Halloween Fashion Tips From Shurlee Sweet
Halloween isn’t just a holiday, it’s fashion for me too. I absolutely love everything about the season. The decorations, the smells, the events, the spookiness, the meaning. I was basically brought up to love the holiday. I remember as a child, my mom always went all out and my costumes were always handmade by my grandmother with a lot of thought put into them. And being that I am from America I’ve always felt that Halloween was a very popular holiday here. I am also half Mexican and we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, which happens right after Halloween and, in some ways, they are similar (in the actual meaning of the holiday, not the commercial sense). Halloween was a day to remember the dead and so is Dia de los Muertos. Although the way we go about celebrating them is different. But either way, I feel like being brought up in a household that celebrates two similar holidays based around spookiness is why I like to incorporate it into my daily fashion.
Inspiration for me comes from a plethora of sources such as books, movies, social media, but most of it probably comes from historic fashion. If I had to choose one decade that influences me the most, I would have to say that my all-time favourite era has to be the Victorian era – but it is a little difficult to dress in a full mourning gown in the middle of Summer in Southern California. So, the best way I can remedy that is to use influence from that time and other favourite decades and mix it into my outfits and on special occasions. When the weather is cooler, it just seems even more meaningful to me to be able to dress up in my full Victorian garb. When it’s not so fresh outside, the majority of the time here, I like to combine a few different decades together or use a certain decade’s fashion for some Halloween inspired looks.
At the moment I feel like I want to create a Victorian, ‘20s and ‘60s love baby that resembles a Hippie Forest Witch Vampire. So, from that example I feel like you can get a good idea of how I like to go about creating my outfits, it’s a lot of mixing and matching. Although, I personally feel like those three decades mesh very well together. If you look at examples of 1960s hippie fashion I feel like it was influenced by the ‘20s and the Victorian era. For example, you can see the Victorian style in a lot of Gunne Sax (a bit more ‘70s but I feel like it seemed from the ‘60s) dresses and for the 1920s influence, I feel like the fashion was such a turning point for women’s clothing. They were rebelling against the norm and that’s similar to what the hippie-look of the ‘60s was. The 1920s had loose, non-form fitted dresses and the ‘60s had similar dresses but a bit more free-flowing.
An example of how I put this to use, which I was reminded of because as I am writing this, I’m watching Hocus Pocus, was a Winifred Sanderson ensemble I put together. Instead of creating an exact outfit, I created a look that I felt was a mash-up of the 1920s, 1960s, and even slightly Victorian. I used a loose fitted dress, belted, which gave it a bit of a cocoon dress look of the ‘20s, a flowy shawl, which I think can fit into the ‘20s or ‘60s, and laced up boot heels that can easily fit into a Victorian look. Lately, this is what I like to do with all my outfits whether I’m trying to recreate a character or just getting dressed to go out (or while we’re in this pandemic, to the grocery store) but always keeping in mind the Halloween spirit. That is usually where the accessories shine. I like the layering of necklaces and multiple rings that I feel can be associated with a witchy vampire vibe. Most of my accessories tend to include a prosthetic eyeball from 1900, taxidermy, moons, and bats. I also like to accessorize with spooky pins or brooches.
I wanted to touch on why I love the Victorian era a little bit more, so you all can get a better idea of why I love it so much and where this all stems from. I do think they were some spooky people and I love that. I love that time because the concept of death seemed to be very fascinating to them and mourning the dead was very much tied to fashion. They had mourning dresses, accessories, keepsakes, and some of their keepsakes would be considered a bit morbid today. They would keep things like hair from the deceased and wear them in lockets, brooches, and would even make hair wreaths out of them. Because photographs were not such a popular thing, post-mortem portraits were big at that time and those just happen to be one of my favourite things to collect. Dresses during the Victorian era are already so beautiful but the mourning dresses were such works of art to me and they had meaning to them other than just being a piece of cloth that was worn every day. It was a reminder that you were mourning the death of a loved one and it wasn’t a one day or even a one-week thing. This would sometime last years, so to have to think of death constantly, to me, seems a little creepy. I also feel like that is where a lot of the vampire movies I love get their costume design from. Not only was the fashion amazing, but their fascination with death also led to some really cool things like phantasmagorias which today I would compare to things like Knott’s Scary Farm or any of the events we like to attend during the Halloween season.
Now I think a lot of the questions I get other than what inspires me, is where do I find these things? A lot of my finds come from antique shops, flea markets, online, and small businesses. One of my favourite antique shops that I find myself shopping at a lot is King Richard’s antique mall in Whittier, California, and one of my favourite flea markets is probably the Long Beach flea market. But if you cannot get to any of those, eBay and Etsy can be a collector’s best friend. Normally, I would just search for Victorian mourning and add literally anything to the end of that – dresses, shawls, necklaces, brooches, etc.
In terms of clothing, there are reproduction brands that you can purchase from, which helps immensely being that I am not the same size as a woman from 1886. Most of my Victorian dresses come from a brand called Victorian Choice, which can be found on eBay. As for my 1960s clothing, my favourite as of late has to be Jennafer Grace (@jennafergracious). She makes beautiful kimonos and dresses that are so versatile. They can be great for that witch layering look or can be tied in certain ways to make it look like a beautiful 1920s silhouette. Sometimes I like to do Victorian sleepwear as an outfit out, which some of her pieces can work for.
Jewellery, as I mentioned, is also a favourite of my mine. Rings, necklaces, and brooches have to be my favourites, although lately, I’m really getting into earrings. My favourite type of ring is marcasite because I feel like they just have that spooky vibe, and the older the better. So, when searching for that I use either Victorian or vintage marcasite rings as they are not just limited to the Victorian era. When I can’t find it in either of the places I mention above, I turn to reproduction, which is amazing because not only does it make it easily accessible but you are also supporting a small business. Some of my favourite jewellery pieces have come from Ta Meu Bem of @tameujewelry, Sara of @sweetsirendesigns, @TheParlorCo, @Seanceperfumes, (these last two you can even get yourself some lovely smelling Victorian-inspired perfumes from) and so many others.
My list can go on and on, there are so many amazing small businesses you can purchase your Halloween-inspired accessories from to add to your spooky wardrobe, and you can find a lot of them on Instagram. Lastly, you can always make your own outfits or pick up pieces from thrift shops and alter them to your liking. I don’t ever feel that you need to buy expensive things or collect a ton of vintage and antiques to “look the part,” it’s more about how creative you can get with what you have. In the end, make yourself feel happy about it and live your best Halloween life.