It is that time of year again, good old Halloween is just 8 weeks away! So get ready for a full weekend of fancy dress and costume fun! Halloween falls on a Saturday this year giving everyone both Friday and Saturday to show off fabulous costumes, which are hopefully, lovely historical garb!! As the costumes start to roll out we can highlight some here, but until then, what are you thinking? Any particular parts you want to play? Inspirations? Let me know!
I just saw someone commented on another blog (and for the life of me I can't find it again) that they wanted to do a Pride and Prejudice and Zombie themed Halloween party, how fun would that be!
ReplyDeleteThat was me :P
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been crazy about the idea for some time now, but unfortunately I don't think I have enough friends who'd like it too...
Halloween is my favorite holiday. Every year is sneaks up on me and I have no costume idea, or plans on how to spend it.
ReplyDeleteIm trying to rectify that this year. I would actually love to have a costume similar to the picture?
One Halloween I made the mistake of going as Madame de Pompadour. I spent the whole night having people wander up to me and ask, "are you Marie Antoinette?". After explaining for the umpteenth time a) the very obvious differences between mid and late 18th century fashion and b) who Mme de P was and why she was awesome, I eventually gave up and just said "Yes". So, if you do plan to go as someone other than Marie A., make sure you'll be around people who'll appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteFor a creepier alternative dressed as a guillotined aristo one year, with deathly makeup and a line of fake gore around my neck. That costume went down really well.
@Ms. VG
ReplyDeleteThe SAME thing happened to me when I was Colombine Comtesse de Vache!! I was asked if I was Little Bo Peep! I did say yes to two giggling girls who were so satisfied that they had 'guessed' my costume. siiiigh!
I thought it was you Madame Berg, I just didn't want to make the social faux pas of throwing your name out if it wasn't you! But yes, I thought that was an amazing idea, if only other people were digging it too!
ReplyDeleteI guess if at least the hosts dressed appropriately and you had Georgian music playing and maybe a little decor it would be properly themed and then everybody else could wear their choice of costume.
A Pride and Prejudice and Zombie party would be so fun!! @Madame Berg, throw it anyway and invite all of us! I know a few Austen fans who would be down!
ReplyDeleteIf a P & P & Z party, I call Mr. Darcy. I adore the character and have a Regency era profile, IMHO, with hair that naturally sweeps forward a la Brutus.
ReplyDeleteYou are of course all invited if such a party ever comes past the planning stage! All the brain you can eat and more!
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I AM going to make a regency zombie costume. I have too many ideas not to.
@Ms. VG: Maybe one should make informative leaflets and hand out to those who ask?
Ah, I'd love to dress up on Halloween, but haven't for years. I wanted to when I was in Salem but at that point couldn't afford a costume and didn't have time to make one.
ReplyDeleteEighteenth-century costumes are probably pretty limited, whether you make it or buy it because I'm sure regardless of who you dress up as, people are going to assume it's Marie Antoinette (or something totally weird like Bo Peep!). When I dressed as a "Puritan" in highschool, people thought I was Florence Nightingale.
That looks like a pretty pricy costume! I once attended a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Halloween, and since it was a part of a series of lectures on Jane Austen's novels and the paintings of the era, I wore my circa 1801 costume (dress, pelisse, hat, and all the undergarmetns) that I'd had made for a book signing appearance in Bath, England (it was for BY A LADY, written under my pen name, Amanda Elyot) during the 2006 Jane Austen festival.
ReplyDeleteBeing NYC and Halloween, which is almost a national holiday here, would you believe that no one batted an eye as I wore the ensemble on the crosstown bus and back; and sat in the auditorium at the museum taking notes!
@Leslie: I know we are all thinking the same things A) I would love to wander through the city en route to the Met in such an outfit and B) your ensemble sounds amazing! Are there any images of it? Did you make it?
ReplyDeleteMadame B - I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it's such a brilliant idea! I can't believe anyone would say no to it!
ReplyDeleteI just picked up the pattern for my Halloween costume today - simplified/slightly modernised Marie Antoinette dress... but since I feel unseasonale wearing a Halloween costume that isn't creepy, I'm going for a zombie Marie Antoinette (I love the woman, but she needs Halloween-ing up!).
Two years ago I went as the Queen of the Night alla The Magic Flute, and I put a ton of labor into my costume, which was black with silver details. I even sewed the star shaped sequins onto my petticoat in the forms of different constellations. Then as I was walking down the street I heard some one say about my costume "Oh look it's a gothic Marie Antoinette". I kind of wanted to scream a little.
ReplyDeleteLast year I went with a group doing the seven deadly sins, and I was pride, so I had an awesome bustle. This year there's nothing very historic about my costume, as I'm going as a mermaid (I have long, curly, bright red hair, so the mermaid thing was really inevitable).
Probably something stock from my closet like Cleopatra or witch.
ReplyDeleteThat or get creative and create a completely original character, but then I'd have to tell a whole story just to answer the question of what I dressed as. Believe me, that can get tiresome, or at least it did back in the day when trick-or-treating.
Oh, and that Pride and Predjudice and Zombies party idea is simply the bee's knees!