Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

Between this and spicy, crunchy leaf season, those are my preferred things about autumn. Yet this year, for whatever reason, is the first one when I feel a twinge of genuine excitement for Halloween itself. Am I prepared for that? Absolutely not. There’s no time to shell out money on Halloween prints, most of which I’m not really that keen on anyway, and the décor that UK shops are trying to present me with is not my level of tacky (more kids’ party and less adult who likes cute stuff with a hint of spoop). So what’s a girl to do to indulge in this slightly more Halloween-y spirit? Well, brainstorm a couple of ideas out loud in blog post format, that’s what.

Photo by Mónika Erdei on Pexels.com

Vintage knitwear

When it doubt – vintage knitwear. I love tacky vintage knitwear of the holiday and seasonal varieties. Again, it’s not always that easy to find the good stuff because for all of Britain’s love of knitting and tat, it’s the Americans that excel at that stuff, but the trend’s catching on. I was lucky to nab a vest for an acceptable price of £30 off Vinted (and for free in girl math money because I sold some bits and had money in my Vinted account), which will serve me throughout the month. There’s already been one coord to prove how well it works with frills, one more is on the cards soon, and I’ll see if I can squeeze one more for Halloween itself on top of some non-lolita work outfits. This is the only thing that I’ve purchased specifically for Halloween this year and may it serve me for many years to come.

Expect to see more of this vest in October's coords roundup post.

Wear all black

The easy way out for anyone in a similar predicament who also owns some limited black items. It doesn’t have to be elaborate coords, it doesn’t have to be super goth styling, and it doesn’t have to be anything new. But since I now own three black JSKs, wearing them with black is the fastest way to look – and feel – seasonally appropriate. I can play around with trying to keep my styling more goth, but even if I do the usual swerve towards the classic and the elegant, it’s not the end of the world. It’s still an all-black outfit, that passes for Halloween-y enough. There is just something about that stark monochrome in a coord that really resonates with the spooky season. Must be all of that groundwork that the goths have laid for us casual enjoyers of their favourite holiday.

Shh, I know that's not quite an all-black coord, but I didn't want to dig out anything too old.

Witch hat

As basic as basic gets, but not every witch has to immediately be evil or spooky. The benefit of having both a white and a black hat is that I can then indulge in all kinds of witchy looks. I’ve enjoyed coording my white one in as many ways as I could, I find that it has a lot more whimsy than the black one. If it’s already there – use it! Plus, sometimes a witch hat really is doing Halloween on easy mode. It takes a regular outfit, especially when it looks a little bit more studious or fantasy-like, and instantly makes it spoopy. As much as I’m contemplating also getting a brown witch hat, I can’t justify that, so let’s make do with what I currently have first. And focus on trying to keep them on my head. Nobody tells you that a big hat wants nothing more than to slide off your noggin’!

Still one of the best coords with this hat and this dress that I've done in my humble opinion.

Orange

Halloween equals pumpkins and pumpkins equals orange. Yes, I know that there are pumpkins in other colours, but those ones don’t come across as the inspiration without the pumpkin shape to boot. I’m definitely a pumpkin enjoyer: they taste great, they look cute, they’re fun to carve, and they make for adorable accessories. I keep wanting to buy more of the latter, but sadly the ones that I want most aren’t the cheapest (curse you, following amazing indie jewellery makers and my preferred lifestyle not being priced for the current state of the UK economy). So in the meantime I honour the pumpkin by throwing every bit of orange that I’ve amassed as a result of owning the easyJet colourway of the Dumb Airline Dress and pretend like the spooky season usage was all entirely part of the plan.

This dress is so dumb that it's in the queue for the communal brain cell shared by all of the orange cats out there.

October has only just passed its halfway mark and I’ve already realised the many gaps in my wardrobe from just following the above threads of inspiration in my coords. Such as not having an easy to wear black goth headdress (yes, I technically have the Antique Beast’s Hecate one, but by easy to wear I mean as easy as putting on a headbow). Or an orange headdress (I’ve been making do with that one hair clip from Lady Sloth’s Winter Spices skirt). Or some more horizontal striped tights (missed my opportunities during Snag’s previous Halloween releases and this year’s isn’t giving me the colours that I want). Or a few more proper goth black and/or silver brooches (although don’t get me started on the brooches that I think I’m missing, I know that’s all imaginary).

Still, the fact that I am managing to create enough undoubtedly Halloween looks with the limited resources available to me, is credit to the hoarding that I’ve done over the years. And it has been all kinds of sugar, spice, and everything nice to feel the joy that others must have been feeling all those years when I was a Halloween ignorer. If you are craving more content from Halloween enjoyers, then I suggest you subscribe to the Bibliotheca newsletter, so that when the Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice edition goes out, you will have all of that at your fingertips, lovingly collected into one entry.