ALL THE STEALTH COSPLAYS! (...Or not.)

Hi, guys! I have ALL THE STEALTH COSPLAYS for you today-it'll be a pretty long and pic-heavy post, but I hope that you enjoy seeing my spins on the outfits as much as I am enjoying putting them together and wearing them. 

First, a little more sci-fi, to match my Doctor Who post:

Star Trek TOS uniform!
Red fishnet shirt-Buffalo Exchange

Black tank-Forever21

Red and black lace skirt-Repeat Boutique

Galaxy-print leggings-Cosmic
Black Doc Marten-alikes-Wal-Mart

Here's the original dress:

Those dresses were so short, all the ladies on the show wore matching bloomers because they pretty much couldn't have moved without flashing someone otherwise! 

Here's the next one, a little more loose, but inspired by Cosette from Les Miserables:

Black and white empire waist dress-Buffalo Exchange
White tights-Wal-Mart

Ghillies-Arc

Here's the original dress-it's a lot more elaborate. Cosette gets a bad rap, but I actually quite like her. I am very excited to see the Les Mis movie when it comes out, as I am a huge musical dork and love all the actors in the movie!

So not as close as some others, but the dress looks 1830s-ish, and the color palette is the same. It is a stealth cosplay, after all! :D

The final one is a little more obscure, but I feel like a lot of you would love (or possibly already do!) Alexia Tabarotti from Gail Carriger's Soulless:

Goggles-Goodwill

Black tank-Wal-Mart
Black velvet corset-Buffalo Exchange
Purple taffeta skirt-Made by me
Black ruffled underskirt-Buffalo Exchange
Chunky black shoes-Goodwill


Her being a book character, I don't have as much material to draw from-but I loved the purple color scheme on the cover, and I decided to base the outfit on that. This really is one of my favorite books-Alexa Tabarotti is a strongly constructed character, being by turns stubborn, brave, prickly, and dryly witty. The whole series is fantastic-great action, very funny, wonderful characters, and a really well-done romance. I highly recommend them if you haven't read them.
I was originally just going to do one week of stealth cosplays, but I find myself liking them so much that I think I shall continue them for at least a little while longer. Stay tuned for more tomorrow! And thanks for your patience with my irregular posting schedule, lovelies-I appreciate you all, and am so grateful to you for reading my blog. Cheers! 

A Steamy Return!

No, not that way! Apologies for my absence, best beloved readers, but I've spent the last 12 days traipsing around the South Island of New Zealand on my spring break, living out of a suitcase and a van and having limited access to both showers and the Internet-not exactly conditions highly conducive to blogging! But I'm back, and in honor of AnomalyCon back home (which I couldn't go to for obvious reasons, being 8,000 miles away and all) I decided to go with a steampunk-influenced theme for this week's outfits. Apologies for the cockeyed picture-my tripod broke just as I was setting up to take the picture and I need to get another one, so bear with me!

Heart necklace-Arc

Sheer black blouse-NZ Clothing Company

Black lace cami-Arc

Fingerless gloves-Claire's

Purple satin skirt-Fiji flea market

Black chiffon skirt-Salvation Army

Black buckled boots-Ross

You can't really see it in the pic, but this skirt is a lovely deep plum color. I came to NZ with only black, white, red and a bit of grey in my wardrobe, and told myself that I'd live with that, but darned if I don't keep finding pretty items of other colors that I just can't resist! And really, a Goth girl can never have enough purple in her wardrobe, so...

Anyway, that's today's outfit. Stay tuned for more steamy and Victorian-influenced goodness as the week progresses-I'm glad to be back! 

Stripes Ahoy!

I may be slightly addicted to striped things. Striped tights, pinstripe corsets, striped skirts...I think it's all Tim Burton's fault. If he didn't constantly put great looking stripey costumes into his films, I wouldn't want to wear stripes all the time. But he does, and I do, and the result is outfits like this:

Fake "pearl" necklace-Arc

Demon necklace-Repeat Boutique

Black lace shrug-Savers

Buckled pinstriped corset-The Crypt

Purple-and-black-stripe handwarmers-Claire's

Purple-and-black striped skirt-Buffalo Exchange

Black leggings-Wal-mart

Black boots-Buffalo Exchange

I think when I first saw this skirt at Buffalo Exchange (in the Halloween section, natch), my reaction was something like OMGMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!!! Fortunately, most sane people don't want a bright purple and black striped skirt, so I was able to snatch it up and abscond happily to the checkouts with it-I think it only cost $6 or $8, and it makes me so happy. Stripes! What else can I say? I'm a walking Goth cliche when it comes to 'em. Speaking of stripes, I will very soon have the mother of all Sew Very Goth posts coming up, so keep your eyes peeled. I just have to do about 18,000 feet of gathering first. What's your favorite cliche Goth style? 

Feelin' Batty, or Gothy Symbols Week Day 3

Full disclosure: I love bats-vampires, Batman, Stellaluna- there are so many great associations! Plus, flying rodents or not, they are soooo cute, and make for great Goth-y prints. I actually have a half-sewn bat-print fabric skirt somewhere at home, but seeing as I don't have it with me, I decided to improvise with a quite cool bat article I found purely by chance:

 

Black lace blouse-Goodwill

Gargoyle necklace-Repeat Boutique 

Black cami (under blouse)-Wal-Mart

Bat print cummerbund-Buffalo Exchange

Tiered chiffon skirt-Savers

Buckled boots-Ross

It's a cummerbund! Isn't that just too, too much fun?  I love the idea of incorporating fun, unusual pieces like that into my wardrobe-it makes for a great pop of color, and it's definitely adding a unique touch to an otherwise ordinary (well, ordinary to me) outfit. I'm debating between my other "bat" piece or vampire fangs for tomorrow, so you'll just have to look and see what I choose-either way, it'll be awesome.  

Spooktober Treat: A Triple Outfit Post for Day 1 of Spooky Symbols Week

Sorry for the absence the last few days-life sorta snuck up on me, along with midterms, and I didn't have time to blog. But I'm making up for it today with a three-for-one-isn't that exciting? Here's the first outfit of the day, third outfit of last week:

Black t-shirt-Ross

Gold spider skirt-Sewn by me

Fishnets-Wal-Mart

Mary Janes-Shoe Carnival

I love this skirt-the fabric was post-Halloween clearance from JoAnn, and the pattern was so simple to make-from layout to final touches, the whole thing probably took me 3 hours to sew, and that was with having to reset the zipper twice because I suck at zippers!

Here's the last Spider Week outfit, when I did spiders subtle...ish, at least for me!

Necklace-Inherited

Plum camisole-Arc

Black jersey dress-Ross

Lilac corset-Canal Boat Trading

Spiderweb Tights-Target

Here's a close-up of the tights-sadly, they are falling apart and Target doesn't have them any more! Tear! If anyone knows where I can get another pair of cool spiderweb tights, leave me a store name in the comments, and you will earn my eternal gratitude. 

And here's why my roommate/best friend Kira is the awesomest in the world-she got me this amazing spider hair clip as a birthday present and was so excited she gave it to me early! And I was glad she did, because it was so perfect for the spider outfits week! Isn't it pretty and fun?

This week, I'm doing assorted Goth-y symbol-I have two cats, a bat, and vampire fangs, so stay tuned to see how those are all employed. This is the first cat print thing I have:

Black pinstripe blazer-Plato's Closet

Purple cami-Random store in New York

Black and purple cat print skirt-Made by me

Black tights-God only knows

Black Mary Janes-Arc

 

Here's a closeup of the fabric-isn't it fabulous? This pattern was definitely a lot more involved/complicated than the one for the spider skirt, but oh-so worth it-I love how swishy and fun this skirt is! I really want to make one in plain black chiffon and one in black lace now-it's pretty and dressy without being elaborate or fussy, and definitely worth the extra effort it takes to make! Do any of you who sew have a bit-more-complex pattern that you just can't resist using?  

Monthly Theme Day-Lace!

Hello, all! I'm going to celebrate my triumphant return to blogging with a two-outfit post on one of VictorianKitty's theme days-this time, lace. Here's the outfit I wore to last night's premier of my university's production of Almost, Maine, which I designed a scene for:

 

Black raschel lace blouse- Arc

Green and black lace corset-Fusion Federation

Black lace skirt-Forever 21

Black lace armwarmers-Claire's

Patent-toe Mary Jane heels-Ross 

 And here's today's outfit, the official October 1st Lace Outfit!

 

Black lace shrug-LoveCulture

Black and nude lace camisole-Arc

Lavender net and lace skirt-Repeat Boutique

Black chunky Mary Janes-Arc

So I basically have enough lace stuff in my wardrobe that I could probably do an entire month's worth of outfits, just made out of various lace items. These are just a few of my favorites. Even though the corset in the first one is a fashion corset rather than a real one, it's just so pretty that I forgive it its plastic boning and cheap busk-I love that particular shade of green, and black lace is my third biggest weakness, right after corsets and striped socks. Or, really, any color of lace. I have an especial love of lined stretch lace tops-in addition to this cami, I have an olive green one, two black ones (one of which is kind of falling apart because it's been worn so much...sadface), a purple one and a red one. They are so fun, subtly sexy, and easy to wear! I definitely like stretch lace better in tops, though-the skirt I'm wearing in the first outfit is cheap stretch lace, and it's definitely showing, with all the lovely plastic-y threads hanging out and fraying around the edges. Despite my current almost-moratorium on buying new stuff, I would definitely spring for a long non-stretch black lace skirt!

She Wore Purple Velvet...Stripes

Ignore my lame song pun title-heaven forbid I ever actually get something that is made of blue velvet! For day 2 of black and purple week, I donned one of my favorite corsets-it has black and purple, stripes, velvet, and ruffles. What more could a girl ask for? It does tend a little toward the costume-y if I wear it with a lot of other really Victorian stuff, though-and some days I feel very steampunk-y, and that's fine, but today I wanted a little more modern vibe.

 

Black jersey dress-Ross

Purple velvet corset-Punk69

Purple tights-TJ Maxx

Black combat boots-DAV thrift

 I tried to "dress it down" a little by pairing it with casual items-well, casual for me, at least! I'm sure most people would call this dress at least somewhat dressy, but a black jersey dress is my equivalent of jeans-which probably explains why I have three of them. The purple tights were definitely a lucky find at TJ Maxx for $3-I think I'm getting close to having a solid-color pair in every color! It definitely helps with my ever-so-slightly anal-retentive need for color coordination, not to mention that they're fun, funky, and easy to wear. Love!

Black and Purple, and Better Pictures

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus last week, but I hadn't a camera with which to take pictures! Fortunately, that problem was remedied as of Friday, so now I will be back to daily (or twofer-every-other-day) posting-aaannnd my new camera has a front LCD, so I will actually be able to see what it's doing! Yay! This week, I'm doing black and purple, one of my favorite color combos-cliche, I know, but it's soooooo pretty. And here is Day One!

Black cropped shrug-Rainbow

Purple ruffled blouse-Arc (?) 

Black lace skirt-By me

Black zippered Mary Janes (even though you can't see 'em)-Arc

I normally remember where I got almost everything in my wardrobe, but I've had this blouse for about six or seven years, so where exactly I bought it escapes me. I'm actually rather proud of this skirt-you can't see it very well in the picture, but it has two big rows of lace on the bottom and is quite full, giving it a wonderful Victorian feel. It was actually the underskirt in a slightly horrible silvery-purple taffeta '80s prom gown-I took the gown apart, re-gathered the quite pretty underskirt (really, the only salvageable part of the dress-it was quite a monstrosity, to be honest!), and attached it to an elastic waistband. Simple, elegant, and cheap-I think I gave $6 for the dress and used about 50 cents worth of elastic. Not bad for a very similar skirt to this one from GoodGoth, that runs $65-mine doesn't have the lacing, but next time I have my sewing machine and a good 20 minutes, that will be remedied. Have any of you ever made a cheap replica of a much more expensive piece of clothing?