thursday, October 30, 2014

Stylish on Halloween: Using Wardrobe Pieces to Create Fun Costumes

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I love Halloween.

I have an excuse to make things ooky spooky in my office, which I have been doing since September 1 with pumpkin paper lanterns and other Halloween accessories. I can watch all the old horror movies I want, which means that I watch a lot of black and white thrillers throughout the month of October.

It's also the one day of the year when I am welcome to wear whatever clothes I like to work as long as they work with a costume concept.

That's where it gets tricky, of course, because I flat out refuse to dress as "a Lolita" or "a goth" or "a mori girl" for my costume. They aren't costumes, no matter how much the rest of the world might think they are.

And, in an effort to create something spooky before tomorrow - as if my long list of inspired-by-Austen coord weren't enough costuming - I'm pulling the age old costume-from-a-coord concept out of the closet (rather literally).

The added bonus from these outfit ideas is that they're usually pretty easy to put together. One or two accessories make the costume what it is, so they're low-cost.

Lolita on Halloween - Toy Soldier


This toy soldier outfit is composed almost entirely out of pieces from my own wardrobe (or pieces that look like things in my own wardrobe). A basic waistcoat-esque JSK, a ruffled blouse, an underskirt for length, Victorian boots, and a shako. Yes, I own a shako.

This would be a pretty basic military coord without the makeup, though. Unlike most of the other outfits in this post, the makeup is the primary "accessory" that makes it a costume. A painted face turns it from a coord I would wear on an average (if dressier than usual) day to a cute toy soldier outfit.

Lolita on Halloween: Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood: a classic.

This is the easiest costume to pull together. All you need is a red cape and an outfit that looks good with it. I added a wolf pendant and a basket, but you don't really need much more than the basics.

Lolita on Halloween - Fairy Queen

Another quick one: a fairy.

This one's super girly by intent. Light colors, lots of flowers and frills. The same thing could be done with almost any color scheme, but I went with the gray, pink, and white for the sake of giving you a break from the black and red options.

Mori Girl on Halloween: Plague Doctor

This one is hard to the dark mori and strega end of things, but I wasn't about to do a Lolita plague doctor. Because of the head-to-toe black of the traditional plague doctor image, dark mori worked well for the concept. In lieu of the plague doctor's traditional hat, I threw on a cowl to hide the hair behind the mask. The plague doctor's staff (a sinister thing if you research the subject) is easy to replace with the "sorcerer" staffs you find floating around costume stores.

Delightfully creepy, if I do say so myself.

Want more ideas for what to wear on Halloween? Take a look at Parfait Doll's tips for wearing Lolita on Halloween as well as her two lists of costume ideas.

And, of course, I'd love to see what you come up with for your own costumes, if you're so inclined!

2 comments:

  1. Oh man, I love the plague doctor one!

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    1. :) I was pleased with how that one turned out. Too bad I didn't have time to actually put together a plague doctor mask.

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