Costume Capers - Vintage Halloween

Greetings on All Hallows Eve! I hope you've all got suitably spooky things going on this evening or next weekend (or last weekend as I did! Pictures soon)? Or at least, if you live in a highly child-populated area as I do, that you've stocked up on penny sweets to dish out to the costumed urchins? I've actually never been in on Halloween, at least not for about five years, so I've no idea if any trick-or-treaters will come around. We shall see!

Anyway! On the subject of costumes, I was hoping to post this a few days in advance of today, but life (and not actually receiving it) conspired against me. But a few weeks back, I was hired by o2 to style and model some Halloween outfits as befitting a vintage gal (and a few for a chap), all in the name of their Blackberry Curve Red phone and their #lookscary campaign. And here are the results!

The lovely Mat from Southern Retro was my obliging male vic...er, model. His looks were as follows...

The suit which came from M&S was meant to be double-breasted of course, but time constraints made that impossible. Find an 80s one in a charity shop! Shirt, tie, shoes and accessories, all Mat's own.

Jeans came from Freddies of Pinewood, the jacket was from ASOS.

This can be done with an apple mask if the makeup option seems like hard work.... all a chap needs is a black or grey jacket or overcoat, white shirt, red tie and a bowler hat!

But what about my costume ideas? Well...

A pinup witch is a relatively easy option, with little black skater dresses widely available. Mine came from River Island last year, but there are similar ones at BooHoo. My belt is by Vivien of Holloway, the shoes are an old number from Remix,  spotty tights came from Topshop, but there are some awesome dotty stockings at What Katie Did at the moment. Hat and broom are joke shop props!

Frida is a look I did for Halloween a few years ago. I loved it and wanted to reprise it for this shoot! The main outfit is merely a gypsy-inspired look rather than one that's specifically Mexican, with a full skirt from American Apparel, a peasant top that came from New Look (I wanted to style it with a Vivien of Holloway blouse but they couldn't rush deliver it, boo), a spanish shawl from an amazing shop called El Mundo Flamenco, Miss L Fire Manderley gypsy boots, and an awesome Day of the Dead/ Frida Kahlo inspired headpiece from GG's Pinup Couture.

This is a 1950s sci-fi/horror B-Movie heroine costume, with the main element coming from the What Katie Did Morticia corset giving that killer silhouette! A plain black top and a long black skirt (similar at ASOS) plus an optional wig... black lipstick and a smouldering look is all you need to complete it!

Yeah... this was meant to be Cathy inspired, but the photographer was getting me to pull these fierce faces rather than the wistful, mournful Victorian ones that I usually associate with Brontë books. Oh well! Another easy one, makeup aside - we simply found an old-fashioned nightie from M&S, covered it in fake blood in the loos and gave some poor woman going into the Ladies a heart attack. I wish you could see the makeup as it was excellent without me gurning and ruining the effect. The talented makeup artist for all these looks was Louise Dartford.

The idea for this was borrowed from Bethan, who painted ants on herself at my Halloween party in 2010. Dali's The Ants has a dead-looking naked lady, which is why I clad myself in a nude vintage-inspired playsuit from Miss Selfridge. This is the outfit I wore to the Vintage Mafia's Ric Rac Club on Saturday! Post coming soon...

Thank you to Mat for being such a good sport, and thank you to o2 for having me! It was such fun and has ensured I need never run out of fancy dress ideas for the next few years at least.

Happy Halloween!

Fleur xx
DiaryofaVintageGirl.com