Yes, it’s November, Thanksgiving, Christmas! 🎃🦃🎄 However after my Halloween Mystery Project turned out to be such a delicious costume, I decided to repeat the process and make a more streamlined seasonal dress. Using leftover black materials from my stash and a thrifted $4 Halloween panel, materials that were once curtains and slipcovers can become an ensemble with sophistication and whimsy! Despite a few late hiccups, adjustments, and design changes on the fly – I won’t call them mistakes! – this unique ensemble came together quickly, is basically free, and feels good!
For more in progress project photos, visit Kbatz Krafts on Instagram or Facebook
It’s your put earrings in your ears reminder! Kristin Battestella aka Kbatz is breaking out the tacky and gaudy orange bling for a little chat about jewelry making basics, where to get affordable beading supplies, cheats for those of us with dexterity issues, and the endless possibilities of making your own earrings, necklaces, or bracelets to coordinate with your style. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to add personality to your wardrobe – even if that’s just orange and black beads to go with Halloween pajamas in December! Terrible camera angles and talking Italian hands that spill the bead tray are included free of charge.
Thank you for being part of Horror Addicts.net and enjoying our video, podcast, and media coverage! Tell Kbatz what you’d like to see with our Online Survey or join the conversation on our Facebook Group!
Does it seem like some kind of fussing is just everywhere this summer? I mean more than usual even?
It’s the hottest part of the summer here and people are bored so they talk. (and talk and talk). Online, at the coffee shop, in line at the store, at the PokéStop.
When the temperatures climb, it seems tempers get shorter and among the wonderments that the internet has brought us in its bag of the cheaper techno-tricks is much more immediate and free access to global gossip.
A 24 hour Entertainment Weekly style of gossip-mongering inundates YouTube and everyone will agree at least to an extent that Tumblr is a mess. Kat von D (and others) called out Jeffree Star who had called out Kylie Jenner earlier in the month. It’s really been a smorgasbord at the Celebrity Circus this July (even leaving OUT the politics!)…
Shots are fired with call-outs, then everyone responds, and then replies to the responses. I have not seen this much kerfuffle since the Lime Crime/Doe Deere scandals.
Behavior, makeup quality, CONTROVERSY! I follow some beauty vloggers but most of the people I like are too busy hauling new products, reviewing summer goodies and anticipating the fall and holiday 2016 collections to get involved in the gossip. My current faves are Lisa Eldridge (professionalism and technique), Tarababyz (for epic hauls). But there are ALSO the entire channels that have popped up to just dish the gossip, spill the tea, read people so harshly and throw a bunch of shade in every direction in the form of ‘having an opinion’.
When did that happen and why are we watching them? Epic views for nothing really more than…mean gossip dished daily? No, I draw the line at this. Maybe you will too after you think about it.
It hit the Gothic community too this month, over a video “40 Years of Goth Style (in under 4 minutes)”, and the responses and replies to replies. Yes, I also have my opinion about it but no, I really don’t think it merits a video response for people to watch me reacting to it. I’d rather people formed their own opinions from the source, and then discuss them with me. I have toyed with starting a makeup review and alt lifestyle YouTube channel but I really question the content when videos are actually reactions to the source of anything and nothing more than opinion. Possibly helpful when choosing a lipstick or a salad recipe, deadly when forming our actual opinions, views and outlooks about anything very important simply because it IS second hand news, filtered through the reaction of another person first. I can’t get behind that.
If there is anything I have personally learned from seeing these controversies, opinions and reactions come and go is that what I sometimes take away from it has an effect on me. On my mood, on my outlook and on my general way of seeing things. Garbage in, garbage out, so they say.
I DO think it is important to be informed about many things, including being a well-informed consumer and supporting (or not) those people and businesses whose belief and values align with our own to a certain extent but I also feel there is a point when watching this ‘window on the world’ has become just another time-wasting bad habit to somehow get sucked into. It can seem too vivid and sometimes commands too much attention that it really doesn’t deserve when the things in our own lives really can benefit more from our attention. So I say, “Watch but watch wisely and in a limited and aware fashion, be choosey and think for yourself”. Do not just give your attention to these ‘controversies’ for the sake of the latest little tidbit of juicy gossip. It can steal your time and focus!
**Some final words of caution for my fellow makeup mavens: Cheap Chinese products, the Ali Express and Ebay “dupes” for more expensive makeup like the Lime Crime Velvetines, many higher end eye shadow and face palettes and popular items like the Kylie Jenner Lip Kits can be tempting, it’s true. But they may or may NOT even be safe to use at all and there is really no way to tell since they are not governed by any cosmetic review board or agencies like the FDA in the US or the European Commission so please be cautious rather than sorry and search for your less expensive dupes at the drugstore or from trusted online companies. Indie brands and lesser known companies like Sugarpill, Notoriously Morbid, Violet Voss and Makeup Monster are amazing lately and Colorpop is fast becoming a trusted budget brand as well, with many great reviews on Temptalia.com. NYX is a favorite around here, and they have amazing colors and good sales at Ulta. Ingredient labels on products from Ali Express and similar selling agencies may or may NOT even be truthful since they just copy a photo of the packaging so there is no guarantee those cosmetic copy ingredients are even safe to use on your skin, especially on your lips and eyes. Not worth the risk.
Hey Addicts, Mimielle here following up on one of the questions we received from June in Dead Mail recently June writes
” I feel like I am too old to turn Goth but I just realized I’ve been one all my life without dressing like that. Now that I am 53, I know that people will think I am odd dressing that way at my age. What can I do to ease into the style without freaking out my conservative friends?”
I had quite a bit to say in episode #126 and here are some of the followup links and resources I promised.
Here is a cross-section of goths over 30, many types, many looks and ways of self-expression!
Some capsule wardrobe ideas including pieces that can pass in the “normie” world as well~
Thrift them, shop your closet, have a friends clothing swap night, maybe they have some secret Goth-y things hiding away!
The free walk-in beauty services my local Sephora currently offers that could all be done with a more Goth twist:
Smoky Eye, (dark and a bit dramatic)
Essential Eyeliner (ask for Gothic cat eyes)
Polished Brows (arch them!)
Flawless Foundation (the perfected base for anything else)
…and finally, a couple of shots of my ‘eldergoth’ look, from earlier this year. My main style is Gothic Lolita but I range afield into Shiro (white Goth) and yeah, I have me a Stevie Nicks poncho, boots and some swirly skirts too!
To tell you a secret though, I do not feel any more ‘eldergoth’ now than I felt ‘baby-bat’ when I was young and using a sharpie as an eyeliner!
Lagniappe…how a good friend ‘sees’ me in her drawings 🙂
Hello Addicts! Here is a topic your fashionably frightful fellow Addict, Mimielle has been mulling over:
When you go out dressed unusually, do you get comments about it? I’d love to hear your experiences with this because when discussing fashion, it’s often one of the more common reasons people give me for being a little hesitant to fully realize their fashion sense, the reactions or fear of the reactions making them uncomfortable. And not just teens or twenty-somethings. It’s unfortunately a fact that many people of every age feel unable to wear the fashions they’d like to in public for fear of reactions.
Since obviously, I roam the streets dressed like this…
I currently live in a smaller metropolitan area in a southern state so in hopes of encouraging you to be brave and deal gracefully on your own terms with people who are rude enough to publicly and sometimes even confrontationally question your fashion, I’ll share the 2 most common reactions I get wearing Gothic Lolita fairly regularly and my thoughts about them. I leave kid’s reactions out because mostly they are great, either asking me something completely outlandish like “Are you Lady Gaga?” or whispering to their parent “Wow look, a princess!” Plus you can’t actually punch a kid, not that I’m suggesting it or anything – where is your sense of the ridiculous?
People wanting to take my picture. Oddly, this doesn’t bother me if they just stealthily take a snap or 3 but when they come up to me, it makes me self-conscious at times. Like when I am in Walmart on a Tuesday morning, holding a package of bacon. True story, Morning Glory. I totally expect to end up on People of Walmart one of these days but I’m still not sure if I’d leave the photo up or ask them to remove it. There are a couple of people already posted on there that have Lolita-related outfits, dating back 4 years or so but they aren’t very good representations of the fashion. There is one nicely dressed Texas Lolita posted there with a Little Miss Muffet caption, she actually got several nice comments though and left her photo up so obviously opinions vary!
People wanting to have my fashion ‘explained’ to them. I can usually spot these people before they come up to me and they are the worst. Let me preface this by saying that even in the Lolita community, I am not the person who loves to explain or define anything and will most often defer to the nearest other handy Lolita or online, point people to the nearest decent resource. There are so many people who DO enjoy teaching about and talking about the fashion and do a really good job of it that aside from here with you darling ghoulies and goblins on Horror Addicts, I don’t really talk much about my fashion – much less divulge any secrets! That’s how you know I love you!! So anyway, these women who come up to me (and 99% are women, very few men will talk to me at all)…Most often, they are women over 25 or so, and I can often tell that they already do not LIKE what I am wearing, and can also divine by their scowl or stinkface that this is the most ‘polite’ way they can justify sort of demanding an accounting for why a grown woman is wearing dark frilly dresses with Gothic jewelry and such ‘interesting’ shoes in the daylight on Tuesday at THEIR Hobby Lobby. It would be comical (and often is afterwards) if they weren’t so serious about it. Or if they actually listened to my reply instead of having their word filter on High trying to pick out something deviant or weird in my explanation to justify their pre-judgement of disapproval. If they are with their daughter, it is also a little embarrassing to watch HER embarrassment as her mother is rude and judgmental to another woman who just smiles in return.
Yes, both situations make me uncomfortable, obviously the latter more than the former since it gets me so wound up! I can carry a phone and pretend to talk on it because people will grudgingly walk past, still staring, but refrain from actually disturbing me and I also usually have the advantage of a very grouchy looking fiancé nearby to run interference if I give him ‘the look’ (which often looks like ‘deer caught in the headlights’).
I got curious and searched ‘Goth’ on People of Walmart and turned up 14 results. Frankly, I expected more but you’ll have to go and see for yourself what I found because descriptive words escape me to define just what I saw. After that, I was afraid to search “fashion”.
If you were photographed and posted on People of Walmart or on a similar site, would you leave the photo up or ask them to remove it? We want to know! Please vote in the poll and don’t be shy to elaborate in the comments if you have some thoughts on this, I’d really love to read them.
Ideas from the past haunt some of us…we love to delve back into history, read about ‘the old days’, hear the legends, tell and re-tell the old family or cultural stories.
I am always so pleased when modern pop culture ties in with Horror Addicts themes and topics, showing me yet again that our sensibilities are everywhere in the world, peeking out at us (and the normies) much like watching ghosts…
The Imperial couple is a romantic fantasy and who hadn’t wanted, even for a moment, to secretly think she is descended from or might have even once BEEN a princess?
These ideas sometimes haunt the edges of our mind, just before sleep, or in half-remembered dreams.
Reincarnation: The setting is a lovely palace, Schloss Leopoldskron, now a hotel in Salzberg and is the prelude to the December 2 CHANEL Metiers D’Art 2014-15 seasonal fashion show.
It has been very hard for me to wait to see it and then harder still to wait to share it the moment the video for it popped up on the 4th!
The opulence of the setting, the film preceding it, and the fashions themselves provide us a rich story even if we do not buy expensive couture or travel as much as we like.
We, like the ghosts, can peer into worlds both real and created, that can haunt but also enchant us.
The making of the film, explaining the 3 ways reincarnation was used and referenced. Karl Lagerfeld, Pharrell Williams and Cara Delevigne speaking about the project.
This is a list of 100 fashion substyles and NO PICTURES.
Why no pix? Because I want you to test your visualization skills to see how many you can call to mind. Alternative fashion is nothing new though we like to pretend it is and that dressing artfully is a modern concept. Truthfully, it is centuries old and meant much the same then as it does now, a public visual statement outside mainstream culture for whatever reason. This list is not all-inclusive and leans heavily towards my biases and some I know listeners have. Hopefully it will be entertaining and maybe give you a few new inspirations as well.
There is a poll at the end to choose or write in your own sub-style that you currently wear most, I’d really like to know.
*The Lolitas* Not all of these are sub-sub-styles, more like classifications below the first 3. But it is helpful to classify them in order to sort them out from each other. Plus I like them.
33. Gothic
34. Classic
35. Sweet
36. Punk
37. Kuro, Shiro, other single color
38. Princess/Hime
39. Guro
40. Aristocrat/Madam
41. Ouji/Kodona (Boystyle)
42. Dandy
43. Wa
44. Sailor
45. Qi
46. Country
47. Casual
*The Punks & Anarchists*
48. Old school Punk
49. Anarcho-Punk
50. Steampunk
51. Clockpunk
52. Dieselpunk
53. Teslapunk
54.Skatepunk
*The Retros*
62. Pinup
62. Rockabilly
63. Hippie
64. Bohemian
65. Disco
66. Indie
67. Mod
68. Hipster (many types, often a strange hybrid of retro and ultramodern)
69. T-Bird/Greaser
70. Zoot
71. Laid-Back 80’s Miami Vice/Magnum
*The Japanese Street Styles*
72. Visual Kei, Oshare Kei
73. Gyaru/Gyaru-o
74. Lolita* the sub-sub-styles listed above in their category.
75. Decora
76. Dolly Kei
77. Mori Girl (and Boy)
78. Cult Party Kei (CPK)
79. Yamamba, Manba, Ganguro (sub-style of Gyaru, a small resurgence of Ganguro is currently being seen in 2014)
80. Angura Kei & Shiro Nuri
81. Fairy Kei, Magical Girl styles (these styles are merging somewhat with the new Sailor Moon merchandising and upcoming 6 ❤ Princess, including the Shu Uemura x Takashi Murakami collaboration here)
* The Scenesters* I had to get another cup of coffee before even attempting to unravel a few for this one!
82. Glamcore
83. Screamo (see Grunge as well)
84. Hardcore
85. Pop Scene (overlap with Rave)
86. Hippie Scene
87. Bubblegum Scene (Oh Avril, you are here now)
88. Candy Genderchi
89. Emo (though there is debate whether this belongs here, it is a sub-style and very closely related.)
* The Unclasssified* These are a thing, they just did not seem to fit well in any category and I am less familiar with them.
90. Chav (pre-Scene and current incarnation)
91. Chonga
92. Chola
93. HipHop
94. Industrial
95. Rave (Candy Rave has Scene crossover)
96. Emocore (ties to Goth and Emo itself)
97. Ero Kawaii (see Bubblegum Scene though both may not like the association)
98. Grunge (I am sure there are sub-sub-styles within but I will leave as an exercise for the readers to sort them.)
99. New Romanticism/Blitz kids (undergoing a slight bout of new popularity related to a small Synthpop revival but not quite full-blown retro)
100. Ethnic Fashion (and surrounding cultural appropriation controversies)
So, how many did you get a visual for? How many were interesting enough to look up? And finally the poll is below…what is YOUR style?
Whatever it is – Stay Beautiful, Addicts! ~Mimielle
Hey Addicts! Mimielle here, welcome back to the new season!
I look forward to reporting for you, posting look books and mood boards as well as answering lifestyle, fashion and beauty questions from podcast listeners. I
Please DO send me your questions.
I’ll tackle as many as I can either in the podcast, here in the blog or both. I enjoy the research and I especially like helping people find their style or solve a beauty problem. In upcoming episodes, I’ll also be talking about fashion in the wider scope. Looking beyond the trends and into the meaning fashion and beauty hold in our lives.
I had a bad cough so I skipped my recorded segment in the first episode but I’m already laying down tracks within the framework for upcoming podcasts.
I hope you’ll join me on the journey to explore alternative fashion, beauty and lifestyle.
Stay Beautiful, Addicts!
MY MOOD BOARD FROM TODAY
Some fashion styles have no rules.
No rules to the point of trouble figuring out exactly what the look is.
Gothic Lolita is NOT one of them.
If you have read past even a single article on this style you will have encountered THE RULES.
You MUST:
– Wear a petticoat
– Have something on your head
– Always wear a blouse under a Jumperskirt
– Attend to your shoes, bag & accessories properly
And so it goes.
Break the rules and you’ll more likely be labelled Ita* than brilliant.
When I wear the Lolita style (officially) and use the #Lolita or #Gosurori tags online, I do follow the rules. I really enjoy making ‘proper’ Lolita coordinates.
But since I wear frilly things on a daily basis I don’t follow those rules every day! My “Lolita” clothes get worn in all kinds if ways; bare legs, bare shoulders, with rhinestones and opera gloves (often in the daytime).
What would Marie say?
Fashion is my hobby and one of my passions. Study fashion and you’ll get hints and glimpse into all sorts of secrets in peoples’ lives.
As an artist, my favorite subject to paint and adorn is myself.
If people did not break the existing fashion rules, if fashion did not change, evolve, mutate, steal and persevere then I would not be sitting here in a street length Neo-Rococo black chiffon dress sent from Japan wearing ridiculous shoes and a tiara on any old Sunday in April.
And that would be a shame.
*Ita is a slang shortening of Itai.
Meaning your Lolita coordinate is so bad it hurts my eyes to see it.
Cringe-inducing bad.
Equal in disdain-provoking sneers (behind a fan, of course) to a Goth whose blacks don’t match.
Worse than Scene…almost.
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