Halloween, a retrospective

[texaslawchick]

So I was thinking about Halloween and my costume this year, and I thought that I'd walk down memory lane.

This will be my tenth year going to my friend Candyman's Halloween party. It's a pretty legendary party, and people clamor for invitations. I was at his house last night, helping to set up. I'll go over again tomorrow to throw on some of the finishing touches. My Halloween costume this year is nearly done. It's going to be a lot colder than I thought, so I'll probably need to get something to throw on my shoulders. And I have a DIY project that I need to borrow my dad's anvil for, but otherwise, I think it's pretty good.

But anyhow, these are the last ten years, plus some bonus years:

• 2011 The year of the peacock.  I was working on all my wedding stuff then, and had a ton of peacock related items around the house.  I ended up getting a peacock feather tattooed to my back right before the wedding.  I used a slip I already had, a corset that I already had, and I bought the fans and the mask and a scarf.  I really liked this costume quite a bit. And I used everything I bought in my wedding later on.   I skipped my 20th high school reunion for this party.  I went the night before to a football game with alumni instead.   

 

• 2010 The throw everything costume-y on and see what happens year.  I was working off of a Venetian mask and cape idea. I also was fond of the blue crinoline and the white corset.  A lot of my friends thought I was going as my friend Buttery, as she tends to wear the corset / tutu combination quite a lot.  She's also, er, busty and tends to show a lot of cleavage. Since she wasn't there that year, it was sort of perfect. 

• 2009  Spice Girl. Specifically, Cinnamon Spice.  I went to the spice markets next to Caninos on Airline market and bought a TON of cinnamon sticks.  I hot glued them to a shift I found at Target. And I made a pattern on the bodice out of star of anise and cloves.  I smelled WONDERFUL.  I threw on a wig and a red scarf that I already had.  I wish there were a better picture of the dress. It sort of resembled a flapper dress. 

• 2008 Marvin the Martian.  I spray painted a plastic roman gladiator helmet green.  I borrowed Buttery's green tutu, and I wore a red shirt and red tights from Urban Outfitters.  I also had a black mask with big white eyes  I made out of pantyhose, but that came off pretty quickly due to inability to drink and / or breathe.

 

• 2007 Free Radicals.  This was the year that Burning Man was the theme, but I didn't technically know that.  We'd just come back from my first year on the playa.  Buttery, Smash, Leslie and I made playa type costumes.  We all did the same thing,but they were different in execution. We took strips of fabric and turned them into skirts. We wore corset tops, and we wore top hats. I made a boa out of pink fake fur, and I wore extravagant false eyelashes.  The picture below is with Buttery; the four of us never managed to get together for a shot.  It was one of my favorite parties. 

 

• 2006. Go Go dancer.  I found a really cute mini dress at a thrift store. So I paired that with a beehive wig and bright green go-go boots and hit the town.  That day also happened to be my 15th high school reunion, so I went to that wearing the costume.  Some of my classmates' wives thought that's what I normally looked like. 

• 2005 Mozart groupie.  I'd found this AWESOME tee-shirt from Glark.com. So I paired it with pleather jeans, white makeup and a powdered wig.   I LOVED this costume.  It was probably my least favorite of the parties, due to some drama, but it was a great costume. 

• 2004 (no picture) I had a dinner engagement at a fancy restaurant before the party. So I wore nice clothes and I put a latex stake over my heart and bite marks on my neck.  I also had a dribble of blood going down my chin.  At the restaurant, people kept coming over to my table to ask how I did it.  Apparently the concept of latex and spirit gum had not seeped through the masses yet.   This was the first party at Candyman's house, and it was really hot.  My brother went as Kenny from South Park, and he almost never breaks character.  It nearly killed him. 
• 2003 Montecore the white tiger.  My brother went as Roy, who had been mauled by Montecore a few weeks before Halloween. I went as the tiger who mauled him.  I found a latex cat face and played with makeup. I also made a white striped tank top and striped a blonde wig.  It's pretty amateur, but it was a lot of fun.  (Don't ask about the picture, I have no idea.)  This was the first year I started going to Candyman's parties. That year, his house wasn't finished yet, so we had a roving party bus instead. 

From 1998 to 2001ish (I think there may have been one in 2002, but I don't remember seeing many photos), there was a party in Las Vegas called Viva Las Buffy.  I went to three of them.  They were fun. 

• 2002  Recycled Devil Went Down to Georgia. Still one of my all time favorite costumes. I gave the hat to gttygrl.  I have no idea what happened to the jeans, though I originally got them at Hot Topic.  The picture below is from 2000 in Las Vegas when I originally wore the costume. I don't remember what party I went to in 2002, but I remember re-wearing the costume.  I was living in Houston, but I hadn't gone to one of Candyman's parties yet. My livejournal is not helpful. Apparently I met a guy from my lawyer board who was in town on a deposition from, and I later went to a party and was hungover the next day. 

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• 2001  Alice in Chains. Last Buffy PBFP that I went to.  *sniff*  I bought a blue mini dress, apron and blonde long wig. I also went to Good Vibrations and bought as much chain related bondage gear as I could afford. The Pièce de résistance were the nipple clamps attached to my nipples.  I had another party to go to that night, so I walked by myself down Las Vegas Boulevard, forgetting that there was a fetish convention in town.  (sorry for crappy quality, I took a picture of the photo.  We're entering pre-digital camera stages....)  I skipped my ten year high school reunion for this party. The Warp Core Breech and evading the security guard in the Holiday Inn was INFINITELY better.

• 2000  The first year of the Devil Went Down to Georgia. In Las Vegas.  This was the awesome year when I slept with KitCat before meeting her and there was the *nsync thing. This was also the year that I was in Vegas for 36 hours and got sleep in none of them.  I'm pretty sure that this was my favorite costume. 
• 1999 No idea, probably because I couldn't make it to Vegas that year.  
• 1998  Angel of death. First Viva Las Buffy party.  I was dating jasheffe at the time, and we had a really lovely trip. 
• 1997  Scary pirate.  I was still in Law School, and my cousin Nicole showed up at one of our parties with a guy who would turn out to be a great colleague of mine. 
• 1996  Emma Peel.  It was an awful, awful costume. I wore a lot of black. 

I can't remember the details of 1995 or before.

I have no memory of Halloween when I was at Oxford, so I'm betting that we didn't do anything when I lived there.  Surprisingly for the amount of alcohol that was consumed when I lived there, I remember most of the various events at Oxford.

I was Indiana Jones and an Indian in college at various points, and some years I didn't bother with a costume.