Sailor Moon – Sip of Starrshine

Two years ago, we observed Halloween on a Friday, which gave me the idea to don Harry Potter house colors every day leading up to Halloween. I had so much fun doing so that last year, I did Hogwarts Spirit Week, where I wore business casual versions of my house colors during the workweek before Halloween.

This year, I changed things up slightly due to 2 factors:

I received some amazing socks for my birthday. (I actually also received a few Harry Potter house socks, but not for all 4 houses. It seems very likely that I’ll go get those socks and revisit some Hogwarts house spirit in the near future.)
My cousin handed me down some great blazers after Christmas. I used to really want to be the girl with cool blazers, and when my cousin gave me some colored blazers, the wheels in my head started furiously grinding away. I had enough blazers to do a blazers-only edition of Hogwarts Spirit Week, but with my new socks, I decided to take this frequently-used color palette and do something different.

And thus, Sailor Senshi Week was born!

The order I went with this year wasn’t ROYGBIV (although I was darn tempted) but the order that we are introduced to the scouts in the anime. (Also, I only did Inner Senshi because 5 days of the work week and I’ve actually never made it far enough into the anime to have met the Outer Senshi!) So of course, we begin with the titular meatball-head, Usagi.

Next up, Sailor Mercury, the most popular character in Japan because she is kind and gentle and crazy smart. Ami was the kind of girl I wished I could be but struggled a lot to be because I wasn’t as kind or hardworking!

After getting to be Sailor Mars for Halloween last year and at AwesomeCon, my love for Rei has only grown. (I’m trying to get more interpretations of Sailor Mars in the works for the future, so we’ll see how ambitious of a cosplayer I’ll end up being!) I always saw so much of myself in this fiery scout, not just because she was the only Inner Senshi with long dark hair.

If I saw a lot of myself in Mars and wished I could be more like Mercury growing up, Jupiter is the girl that I find myself admiring a lot more as an adult. She maneuvers being the most masculine and the most feminine member of the team seemingly with ease and doesn’t apologize for either side. I remember really struggling to figure out how girly or tomboyish was “appropriate” or that I was “supposed” to be, so seeing Makoto be domestic af while lifting men above her head is really inspiring now.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much of a connection with Minako, as the blonde idol who we are introduced to last and is famous as Sailor V already. But I grew to like her as an important member of the team, and as a fellow aspiring star who is seeing through my childhood aspirations.

Also, my cousin gave me so many blazers, I had just one more look to share yesterday:

No socks for this one but here’s a closer look at my convertible Luna purse. (I can wear it as a crossbody as an as backpack.) I’m glad I didn’t attempt to do the little bun-tails at work, they are a bit disastrous and definitely a look.

Wish me luck with my very-recognizable hair for Halloween at work today! I wonder if I’ll get as many weird looks on the metro as I did last year…

Are you wearing any costumes for the Halloween season this year? I know I saw a lot of folks out this past weekend, but it was actually the first time I didn’t really do anything Halloween weekend. I attended a birthday party Friday night, but I went no where in costume over the weekend, it was a little sad. (I made up for it by scaring myself silly watching Stranger Things season 2.)

If you were to wear a full [work] week of themed outfits from one franchise, what would it be? Harry Potter and Sailor Moon were a lot of fun to do, and I’m sure I could easily do something Disney-related, but it’s a really fun creative challenge to do, especially since I set the rules myself! For example, doing the blazers this year was a fun added challenge. (I also challenged myself to do skirts the whole week in the spirit of the senshis school and scout uniforms, even though it got chilly last week and I started really wanting to wear pants.)

With 10 days left until Halloween, I find myself really wishing that I could sew or drop mad cash for the costumes of my dreams. I always start thinking about my costume in July because, as I’ve said before, I love dressing up. It’s so much fun for me to be someone else for just a short while. (This is probably why I’ve always been so drawn to theater and acting.)

Here are some ideas I toyed with but, ultimately, decided not to do this year (rediscovering Etsy made it difficult to say no, but re-examining myCostume Wishlist3 budget made it even more difficult to say yes):

Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon

This has been a dream costume for years now. I’ve always wanted to be Sailor Mars for Halloween, ever since I was given VHS tapes of Sailor Moon back in elementary school. I came really close to purchasing this costume, but I got scared off by:

Having to measure myself for a custom-fitted costume, and
The cost of the costume, custom fitting, and shipping

I’m really hoping I can buckle down and get this for next year though, especially considering I’d like to at some point attend a convention in costume. This has been my DREAM Halloween outfit for a long, long time.

Elizabeth, Bioshock Infinite

New Bioshock Infinite Elizabeth Cosplay Dress Costume

I recently finished Bioshock Infinite (yes, very late) and I really enjoyed the game. Of course, I had already started thinking about an Elizabeth cosplay, especially given that her look from the beginning of the game is very Belle-esque (from Beauty and the Beast) and could be adapted that way if I wanted to be lazier/more casual with the costume.

I wasn’t really considering the other outfit, despite my love of corsets, but I don’t think it’s as suited for me. People have amazing cosplays of that Elizabeth, but I really thought the first outfit was more charming.

Ultimately, it was proving really difficult for me to piece together the costume (getting a long enough blue skirt was basically the main struggle) and I decided not this year. Maybe next year, I’ll become better at thrifting or dropping a lot of money on a costume.

(I might still buy myself a bird/cage necklace or choker for funsies. I have a few options sitting in my Etsy favorites and wishlists.)

Ariel’s “Kiss the Girl”/sightseeing dress, The Little Mermaid

You may recall that I absolutely love The Little Mermaid. 2 years ago, I was Hipster Ariel for Halloween.

With a last-minute and unwilling (on both our parts, really) Eric

This year, I played with the idea of doing Ariel’s blue dress, because it’s actually my favorite of her outfits (I don’t like green) and I really wanted to dye my hair red again.

There is no reason her costume should cost so much more than any of the other ones I’ve been looking at?? And yet I could not find this for less than $100 without getting a really cheap fabric. It looks really easy to construct on my own, but again, I ran into problems finding the pieces I wanted, namely a plain black (read: not sexed up) corset and the dang long blue skirt that was vexing me with the Elizabeth outfit!

Also, not only were the costumes I found online expensive, but they were also just… I don’t know, they didn’t look very nice! I was really hoping I could pull this one together on my own, but the skirt and corset issues are still plaguing me. I’ll keep looking.

Alas, none of these visions will be coming true this Halloween. I’m left trying to piece together something that will still get me really excited to dress up but I don’t know if I will be excited, having hinged my Halloween dreams on these 3 costumes all year long. Giving up on dreams is hard, ya know?

I did have a successful run as a flight attendant for a Yelp event recently, but I don’t know if I want to do that for Halloween. I am playing with some Disney villain looks, so we’ll see if any of those pan out.

What are you being for Halloween?
Do you have any dream costumes that you might one day put in the time/effort to get?