Halloween

A Brief History of Costumes

kristy, , , 2 Comments

I have costume block.

Halloween is two weeks from now, and I don’t know what I’m going to be. Devin and I are invited to childhood-faves theme party, so I have a lot of ideas, but they all seem really hard to make. For example, we could dress up as characters from our respective Sesame Streets. Devin could be Big Bird from the U.S. version of Sesame Street, and I could be Abelardo from Plaza Sésamo, Mexico’s version of Sesame Street. I’m into the idea, but it totally breaks my costume rules. When it comes to costumes, my goal is for them to be 1) easy to make, 2) inexpensive, and 3) sweatshop-free. The last part is the hardest because there are so many cool costumes you can buy in stores, but they are all made in horrible conditions (do you ever think that the womp womp sound effect is the perfect soundtrack to life under capitalism?). When I can’t find another alternative, sometimes I buy very small things, like pipe cleaners or felt, that are made in sweatshops. Anyway, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to make our costumes out of feathers, but maybe I will find a way.

In the meantime, I’ve been looking at pictures of costumes online, and I stumbled upon a lot of my own costumes from previous years, which I am sharing with you in hopes of earning costume-inspiration karma in time for Halloween. ; )

beatniks
Beatniks

city-mouse-country-mouseCity Mouse, Country Mouse

frida-and-trotsky
Our fastest costume: Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky. We were going to a party and hadn’t thought of a costume until 15 minutes before it started.

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Audrey Hepburn in How to Steal a Million

american-gothic-in-sepia
American Gothic in sepia

the-color-purple
Possibly my worst costume of all time. I layered purple clothes and called myself The Color Purple.

phyllis-schlafly
My scariest costume of all time: notorious anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg

the-jetsons
George and Jane Jetson at a very rainy parade. (You can’t tell, but Devin is wearing blue polyester pants.)

french-toast
French Toast

bear-market
During the recession, I was a bear market. I don’t know why the “sexy Halloween” industry hasn’t capitalized on this. Think about it: “sexy bear market” or “bare market,” and of course, the men’s version would be “strong bull market.” (Honestly, I really dislike scary costumes and sexy, hyper-gendered costumes, but somehow I still love Halloween.)

And finally, my favorite costumes of all time…

pizza rat.jpg
Pizza Rat

and

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…the subway.

A Brief History of Costumes

It’s in the wave

kristy, , , 2 Comments
Photo from Gothamist.com
Photo from Gothamist.com

I’ve challenged myself to write every day for the month of November, inspired by National Blog Post Month (or NaBloPoMo as all the cool moms on blogspot.com called it back in the day). I don’t know if I’ll post every day because that might lead to ill-advised blog posts like, “Do you ever skip going to the gym because your hair looks too good? Me too. The End,” but I hope to write at least 20 by November 30.

And this is my first one.

Yesterday Devin and I went to the Village Halloween Parade for the first time. It was crowded, and I am short, so I couldn’t see much; but I had a very reliable narrator by my side who told me about all the cool puppets and floats.

Devin: Hey! Miss America and Miss Universe are on that float!

Me: The real ones?

Devin: Yeah!

Me: How do you know?

Devin: (thoughtfully) I think it’s in the way they wave.

Turns out, he was right. Whoopi Goldberg was also at the parade (in fact, she was Grand Marshall), and Devin spotted her, too. It must be tough to be famous on Halloween because skeptical people like me just think you have a really good costume.

In my opinion, the best costume at the parade was donned by the Empire State Building, which shone in seemingly every color before settling on a pumpkin theme.

It’s in the wave

You’re probably dying to know what I was for Halloween

kristy, , , , 7 Comments

Last year I decided Devin and I would be City Mouse, Country Mouse on account of the perfect suitability of that description. Sadly. I wish I could claim country-mouse status, but the truth is that I learned to feed chickens from Beauty and the Beast, and once I packed a bag of  long summer dresses for a visit to Devin’s family farm. I thought it would be so romantic, wearing flowing dresses that undulated in the wind just like all those stalks of corn… Devin’s mom took one look at me and declared, ‘You’ll have to be extra careful about the ticks.’


So yes, Devin obliged and we dressed like characters from a fable by Aesop. We didn’t win any costumes, but I’m pretty proud of those ears I made.

What were you?

You’re probably dying to know what I was for Halloween