The Summer of Planning Spooks

Dear Reader, the Internets have reliably informed me that despite the heat still reigning in the Northern Hemisphere it is indeed Halloween season. Now, as someone who is not a spooky person, doesn’t really get into Halloween, channels all their energy into Christmas (and yes, planning for Christmas since Christmas in July is fully appropriate in my books), the notice is much appreciated. It allows me to, for once, avoid being taken by surprise when the month of October arrives. At least it lets me do so this year, which is particularly important because not only do I have plans for October, I also anticipate having less time for anything intensely creative and it’s only the second year in my life when I am close to genuine excitement about the spooky season overall.

First of all, there is the matter of planning outfits for a spooky banquet at the opulent Ludwigsburg Palace which I am set to attend. Covid deprived me of visiting it in July, but fortunately I received enough advance intel about the event to reschedule my flights. With tickets now purchased and all the travel arrangements sorted, if I don’t start planning outfits now then I will be a 100% Naked-chan come October and that is not acceptable. Thanks to @lena_golita’s suggestions and a quick (and hopefully adequately timed) AliExpress purchase I should have one coord down, which would be oh so perfect for the Pumpkin Festival planned for day 2 of the event.

Crude collage is crude, but for something done during stolen time at work on MS Paint it's doing a good enough job of representing the plan so far.

That leaves a matter of putting something together for the actual banquet itself. Thanks to the kindness of the people I’m going with, I have a potential backup plan in the form of a gorgeous Atelier Pierrot dress, which a friend offered to lend me. This generosity itself is melting my heart and it is a lovely dress, nonetheless I would like to at least attempt putting something together myself since we’re all trying to save on suitcase space. With the limited spooky options my heart automatically wanders towards Haenuli’s Just One Bite thanks to its elegance, flattering fit, and resistance to wrinkles. At the same time, since I’ve already done a fair few looks with it, I feel like I need a more specific theme or an idea to get my creative juices flowing. The coord above came together because I had a very specific dress suggestion with a very specific aesthetic to add to it (a cottagecore witch). If I can find an angle that excites me for this one too, then no doubts a coord will form itself in no time.

Every coord I've done with this JSK so far. Click to enlarge.

Secondly, since last year I have found ways to enjoy the spooky season on my own terms. Until then I’ve firmy rejected it since I do not like horror or anything even remotely adjacent to it, so Halloween was not welcome in my house. The contagious excitement of my friends towards the season combined with acknowledging the softer and cuter side of Halloween, massively aided by my very own void boi, seriously relaxed my stance on the matter. I still do not touch anything that was even standing next to horror on the shelf with a ten foot pole, you will not find me decorating my flat for the season or anything like that. But I have a very soft spot for autumn as a season and for what we associate with it, which is picturesque cosiness. So it’s fine if the oranges of the leaves changing colour blend in with the oranges of Halloween decorations and elements. If I were a coffee drinker, I’d for sure be the basic bitch drinking pumpkin spiced lattes, but since I cannot stand the taste of coffee I’m mulling apple juice and making warming stews instead.

The appropriate amount of spooky in my autumn.
Photo by Valeriia Miller on Pexels.

Does that mean adding more seasonally appropriate colours into my wardrobe? Trust me, I really want to, but I have to convince my rational side first. My sense of style has been shifting and trying to find a comfortable spot practically since the beginning of the year, and it’s only just about started to clarify and settle. The vision that it seems to be settling on is focusing on my tricolour roots (with pink being allowed to stay as a shade of red), so at least I won’t be short of reds to be autumnal. I’m also still doing the thing of periodically getting into browns, which I think I want to finally expand on, so that would be good. But it’s those shades of orange that my heart is drawn to every autumn. It may be that as more browns find their way into my wardrobe, a carefully selected orange piece such as a cardigan (oh boy, here we go) will be enough to scratch the itch. I really don’t want the seasonally induced craving to take over. But if I start planning for this now, in the summer, then maybe by the time the spooky season reaches its peak I will have something to accomplish the look with, maybe even found in a charity shop or via Vinted? That would be nice.

Seasonal veg, seasonal clothes, and seasonal colours. If I can make spooky cosy, then maybe we will get along for longer.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.

Last but certainly by no means least - despite eeeverything that I told you earlier about not touching anything even horror-adjacent with a ten foot pole - I have bought a horror adjacent book. I know, what a hypocrite, burn the witch! But hear me out! It’s a lolita book, by a lolita author (and a friend), and the horror is more comedy than actual horror. So I can manage that, right? (Because the reason I don’t do horror is because I purposefully keep my escapism light and bright, the world is scary enough as is.) DH D’haenens has launched a book via Kickstarter called Lockhart Mansion, which is fully funded as of Saturday August 6th. If you’re interested, you have literally HOURS to get it yourself here, though I imagine that there may be a run of it after the campaign is completed.

I mean, in today's housing market if I had an affordable haunted mansion and two frillies to share the costs with, I would be thinking hard about refusing.
Image from Flammable Penguin's Instagram.

But by backing the campaign I’m not just getting something lolita and spooky to read during the cosy season that I’m here for. The tier that I backed includes a book launch tea party, which you bet your pettis I am going to (and which I will be reporting on!). This means that I also need to start planning an adequately booky-spooky outfit for the tea party. My thoughts are meandering around the Dear Celine Magic Book OP as it’s warm, book-themed, witchy, comfortable, and easy to pack. If by then I manage to expand my wardrobe with some orangey bits, then I would love to give this dress a pumpkin-ish twist, it seems like it would lend itself well to that. But equally I can’t rely on that happening, so the planning cogs are once again turning and trying to come up with something good. Though at least with this one I do have enough themes to mull over.

Every coord I've done with this OP so far. Click to enlarge.

And thus, despite being still in early August, I have found myself spending the summer planning for spooks. Me, the “Christmas in July and don’t come near me with that spooky stuff” person in your neighbourhood. This is truly proof that you should never say never because who knows what sort of changes are awaiting you in your future…

This post is brought to you by Bibliotheca’s monthly theme of Spooky Summer. I’m sure that the other participating bloggers, many of whom are actually living the spooky life every day, will have something more substantial to say, so subscribe to the Bibliotheca newsletter if you haven’t already.