I hope all of you aren't tired of Halloween costume posts... sorry for the delay on mine but here are a few pictures of me as feisty secretary/resident office vixen Joan Holloway from the TV show Mad Men! I'd decided to be Joan several months ago and had been on the lookout for the perfect dress. After weeks of fruitless searching (it was surprisingly difficult to find a jewel-tone '60s shift with simple lines) I re-discovered this dress in my OWN closet while cleaning my room. Don't you love when that happens? I bought it over 2 years ago at a local Salvation Army, it's from a high-end Chicago department store that's since gone out of business, is made of a light wool and is lined in satin and has a matching jacket with rhinestone buttons.
I love Joan's style on the show because she's sexy yet classy-- she wears form-fitting garments that enhance and show off her curves without showing too much (she never wears too short of skirts or low-cut blouses).
The most crucial part of the costume was the red wig, I decided to forgo the tacky, cheap ones at the Halloween store and instead went to a locally owned wig shop within walking distance of my apartment. While it was the most expensive part of the costume, it was worth it to pay more so it looked more realistic. A few notes on wigs... if shopping for one, go with a friend! A wig shop is super creepy and also overwhelming, the one I went to had rows upon rows of heads with wigs in all imaginable colors, lengths and styles. Wear a hair net or wig cap so your natural hair doesn't escape from underneath the wig! Even better wigs are tricky to style, this one had bangs and went shoulder length, I used a crazy amount of bobby pins to do an updo but wish I could have gotten more height to imitate Joan's mini beehive.
Here are a few photographs of the accessories I wore with my outfit. I chose pearl & rhinestone clip earrings from one of my favorite vintage jewelry stores (located in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago), The Vintage Underground. These clip earrings were amazingly comfortable, I could barely tell they were on all night!
Another important element of my costume was Joan's pen necklace. This item is surprisingly elusive, I have yet to find a period necklace in an antique store or online which leads me to believe that it must have been a custom piece. While the 1928 company sells necklaces I wanted to do something more authentic so I bought a 1920s gold-filled mechanical pencil that were popular with secretaries in the 1920s. The pencil was made with a loop so it's meant for wearing on a chain!
Joan also favors large brooches in organic shapes so I wore this large rhinestone & goldtone pin also from Vintage Underground. If you're curious about the backgrounds of the above photos... I shot the jewelry on some 1960s travel memorabilia I bought at an estate sale a while back (this couple went everywhere-- from Hong Kong to Brazil!).I actually didn't get to do much for Halloween this year, the photos of me were taken at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Minneapolis, where I was attending a photographic education conference for the weekend. Yes, I'm not sure why they scheduled a conference for Halloween weekend either! So no crazy parties for me this year but I did get drinks and socialized with my friends/classmates who were also there at the conference with me.
While I read most of your blogs near-daily I have to admit to being rather bad about commenting! So I'm going to try and make up for it by linking to a few blogs in each of my future posts. Below are some Halloween costume related links.
*Rhiannon of Liebemarlene Vintage dressed up as the 1920s silent film movie star Marie Provost. I also love the black & white photos and the little stuffed dog she posed with in the photos!
*Aya of Strawberry Koi went as Little Red Riding hood and wore a 1950s dress and made her own red cape. She also made an adorable costume for her son, who went as Max from Where The Wild Things Are.
*Anja of Clever Nettle had TWO costumes for Halloween, Margaret from Twin Peaks (a TV show?) and a 1950s Rose Festival Queen.
*Andi B. Goode was creepy yet beautiful as the infamous Black Dahlia. I admire her makeup skills!