Hallo-week

So my other costume I couldn't photograph to historical accuracy and will save for next year. My main costume I didn't mind photographing badly because no sleep and cookies makes for bad decisions.

Nevertheless, I tried really hard this year even if my costume seems stupidly easy.



The glasses I oddly couldn't find the right pair I was looking for (not even Urban Outfitters to which I refused to buy anything anyway) and the wig is too dark but that was just easier so I wouldn't have to tuck my hair back.



Whooooooo was I?...


...............!!!..........



Laney Boggs from She's All That! As a performance person, it always seems funnier (in my head) to recreate pop culture's really horrible interpretations of performance art.

Of course this may have led people to think I was a hipster ghost or that girl from The Ring but also as a hipster. Rest assured, I would never do a hipster themed costume in my life. I would also punch them for even insinuating it.





I could've committed to the white ballet flats but I didn't find any I liked, just overpriced white shoes at the thrift store.

This is weirdly a more sexy costume than I intended, but to balance the universe I did a very frumpy costume for SAIC's Costume Ball for which people thought I was a lawyer or Amy Tan.





Be silent, be still. Be silent, be still.



No, I am not zombie Rachel McAdams.



Camila had more reason to stand with limbs out as she was a moth and had fabric to keep her arms from looking stupid.



Mothra is a winner!



Sparkle, sparkle the raver kids! We inexplicably both chose white costumes without planning or consultation. Go figure, siamese brain.



Handmade!





The aftermath was apparently me trying to star in my own French sad mime indie movie.


Who knows what we'll have in store for next year? I hope you're all partying it up, trick or treating, scaring some kids, doing something to celebrate this holiday that kicks the ass at Tetris of all other holidays.

Happy Halloween, kiddos!

Halloween For The Broken Costumed

Zombie Rachel Zoe may not have been well put together,
but I'll be damned if I didn't say the catchphrase "I die" and mean it.

There are three things that those around me know I take seriously: Bacon, unicorns and Halloween. While I can say for certain these are all started in childhood, Halloween is something that I became even more passionate about as an adult, perhaps to a point of no return. Which is why I am making this post now and not last week because “Real Halloween” is Monday and can’t be rescheduled for drinking debauchery or school!

Let’s get Teri Hatcher real here for a second.

I know it’s hard those in their early to mid-twenties to spend money or make an effort on anything that doesn’t involve a pot circle or tumblr, but the two things that actual adults or any normal person does not want to see on Halloween is either: your lame slutty costume or fake conceptual lazy costume. I make some exceptions for store bought despite my instinct to judge them is they at least tried to avoid the previous sad choices and frankly may not be creative types (aka not spending hours watching Korean dramas on Netflix).

Slutty failure costumes are the worst though. I am fine with ladies whoring it up, but if you’re going to be slutty, at least commit to it or make something impressive. One could learn from the relentless women dressed like Princess Leia at Comic Con for all eternity. A Mario hat over your normal cut off booty shorts do not a costume make. Also, really, none of us have seen enough of the sexy cat genre, there is so much left to be explored.

As for "witty" "costumes" from the bathroom floor five minutes before the party: One year at SAIC’s Halloween Ball, a girl entered the best costume contest as “an anguished Lichtenstein painted girl” to which she struggled to pronounce his name and wore a ratty wig with some dots on her face, even the guy dressed as a clown sneered at her.

I admit I’ve done some bad costumes due to last minute indecision or lack of funds, but even with limited options all you have to do is amp the make up or the clothes with something from the thrift store! If you can't commit, I must acquit... you from the holiday.


So for those of you who agonize costumes and don’t want to waste personal time thinking about trying to clever on one (sacredawesomebless-ed) day out of the year, here are some ideas from the mind vineyard* for you that can be achieved at the thrift store or even just buying a costume at the shop, but still pretentious competent at the same time! (Current relevance not included).

*© by Camila Rosas


For the store bought enthusiast: Cookie Monster Aileen Wuornos

Come on Aileen…

Eh? EH? Dated cultural reference or clever word play? Either way, low effort and interesting visual all at once. Just like my photoshop skills here.

With only the jumpsuit, this could easily become George Sr. or Oscar Bluth with a cut off tennis shoe, a bald cap and some cleverly printed Scared Straight pamphlets.

On the other side of the law: Billy or Jon Jon from Death Valley! It's a new show but it's so freakin' rad and all you would need a cop uniform and iron on letter patches with "UTF" on it.

Materials: Grungy blonde wig

Cookie Monster costume

Orange prison jumpsuit
Shoes without laces

Optional Accessories: Shotgun
Rubber hillbilly teeth
Schizophrenic paranoid rambling

For the thrift store forager but insist on being current for some reason: Andy Dwyer

(Image via: Spirit of Pawnee caps)

He's a lean, mean plaid machine so all you'd have to do is wear the right plaid shirt, a gray t-shirt with "Mouse Rat" scrawled in sharpie and brown slacks. This is as easy as I can get, folks.

Materials: Light beard (home grown or pasted on)
Plaid shirt
Gray t-shirt
Sharpie
Brown pants
Sneakers

Optional Accessories: Apron
Shoe shine kit
Hatred for Neutral Milk Hotel (please don't!)

For the ladies (or men with extra sparkle) who are curvy and nervy: Holli Would

(Screencap via: Fotolog)

Kim Basinger. Low cut white dress. 90s animated street cred. Yeah maybe someone will think you're albino Jessica Rabbit or a madam, but that's your costume right?

If you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix or Dailymotion in French.

Materials: Provocative white dress
Long Blonde wig
White choker
White heels

Optional Accessories: Chain smoking
Sexy voice
Sex with Kim Basinger

For the old, art fag couple still in love: Christo and Jeanne-Claude

(Image via: Mrs. Wagner's Art Ideas)

You may be thinking "Who the eff is going to recognize us?" But two black windbreakers, a red wig and some orange posts with fabric tied to your back or your children/grandkids' wagon I automatically assume you have and you've got a costume!

If this isn't "edgy" enough for you, just be them as zombies. Jeanne-Claude is indeed dead. And enough time has passed for you if you didn't know that.

Materials: Red floofy wig
Fuddy duddy glasses
Black windbreakers (x 2)
Painted orange cardboard frames + fabric strapped to something

Optional Accessories: Disgruntled youth on leashes
Wagon

For the young, less in love couple: Francesca Fiore and Bruno Puntz Jones

You may or may not know this, but Kids in the Hall is the best sketch comedy show ever (by a troupe, so SNL and Mad TV are not included, put down the haterade).

And when I suggest this costume and you happen to be a heterosexual couple, the lady should be Bruno and the dude should be Francesca; it's only right.

Materials:

For Francesca: Brown bobbed wig
Fur coat
Red lipstick
Ornate jewelry
Prom dress or vintage
Heels

For Bruno: Brown male wig
White 70s leisure suit
White fedora
Oxford shoes

Optional Accessories: Matching gloves
Matching cigarettes
Matching pistols
Vague accents

So get those mind grapes into wine and get super drunk, maybe Sookie St. James combining Gilmore Girls and True Blood? Henry and June from "KaBlam!"? Chris Hansen after he got caught by his wife?

I'm sure people have references not from the 90s or that normal humans can remember now, but none of those people are reading this.

To put my monopoly money where my mouth is, I'll photograph the two costumes I picked for this year and will wear for a few hours because I'm crampy and have nobody to go trick or treating with.

A Cult Following

So Robin Richman, the go-to boutique of Chicago for being a chic drape-y goth column, is having a trunk show for Gary Graham which starts all day tomorrow. But tonight there was a little goulish party for Halloween and Camila-mile tea churned some tarot cards out on the pfaff. I made it to the tail end after class with enough time for candy.

I didn't take pictures of the showroom because like a lady, I keep it locked under the skirt until the third date. In other words I don't have that type of blogger-y confidence. I did talk to Gary Graham though! For about three seconds on the grapes which I mistook for plastic. I'm chalking that up as a full on conversation.

(Dress: Gary Graham, Belt: vintage, Shoes: Dolce Vita for Target)

They all had adorable makeup, Camila got dia de los muertos skull themed which was perfecto.

She also had Gary Graham providing the clothes so basically he spruced up her look with this cream dress with a gathered overlay skirt. Later Camila was fiddling with the skirt and exclaimed "IT HAS POCKETS?" If there is one thing ladies old and young love, it's pockets. Unless they're complete monsters.

Jacki Holland, wearing one of her own neckpieces and looking like the most amazing witch doctor shaman ever.

Of course the clothes worn by the staff were Gary Graham. I saw a woman trying on this coat and dress set, I can't describe how awesome they looked on her especially with her gray hair it was so sleek and elegant in the untraditional sense.

(Necklace: thrifted, Shirt: Barlow, Pants: J Brand, Shoes: Impo)

I much like to stand like Keith Urban at the Grammy Awards, so that explains my stance and faux mullet.

I had to wear a white shirt and black pants for a tai chi demo earlier in the day, but usually those around me know how I feel about pants; they confine my legs from sweet freedom! Also nobody told me straight leg pants don't naturally fit into boots. Life seriously never prepared me for that one.

Aha! I finally caught the infamous golly miss Molly in the photographic medium. Being around her would bring out the stereotypical starstruck gay man out in anyone, it's like a reverse fruit fly effect. A regular fly?

Anyways, she is also wearing a Gary Graham dress and bits of a fur shawl of Robin's that got turned into hair accessories. (I am resisting using the adjective "rockin", you don't even know).

That's right, people want to kiss her cheeks. Like a diety. Or a cute child who learned to telekinetically control their parents with their mind.

Camila made the little skeleton with the Grateful Dead basketball mascot fro!

If I were a lady with money burning a hole in my pocket, I would so own these mixers (and I don't even drink alcohol). Or if a hole were burning in my pocket and I were insane and thought these would plug it up.

So people of the interweb who might accidentally click on my blog looking for pizza, the Gary Graham trunk show info:

Friday, October 28^th
11 am - 6 pm
At Robin Richman, Chicago, IL.

I just like diptychs.

Slightly More Effort Before Actual Effort

I got some free time after work so even though I wasn't into dressing up this morning, tried to take photos that are more than a step up from blurry iphone pictures.

I don't know if I was going for King Henry VIII or Superman but I know I was still on the ground. At least it's not a fake spontaneous jumping photo right?

(Coat: vintage, Necklace: thrifted, Dress: Cynthia Steffe, Belt: Eugenia Kim, Tights: Anne Klein, Shoes: Audley London)

I was going for motion but I have to put actual force and focus in my face to not look indignant against humanity (that should be a jean brand).

The two expressions my face poses are tantrum and frightened cat.

(Rings: fake-o Kenneth Jay Lane & hairband)

Instead of wearing hair ties on your wrist where they can sometimes ruin the magic of an outfit, just twist them and wear them as rings!


Also!:

I was with my bff-izzle Slater, a super rad photographer I've enlisted help from in the past and also in the future of this blog, and we saw this cute little lady in this beautiful print.
My first photo of a stranger! I can only approach people under peer pressure or if I'm performing. We'll ignore how sad that is.


Oh god I want to make this so bad.:
http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.com/2010/04/salmon-soup-with-tomato-and-dill.html

I have salmon I’ve been too scared to cook still in my freezer. I mean I still can't wrap my head around pancakes.

If Carnac the Magnificent Ran Shopbop

(via Wikipedia)

"Jewelry, yeast infections and Charo." *Johnny Carson opens the envelope* "Cuchi Cuchi?"

(ROARKE Charo Beaded Necklace with Fringe)

If you've never watched Johnny Carson like most normal people in my age group, a taste of comedic genius. I used up my wad on this one, so comment if you've got a good one of your own.

"May Whitney Cummings visit your daughter's school for Women's History Month."