Silent Film Star in Grey Scale

Just a quick post today. I wanted to share share with all of you the costume I made for Halloween. I know Halloween was a couple weeks ago, but hey better late then never. My original idea was Betty Boop but I didn't think I could pull off the cartoon look. Some how that idea evolved into the creation you see below - the silent film star in grey scale.

Searching for make up tutorials for this was frustrating at best until I changed my search strategy. I had been searching with the terms 'black and white make up' and the only hits I got were for mimes, zombies, etc. - cool but not very helpful for what I needed. Then I tried 'gray scale' and Ah Ha!

I have to give credit to my friend Becca for her help with the make up. There is no way I could have pulled this off without her. Becca works as a make up artist for a local theater.

Becca working her make up magic!

For my hair I used a ton of setting lotion and some black spray on hair color. I couldn't find any long hair clips so I used a combination of smaller clips and bobby pins to hold my hair in place while it dried. This was my first attempt at finger waves and it proved rather challenging. Looking at several how-tos online the concept looked easy, and after a lot of practice I'm sure it is. However I think this is a hairstyle that is probably easier to do with another person's hair then with your own.

My hair is supper long so only the front sections were set in finger waves. The back portion was pulled back, rolled, and pinned low. I set my hair in the morning and left the clips in for most of the day. I looked pretty silly.

I made the my dress out of some cheap poly-satin, recycled from an older Halloween costume. I followed the directions for Draping a Magic Dance Frock from Dress Making Research. This is a great resource with lots of free patterns. Check it out!

Here is the finished look. I used black sequins for trim and a vintage rhinestone pin to complete the look. It's hard to see in the pictures.

Cori went as Pop Eye. He wore one of his vintage Navy jumpers with a pair of surplus denim work pants.

And just for fun, here are couple costumes from past years. All photos by Kris Jarrett Photography & Media Production.

Bonny and Clyde

Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Updates and More

Greeting lovely readers. Just a quick post today to let you know a couple things. First, I've added to my Resources and Inspiration page. Please take a look! As always, if you know of any resources not included, please let me know and I will be happy to add them. :)

And second, you can now follow My Vintage Visions on Facebook! Enjoy!

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Halloween Train Ride

Towards the end of October, Cori and I took another ride on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. This time it was wine tasting with a Halloween theme!

We left the Lake Placid station about 5:30pm and headed to Saranac Lake for a brief layover. Along the way we sampled wines from the Swedish Hill and Goose Watch Wineries. I think there were about 50 or 60 people on the train, most were in costumes of some sort. There were the usual witches, vampires, zombies, and an awesome gypsy. A group who dressed as M&Ms and a few other great costumes. My personal favorite was the couple dressed as William and Kate on their wedding day. "Kate" appeared to be enjoying her wine a bit too much. ;)

Cori was a big hit. He worn his newest set of WWII Navy dress blues with a modern navy pea coat and surplus dixi cup hat. This set of blues came with an original Navy issued pea coat, all owned by the same person (Cori was super excited!) but the lining is in need of some repair.  So he wore the modern coat instead. I should note it wasn't as cold as Cori makes it appear in the pictures, we just liked the look of the "popped" collar. Sadly he forgot to bring his sea bag this trip. Oh, well, next time.

I finally got to wear my 1940s suit! Hooray! I purchased it over a year ago from Morning Glorious Vintage. It was this suit that really got me started buying vintage I could wear. I've been collecting vintage and antique odds and ends for what seems like forever, but most pieces are what collectors would call "study pieces." i.e. not wearable or displayable because of condition issues. That's not to say I didn't have wearable items in my size in my collection before, but really, how many opportunities does a person have to wear a 1930s wedding gown or a 1950s prom dress? A suit is practical as well as versatile. When I tried this suit on I knew I couldn't leave the shop without it!

It's made from a light weight brown check wool. The jacket has those classic '40s shoulder pads and great pocket details. The skirt zips up the side and has a little kick pleat in back. I love the skirt so much a drafted a pattern from it and made a skirt for my birthday this spring.

It was a bit cool that day so I paired the suit with a 1940s mink wrap. I also wore a vintage hat with matching green gloves and a maple leaf rhinestone pin. The purse is alligator (I don't think its real but certainly looks it) that I picked up this spring.

While rummaging around for my gloves I found a this little treasure - a beautiful Art Deco enamel and silver compact complete with original powder puff and a bit of face powder. Don't worry, I didn't actually use the make-up! I picked it up years ago but had completely forgotten about it. I know, how could I?

Art Deco compact

Cori was excited for the wine .... but was sad he had to wait. We had a great time and plan to do this again next year!

One of our souvenir wine glasses!

The train station was all decked out for Halloween but it was really too dark inside to take pictures. This was the only one that came out.

Train station in Saranac Lake, NY