waterhouse heroine

My love of fashion is rooted in a love of costume. Some fashionistas get their start collecting favorite designers and leafing through Glamour before they’re remotely old enough to care about erogenous zones. As a child, I was mostly indifferent to high fashion, but I was designing bangin’ Halloween costumes when my classmates were still in the “clip-on fairy wings” stage. I portrayed Maleficent, Santa Lucia, and Joan of Arc before I was ten years old. (Then I grew up and became pagan, and Halloween is still my favorite day of the year, though for different reasons.) I am a theater geek born and bred, and my favorite part of a show has always been always zipping into costume and slathering myself with greasepaint, Skye receding in subordination to the muse.

I’ve accented my outfits with bits of my favorite costumes for years now (witch hats were my signature in middle and high school), but the day I realized there was a whole community dedicated to unabashedly garish outfits was momentous indeed. I fell in love with Fated to be Hated and Advanced Style and Elsa Schiaparelli. Learning to infuse my wardrobe with my love of performance has given me, over the years, an itch for all fashion, not just costume. I follow the designers and read all relevant literature like a proper fashionista, but my first love will always, always be costume. I’m fascinated by the semiotics of clothing: how a certain neckline or texture can make so many statements about both itself and its wearer. I love to tell stories with my outfits, and costumes, be they for stage, Samhain, or street, do it more boldly than any other medium I’ve found.

This past weekend I took a few cues from my favorite painter, John William Waterhouse.

I was afraid to pin this hat too precisely, as it’s veritably ancient and I’m planning to sell it on Etsy. I think the (albeit imprecise) placement gives a decent suggestion of the era, though.

Dress: Stella Mae Belt & Silver Bracelet: Battery Street Jeans Pink Bracelet: Old Gold Shoes: Goodwill Necklace & Tights: Gifted

Waterhouse painted witches and mythological women, for which I love him unconditionally. I’m such a sucker for dreamy, romantic images of sorcery.