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Halloween Costume Series Day 2: Violet Blue and Black Witch’s Robes with Runes and Silver Accents

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It seemed to Aithne like she was the only one of the three who bothered keeping up appearances anymore, the only one with any sense of propriety. The things her sisters wore these days! You couldn’t even blame it on a generation gap, as they were all equally old — no — they had positively lost their pride.

It had come to a head two years ago when Medea came to visit, breezing through her door with a tan and a take-out box full of hen’s teeth. First off, she had insisted on being called Madison. (Madison!) Second, she displayed her new cardigan (did she say it was from the End of the Land? Horrid place, she was sure) with wicked, rebellious delight, stretching out an arm as though she expected Aithne to pet it. Finally, she had laughed at her sister’s new robes, remarking that it looked like she had her grocery list written on her hem and that she was totally stuck in the 1800s. Aithne replied that she very well might be, but it was much better than being stuck as a newt, the truth of which she proceeded to demonstrate. Mehitabel had had to step in (and stepping was something she quite liked since she had discovered thousand-dollar high heels — imagine that, going to your kitchen, instead of having your tea come to you, just for effect) to de-newt Medea, since Aithne refused to do so without an apology, and Medea’s communication skills had been reduced to skittering around and switching her tail.

Aithne had had no contact with Mehitabel or Medea since, after yelling at the both of them that the family art was going to hell in a handbasket, a handbasket filled with pastel cardigans and Italian stilettos. They had left in high dudgeon, but she had been proved right by the grave injuries Medea had sustained attempting a ritual wearing her capris and cardigan one day; one does not, apparently, serve a traditionalist entity in modern styles.

For any of you who follow my paperdollverse, I believe that this set of robes is from a new collection from my wizard-world fashion designer responsible for this set of sunset-colored dress robes and this cool-colored set. Aithne is a witch, but she isn’t technically a part of that universe, so she had to go rather a ways out of her way for it and ended up paying quite dearly for it; she believes Medea got off lightly for insulting it.

poll by twiigs.com

Halloween Costume Series Day 1: The Good Queen’s Ghost

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I can’t tell you why someone who was called “The Good Queen” during her life now haunts a ruined castle of no consequence; queens don’t tell their secrets to paper doll artists. I took on the assignment in the hope of a good story to deliver to my readers, but she condescended to tell me very little about her life, although she was quick to tell me that I had the bodice quite wrong, that I was obviously phoning in the lace, and so on. The older history books paint a glorious picture of her, but I couldn’t help but think that the historians that speculate that the epithet “The Good Queen” was applied to her much like “the Kindly Ones” was applied to the three Furies very well may be on to something. My romantic mind first imagined that she plunged the dagger into her own heart for love, a pre-cursor (possibly inspiration?) to Juliet, and I still think she died by her own hand but the more I sat with her the more I sensed her desperation and anger, and despite her annoyance with my lace, I don’t think it was directed at me. Now I feel her death had nothing to do with love but rather with intrigue of some sort, a power play that went wrong enough to bind her to this world. Still, I’m dying to know what’s with the blood on her hem, but if she will not tell me, fine; in a few hundred years her power will wane further and she’ll wind up telling anybody, probably a bunch of thirteen-year-old girls staring into a bathroom mirror at midnight, just for one last chance at peace.

poll by twiigs.com

Michelle Obama’s Turquoise Blue Dress from the 2008 Democratic Convention

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I’m sorry I’ve been such a slacker for the last few months! My essential nature, or the problem with my essential nature if you will, is that I can do just about anything for two weeks, and then it’s on to my next all-consuming interest. I do my best work in the depths of an obsession. So, I’ve worn out about two months worth of other projects, and now I’m back to paper dolls. I have a project for October, so I want to start again now… a warm-up, if you will.

Since the U.S. presidential race is much on my mind as of late, I thought outfits from the current political scene would be a fun way of burning up the days between now and October 1. I’ll do one from Michelle Obama’s wardrobe, one of Cindy McCain’s dresses, a Sarah Palin outfit and of course a Hillary Clinton pantsuit. Please note that this is not an invitation to debate politics or insult any of these women on the comments here! (Well, paperdoll fans are a civilized lot, and I probably lost all of my readers in my two-month vacation anyways, so I should be safe.)

I personally like Michelle Obama’s dress here that she wore when she spoke at the 2008 Democratic Convention. Can’t find any good pictures of the little center ornament, though — and the color of the dress changes from picture to picture, it seems!

poll by twiigs.com

The Original Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter) from the Watchmen Comic Book

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So I’m a big Watchmen fan, and it is with some trepidation that I look towards the new movie. When the trailer came out I watched with joy that was dampened when Brian pointed out that everything looked really shiny and, well, essentially too polished and good; for example, the Night Owl of the comic carries a spare tire, who was this dude in a Night Owl costume looking so svelte? I liked to think that it was a flashback to the younger Night Owl, but I’m not so sure. The comic shows that a bunch of humans dressing up and fighting crime is probably not so cool as we might like to think it is; the movie is positioned to show that wow, it really is badass after all. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, we’ll see.

Of course, I am content to leave most of the obsessing about the content to Brian and the other fanboys and I turn to what I fangirl best, obsessing about the costumes. Already I can tell you I can’t forgive the new Ozymandias — that is, the dude on the far right of this Entertainment Weekly Watchmen cover. My Ozymandias dresses like wacked-out royalty, and it’s not meant to offer protection or hide his identity because he doesn’t need either. So we can get right past that and look at the girls. I’m torn about the original Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter) — the paperdoll for today is based on her outfit in the comic book, and the new version is even more sexed up — particularly I think the stockings are too over-the-top for her times, although I do like that they connect her outfit to her daughter’s. I like the yellow part better in the movie version, though — very cute and feminine. The original stockings plus the original yellow top would be my favorite version. Laurie’s version of the Silk Spectre outfit I don’t like much, but I wasn’t really a fan of the original version either, so it’s a bit of a wash. I like the new design well enough on its own merits, actually, but I don’t think it fits the setting; Laurie’s mom picked out her costume for her, and her mom would have had an eye for what was sexy and showed off her daughter to best advantage. The movie version of the costume is significantly less soft and vulnerable looking — and really, probably more like what Laurie would have picked out for herself. But it’s too serious; Laurie wasn’t serious about the job of being a superheroine (one that her mom chose for her, essentially) until she was in her 30s.