I've been dressing up for Halloween since the age of 4 (my first costume was Mary Had a Little Lamb) but this year I ended up waiting until the last moment to put together my costume. Originally I had wanted to be Carmen Miranda this year but the search for a colorful Spanish style dress at the thrifts was fruitless (pun intended!) and the hat would have been tricky to execute. The Friday before Halloween I cast an eye about my room and I saw this 1950s blue gingham square dancing dress and suddenly realized I could be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. It's actually a bit of a costume repeat as I was Dorothy back in jr. high; back then my mom actually sewed my outfit for me (sadly I no longer fit said costume and the accessorizes are in Arkansas)! Surprisingly I had all the pieces to my costume already so just had to track down red glitter. It was a madhouse at my neighborhood Target the Saturday before Halloween and they were all sold out of glitter, thankfully Joanne's was close by and I bought the last red glitter within a 15 mile radius of my apartment! Thrifted Halloween costumes are a lot more unique and interesting (not to mention much cheaper) than the tacky polyester readymade costumes, am I right?COSTUME DETAILS:1950s blue gingham square dancing dress: Antique Mall in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas1970s Basket Purse: White Elephant Thrift, Chicago1930s/40s stuffed Toto dog: Rosemont Flea Market, ChicagoT-Strap Mary Jane Heels: Originally from Payless, covered in glitter to make ruby slippers
Sadly I didn't carve a jack-o-lantern this year, my apartment is on the 3rd floor so there isn't a good place to display it. I still purchased a mini pumpkin from a farmer's market in Lincoln Square (pictured above). The trees are aflame here, I spotted this tree on a walk through the Andersonville neighborhood.
A kitty jack-o-lantern spotted on the front porch of an Andersonville home. Will definitely have to make something similar next year.
My roommate, Adeline, also wore a thrifted Halloween costume, she went as the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The pink embroidered Mexican dress is actually mine and I picked up the stuffed monkey from the Unique thrift store. Monkeys actually appear as a frequent motif in Kahlo's paintings so we thought it would be funny if Adeline carried one around all night. Unfortunately she forgot to apply Kahlo's signature feature (the unibrow) before we took these photos but remedied the situation in time for the night's party.
Vintage Made in Japan flowers from my collection that we pinned in her hair.
We drove over to the Pilsen neighborhood to do a shoot with the colorful murals as a backdrop but the light had pretty much faded by the time we made it there. I'm not a fan of using flash so I'm only posting one of the pictures from that batch.Post pictures of your Halloween costumes! Did you thrift or make your costume?