Costume

I'm often asked about the border between clothing and costume for myself. For someone who often dresses as crazy as I do, what makes a costume a costume? Here is a list of traits that I think apply to my costumes over the years, pictures amply included:

1. They all center around an article of clothing made specifically for that costume--for example, it would be difficult to wear this Belle dress without people thinking of Belle.

1. They are all more impractical than everyday clothing. For example, they have a giant hoop skirt or corset or something which prohibits my movement (more so than everyday wear).

2. This may sound like a weird one, but when I'm in costume, I do my hair. I sometimes do nice things with my hair anyway, but to be quite honest it's pretty rare.
3. Whereas I may spend an absolute maximum of an hour (I usually only have about ten minutes) getting ready for a regular schoolday, a costume often requires three hours or more of work time to get myself ready.
4. Believe it or not, I tend to wear less exciting shoes when I'm in costume (with the exception of Victorian wear, when you can't see the shoes anyway...).

And, interestingly, here is a list of traits that I have found not to be specific either to costume or "everyday" wear in my own wardrobe:

1. The makeup has no limits either way--sometimes it's insane and sometimes it's not even there (note the similarities between the bellydancer makeup and this purple and green look).

1. I tend not to care if I wear something slightly impractical either way--I am willing to deal for the sake of the art. For example, the Bride of Frankenstein wig or this GIANT (and it's even more giant when you're wearing it, trust me) crinoline that I wore the other day.

1. I don't limit my colors either way--in both the everyday and costume worlds I have worn very bright colors as well as more toned-down colors. See the first two outfits below in comparison with this fairy costume and my bellydancer costume.

All my love,

OotD Jan-21-2010

Just a quick outfit post before I zonk. Wore this to school on Wednesday and yearbook surprised me at brunch by letting me know they'd misplaced my senior portrait, so could I come in and have my photo taken again! Such fun...

Boots a gift from Emma Dahling and Shell from OotC

Crinoline from Hodgson's Antiques, South Pasadena

Tights from Target

Shirt a hand-me-down from a friend

Jacket a hand-me-down from an aunt

Scarf and glove a gift from Mary (Dad's gf)

Hat from Target

Falsies from RiteAid!

All my love,

P.S.-see, I told you I'd get my siggy back! And it's different!

Hello all!

Bon jour, mon amis!

Art thou ready for exciting news? Art thou seated shouldst thou faint? Well, here goes: I have been to Ross. Yes. And I have bought things--beautiful things. I shall give you a hint regarding each bought item until I can get pictures of each of them. 1. Gaga Red 2. Retroglama Gaga green 3. Tim Burton's Secretary 4. Asian-esque Pink silk 5. Black Beauty 6. Fruity floral iced tea dressified (make sense? no? sorry.) Because I am wearing the seventh item as I type and have just taken some Fabby McFabbity pictures in it, you shall see:

On the ever-so-slightly less Happy McCheery plane of my life, I have been al dottore, and il dottore hath given me an EKG, five shots (including tetanis and HPV), and hath drawn my blood. The worst part? Aside from the fact that I fainted in a coffee shop last weekend, I am probably perfectly healthy. Not that that's a bad thing in and of itself, exactly, just that it's annoying to have all these holes in my arms.

Well, in any case, best to you!

Ciao bellas,

Rickey

P.S.-I am working on figuring out my signaturey thing, but for the time being, please continue to imagine that my name is all green and curlyish and has a red kiss on it. ;)

P.P.S.-The seventh item was the skirt--the shirt is unattached and I am wearing the skirt higher than it is meant to be worn. The shirt is also from Ross, but a very long time ago, and the hat is secondhand from my voice teacher, who (tear) has just had her very very dear and beautiful dog, Rascal, die very unexpectedly. Please send your love vibes thataway. <3

New Shoes!!!!

Here is a video of me showing you my new shoes--can you say "six dollars"? Speaking of Out of the Closet, one of my projects in the brain-formulation stage is an Out Of The Closet Benefit Fashion Show--For those of you who don't know, Out of the CLoset is a charity thrift shop where all the items are donated and sold for super-low prices. Beyond operating costs, all of their money goes towards AIDS research. So, I want to do a fashion show where all of the pieces in the show are made from clothes and things bought at out of the closet, and then charge a small admission fee and auction off all the pieces to make back what I spent and give whatever's left to AIDS research through OotC. Happy Friday! Rickey <3

Happy New Year from Pasadena!

Hello all! Well, living quite near Pasadena and whatsit, my family and I always take the opportunity to wake up insanely early (okay, at like 5:30, but on New Year's I'd gone to bed after a party at 5:00, so I admit I was rather grumpy after half an hour of sleep)to go see the Rose Parade floats before they start moving, and some years wave them off as they start to move at 8:00. My grandfather works on the South Pasadena float every year as a volunteer since he moved here and is quite proud of his year's work (they will literally start working on next year's float in, like, a month). Here he is by the South Pas float-- --unfortunately, the float itself didn't make it in the picture. Let's see what I can do about that. Well, there he is again sort of with the float, and also with my mother, and here is a close-up of two of Susan Pascale's orchestra children sitting on our float: Here's another super-awesome picture my mother's boyfriend took of us with his son...I think it looks like the cover of some alien attack movie or something. Best part of the day by far, however, was when we heard that Jackie Chan was going to be on the Shanghai float so we decided to wait around almost another hour! Me and my brother by Jackie: More Jackie: All my love and the best for 2010 (the year I graduate high school!), Rickey (telekiss)

Ooh, Goody!

Guess what? It's New Year's Eve, and you get to see my best friend's Christmas gifts before she does. Of course, since she's pretty much the only person who ever reads this blog... like, ever... I can't give away too much. Plus, I forgot to take pictures of the actual gifts, so you actually only get to see the very outermost wrapping and the card. But I think that's good enough. And because it has to be so absolutely very much top secret, you won't be able to read the card without a mirror (and also because I couldn't figure out how to turn off the mirror image setting on my webcam). But anyway, here you go. And Happy New Year!

Facial Hair

Hey! Remember the last time I tried facial hair? Let's just say it was a lot of fun. I've always thought that if I could grow a moustache, I most certainly would. I'm probably way behind the times here, but I think it's tres exciteeng that the camera function on my computer has a face tracker sort of thingamabob and so it can put hats and funky stuff on you, and there is a nice selection of facial hair to choose from as well. Here is a small sampling:

As you can tell, I was rather enjoying myself.

What are your thoughts on facial hair, all you lovely nonexistant people?

All my love,

Rickey