October Costume Project — Kathleen Elizabeth Shaw

In October 2021, I set out to dress in costume for every day leading up to Halloween. The rules were:

It should be an outfit I would like and would (mostly) wear all day
The inspiration would be from something I connected with on a personal level
Acquiring the outfits would go: closet first, Goodwill second, online used third, new last (and hopefully not at all)

Upon completion, I have some thoughts and stats.

New items purchased: 3

Fuschia slip dress. I saw this on deep sale ($12) from Loft on Insta and bought it. I decided to do Miss Piggy after.
Brown collared sweater from Target. I bought this while I was wearing my originally planned workroom Sharon Needles costume. After I made my husband drive me to Party City and photograph me in the parking lot, I realized I hadn’t checked in on Miss Needles in a while and boy was I shocked at some of the revelations of racism and grooming. I took the picture down. I had been wanting to do a midnight margaritas shoot (and drink) from Practical Magic, so when we went to the Target to get Hank some pants, I bought some limes and Googled the margs scene. I had a nightie like Gillian’s already, and to be honest, I have a blanket sweater from Anthro that would have probably done the trick, but I saw this one and caved. Yes, I was probably victimized by my own “ I feel terrible, I deserve a treat” mentality, considering I was really bummed and honestly grossed out by the Sharon Needles thing, and my own lack of foresight. For the most part, I did characters, not people, and I probably should have done my homework sooner. However, I do like this sweater and am in fact wearing it right now. I have some plans to experiment with embroidering the collar this winter. Trying out some potential holiday tricks.
Black Chelsea lug sole boots by Dunes. These I’m counting as my fall and winter boots purchase. I didn’t have any black boots without a heel. I knew I needed something oversized for Daria and Mabel Mora, and these worked really well for Granny Weatherwax, as well as inspired Ashley Spinelli and John Bender, who weren’t on the original character roster. Zero regrets.

All in all, these purchases were incidental to the project and would have likely happened anyway.

Thrifted items purchased: 16, including a pair of button fly men’s Gap jeans I wore three times (Hooper, Mabel, Spicoli) and have on right now and never want to take off, basically. They are really short, and the back hem is frayed off, so I don’t know what tiny man owned these first. I imagine Elliot from Leverage in his big boots.

Least favorite item: I thought it would be the pleat front khaki mom shorts (Sloane Peterson, Dr. Ellie Satler), but I actually kind of love them. The pink men’s button down I had for Dr. Sattler is my least rewearable piece, so I’m thinking of painting it or sending it back to the thrift shop.

Number of outfits I made entirely from my existing closet: 13

Props and accessories made: 4. I am so happy I made the Handbook for the Recently Departed clutch finally.

Most creative reuse: Hank’s duck feet are made from the the scraps of the Noel Fielding sweatshirt.

Favorite new pieces: Obviously the jeans, but also the white fuzzy Fran Fine and Shaun the Sheep coat. Also, big fan of the Noel Fielding sweatershirt. The Alice dress was an unexpected surprise, and I’m looking forward to incorporating it into my wardrobe.

Most liked outfit: A tie! Carrie Bradshaw and Pugsley Addams each got 25 likes, followed closely by 24 for the Queen of Hearts.

Proudest moment: Making the Carrie Bradshaw tank from scrap liner fabric without a pattern in about twenty minutes.

Best kismet: Tinker day (a tradition at my college where classes are cancelled and we all hike a mountain in costume and eat Krispy Kreme donuts) coinciding with my Queen of Hearts costume

Weirdest moment: I’ve only ever driven by the cemetery near my house, so I didn’t have a good gauge for the walking distance, which was obviously longer than I thought. I wanted to take my Nico di Angelo pictures there. I had to hike in a corn field (pretty sure there was a dead deer in it somewhere) near the road in Eric’s oversized bomber jacket, carrying a Polaroid camera and looking VERY much like an aged goth. When I got there, some people in a tractor were doing something in the back. I didn’t’ want to take any pictures of the names or be disrespectful of the gravestones, so I really was a thirty-seven year old skulking around a graveyard in my skull jewelry, posing like a broody, fictional teenage boy.

New techniques practiced: Sewing using my clothes as a pattern, paper mache for Hank’s duck head, hand painting t-shirts for the Halloween pumpkin face shirt and Nico’s undead Pegasus, sewing with pleather on a machine, painting on craft wood gathering so that the sleeves on my Noel Fielding sweater matched up

Lessons learned: I ended up changing my plans a lot based on what I would actually have to do in a day and on new ideas that occurred to me after my initial planning (Spinelli, Ms. Perky, John Bender) and Goodwill trips, so I was surprised by how much I could actually do from my closet without any planning or purchasing at all.

This was honestly a blast and a balm to my creative soul. Planning for next year already.

Sometimes the costumes were composites from my head, but some of the poses and inspirations were from direct stills, as shown in the side-by-sides below.