I’m Ready for My Close-up
When I was a child my two favourite things to play with were Barbie dolls and the costume bin. I loved Barbie’s because I got to dress them up, and I loved the costume bin, because I got to dress up.
Now that I am grown up. . . actually, I haven’t changed a bit. I still love to dress up.
Last year for Christmas I received a Barbie doll from my parents (it was the 50th anniversary reproduction Barbie, okay?), I have a suitcase full of costumes for random dressing up needs, (doesn’t everyone have costumes at the ready? Who knows when the need may arise! ) and my entire closet is full of what most people would consider costumes, but us vintage lovers know and recognize them to be perfectly acceptable everyday wear. (I have come to the conclusion that these two childhood favourites foreshadowed my love of vintage, long before I had ever thought of it, because vintage is basically dress up every day!)
So, both my sister and I still love to dress up in costumes, and taking that a step further, we love to turn the costume-wearing into a photo shoot (inspired by whichever fashions we are sporting).
I am always so inspired by the fashions on the runway, and the spreads in the magazines: the ensembles that are so fabulous, but so over the top, they don’t make it to the street. This basement wall, which has a great industrial, urban decay feel to it, immediately made me think of those images of couture fashions in abandoned buildings. My sister and I decided that it would be the perfect backdrop for the crazy over-the-top Vogue inspired look we were dying to create, complete with wigs, exaggerated makeup and flamboyant costumes. These are outfits that we would probably never wear as styled, (no I am not going to wear that Halloween wig in public!) but they really suited the mood, and I like how they turned out. They are definitely different than what I would wear in real life, but sometimes it’s just so fun to veer in a different direction.
Do you ever dress up in a costume just for the fun of it?
This is absolutely my favourite photo of my sister and I. It’s just such a great capture of the moment 🙂
June 14, 2016 @ 5:21 pm
How immensely fun! I was a huge fan of playing both Barbies and dress up when I was little, too. I bet we would have hit it off like gangbusters if we’ve known each other as kids. 🙂 This is sun a cool, lovely shoot – made all the more intriguing in B&W. Thank you for sharing the beauty of it with us.
xoxo ♥ Jessica
June 14, 2016 @ 6:03 pm
Thanks 🙂 It was a lot of fun to shoot!
June 14, 2016 @ 5:48 pm
Awww, how cute you two are! I don’t dress up in costume very often, exactly, but I definitely dress as a character depending on my mood and what I want to project out into the world, which… well, yeah, I basically dress up in costume a lot of the time. 😛
June 14, 2016 @ 6:07 pm
I think that is the best thing about dressing in an alternative/vintage style- you can choose who you want to be that day, without worrying about trends and what other people think. And really it is a lot more fun isn’t it?