Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

This was definitely a last minute costume (I painted that rib cage on my dress last night!) but I'm mildly happy with how it came out. I don't think I've ever done a spooky Halloween costume before, I usually go with some kind of pop culture figure (past favorites: Princess Unicorn from The Office and Helena from Orphan Black) but tonight I'm volunteering at my local independent movie theater and the costume theme is characters from horror films.

I have to admit, I haven't seen that many modern horror movies. I've seen a lot of the fun ones, like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Craft, Beetlejuice, etc. but ACTUAL horror movies like Saw, the Freddy movies, the Jason movies, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, those have all eluded me. So I went with what I know and chose to dress up like Barbara Steele's character from the 1961 Italian horror movie Black Sunday.



Black Sunday is about a witch who is burned at the stake and vows vengeance on the family that killed her. It's low budget but super atmospheric with lots of fog and cobwebs to give it a spooky vibe. It also has this thing (a lot of people HATE this in movies but I personally love it) where it takes place in the middle ages but everyone's hair and makeup is super 60's. It's probably one of the reasons I gravitated towards this movie when I was deciding on a costume :)

It's an Italian production but the movie is dubbed in English, so if you're not a fan of foreign films, don't let that turn you off. It's available to rent on amazon here, and I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for a fun thriller to watch tonight! I also just watched another Barbara Steele horror film (although this one is in Italian with English subtitles) called The Long Hair of Death. I like Black Sunday better but this one is *almost* as good, and it's on Amazon Prime so if you have an account it's free to stream :)



Last but not least, I put together a Halloween video set to Bauhaus' "She's in Parties." I included clips from some of my favorite spooky classic movies like Cat People, The Old Dark House, and The Bride of Frankenstein. If you're a fan of classic movies, I hope you'll love it, and if you're not a fan (yet!) maybe this video will give you a little taste of what classic horror movies are like. If you're interested in checking out any of the films in the video, I have a list of the ones that I included on the youtube video page here.



Since I'm pretty sure a reference is necessary for this costume, here is Barbara Steele in stills from Black Sunday:

posh frock friday

This dress makes me feel like a Rockette! I even picked these shoes because they are the most "tap dance" shoes that I own.

I did tap and ballet from when I was three until I was sixteen, and I really miss it sometimes. I recently bought a ballet workout DVD to do at home but I feel kind of silly doing it in sweatpants or pajamas so now I feel like I also need a leotard, and a skirt, and ballet shoes... Maybe I should just buy a tap dance DVD instead and I can workout in my Rockette outfit! ;)

If you're participating in Posh Frock Friday don't forget to hashtag your outfit on IG with #poshfrockfridays so that everyone can see your pretty outfit!

dress- vintage from whurl | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

wishlist wednesday

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13

it's beginning to look a lot like halloween

I'm in such a Halloween mood this year! I think it's actually going to be tough to let go of it after October 31st -- kind of like how sometimes you have to leave the Christmas tree up until mid-February. I'll still have fake spiders and webbing up around the house through November ;)

If you're a classic movie buff (and especially if you're a classic horror movie buff) there was some exciting news in the film restoration front this past week! My favorite spooky movie, The Old Dark House (1932) is getting a 4K restoration from Universal and the Cohen Media Group. I am SO excited. A lot of Cohen restorations get art house theater releases, too, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it shows up at The Film Forum in the next year or two. If you've never seen the film, don't wait for the restoration (although, watch that too once it's out, obviously!) it's available on DVD in a kind of shoddy public-domain style transfer but it's still SO GOOD and SOOOOO spooky! It's the perfect movie to watch late at night a few days before Halloween :)

dress- asos | boots - bait footwear | cardigan - old navy

pins - my shop (10% off w/code BRILLIANT) | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

I might have to start turning this into a bi-weekly feature because it has occurred to me that I don't think I own enough fancy dresses to do a posh frock friday every single week (although, this could be an excuse to buy more posh frocks, lol!)

My collection is actually decreasing quite a bit soon, because I'm going to be doing a vintage sale with Whurl. If you're not familiar with Whurl, it's a shopping app where you can post photos of things that you're searching for and vintage sellers will respond with items that match your search. It's also a shopping marketplace where sellers can list vintage items for sale. In the next week or two I'll be listing a sizeable chunk of my vintage collection on the app -- LOTS of dresses and a few tops. It's not all in my size, so if that's been an issue for you when I do closet sales in the past, definitely check this out. I've always had a habit of buying vintage dresses no matter what size they are, just because they're pretty, lol.

If you're interested, be sure to download the app! And I'll obviously be doing another post before the sale goes live so you'll get a heads up :)

Don't forget if you're participating in posh frock friday, use the hashtag #poshfrockfridays on IG so everyone can see your pretty outfit! xo

dress- vintage | bodysuit - boohoo (old)

shoes - daisy street | purple rug - amazon

wishlist wednesday: halloween edition

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13

sweater weather

It's officially sweater weather! Actually it's even colder than that already, lol. I went apple picking with my brother and his girlfriend a couple weeks ago and they prepared for the weather much better than I did. I only had on a thin sweater (this one, actually) while they had the foresight to wear heavier clothes and jackets. When we were wandering around in the brisk weather my brother asked if I was too cold and I said that as someone who spent all summer moaning about how hot it was, I'm not letting myself utter a single complaint about cold weather, lol. I'm just going to smile & soak it all in, goosebumps and all.

sweater- modcloth | skirt - uo | boots - amazon

tights - target | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

This dress is one of my unicorns -- a brand new dress that looks like a vintage 60's party dress. They're super hard to find, at least in my experience. Most vintage reproductions seem to be more like classic vintage: 1950's, Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe-ish, wiggle dresses, etc. Even when 60's styles are reproduced, it tends to be mod Twiggy-style mini dresses. Which I love, don't get me wrong, but it's SO hard to find things with knife-pleated chiffon or giant bows along the collar or enormous sheer sleeves. And when I do find them, more often than not they just don't feel as special as the original vintage does... something just feels off.  

BUT THIS DRESS. This dress gets it right. I had this hanging up next to a lilac knife-pleated dress from the 60's in my closet and you would never have been able to guess that they were produced some 50+ years apart. This really feels like vintage. But THANK THE HEAVENS it comes in multiple sizes so it's not like 99% of the vintage dresses sitting in my etsy favorites, whose waist measurements would prevent me from even getting the dress around one thigh.

Don't forget if you're joining in and getting all dolled up today, post your outfit on IG with the hashtag #poshfrockfridays

dress - asos | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

black is the happiest color

Guys, I like wearing black now. I feel like my style goes in cycles... this is definitely something I would have worn in 2009 or 2010 and then for a few years it didn't feel right and now it feels like "me" again. Does that make sense?

Anyway. Speaking of changing and growing or whatever, I only have a little over a month left to try to complete my 30 before 30 list and now that I'm looking it over there are so many things on it that don't even interest me anymore. I only made the list a year ago! I think I might revise it this week to fit my current state of mind. Is that cheating? I don't really care if it is, lol :)

One major thing that I did manage to check off was number 15. I've been volunteering at my local non-profit movie theater since March and I'm enjoying it so much! Everyone is incredibly nice and it's been wonderful to get out of the house more often. Being self-employed is fantastic for so many reasons but after a while you can become acutely aware of how isolating it is. But to bring this full circle, the dress code at the theater is "black" and that's probably partially responsible for the resurgence of my appreciation for darker colors in my wardrobe.

dress- forever 21 (old) | shoes - asos | purple rug - amazon