My 1920s costume

There was an event on October 30th on campus that was a halloween party. They encouraged everyone to dress up and to have fun. Even before I knew the exact date of the party, I already had in mind what I wanted to dress up as. As the title suggests, I dressed up as a flapper! I couldn't wait to get decked out in my 1920s finery! For some inspiration, I went over to Pinterest (Doesn't everyone?) and started a 1920s board. It got me in the flapper mood. I even helped my roommate get dressed up too! My costume craving was strong since I have been at college, I can't exactly bring my sewing machine or have time to make an elaborate creation. So I was just itching to get to work.

My costume consisted of a sheer beaded overlay with added fringe, a knit lace dress for underneath, a vintage fur collar, knee high navy socks, t strap shoes, a cloche hat from anthropologie, statement earrings and to top it off….some bright red lipstick. I wanted to be more historically accurate compared to the party city costume kits. 

One of the iconic styles of the 20's is the bobbed hair. To get my hair to be that short I separated my hair into pieces and looped them up and bobby pinned the ends. I pinned them near the top of my head or what ever made the ends of my hair even that was peaking out from under my hat. I was able to disguise the bobby pins under my hat. I also did a similar style for my roommate. I hid the bobby pins under her white headpiece. 

To costume my friend, we went to spirit halloween store and she picked out a bright red fringe dress. To tone down such bright red, I added some fishnet tights, pulled on some black gloves and she wore grey and black t strap heels. To balance the dark tones, I styled her hair  turban style hair wrap with a sparkly headpiece and for the finishing touch, a knotted strand of pearls was added. 

Even though we didn't win the costume contest, everyone loved the Gatsby themed costumes. 

Here are my inspirations from Pinterest. 

-Callie

Refocused

Hello Blogging world! Its been too long. When I started this blog, I felt the need to try and imitate other fashion blogs, get thousands of followers, etc. I though that would make me better as a person. In fact it did not. I became upset and depressed and lost my focus as a blogger. But what was my focus?

Seeing and reading fashion blogs was inspiring to put together my outfits and I wanted to imitate what I saw. But was that what I was really passionate about? I had not realized yet that fashion blogging wasn't necessarily for me. I began doing sewing costumes on the side for my sisters ballet studio. Slowly, I became more engrossed in that and fashion blogging didn't seem as important. Don't get me wrong, I still love reading those types of blogs, but reading and actually blogging about it is 2 different things. When I put together a post, I felt like there wasn't much to say, "I got this sweater while thrifting", "This outfit reminds me of my grandpas sweater", and etc. But if I talked about sewing or historical costumes/clothing I feel that there is more to talk and to learn about. 

Fast forward a few years, my sewing career has taken off, I finished up high school and now I am a freshman in college. Its weird that I haven't posted anything, but I haven't has anything to say until now. Now I am refocussing this blog into a sort of historical costume/fashion blog, costumes I am working on etc. The name of this blog now has a new meaning, instead of a menagerie, or collection, of fashion outfits, it now reflects the collection of historical clothing and costumes that i have either made/will discuss or have inspired me. 

Welcome back to the new Callie's Menagerie!

Callie