No Costume, No Entry: Halloween Party Planning

As my favorite time of year has almost passed, I want to stretch out the celebration and milk chocolate for as long as possible. While you may think this is too much of a time crunch, I say there’s no better time to plan, shop for and throw a Halloween party!

You might be thinking, “How is this related to fashion?” Well, a perfect Halloween party is all about fashion. The costume and accompanying theme are the center point of each of the parties that I’m about to plan for you. Don’t let people in the door without costumes on. Refuse to serve them snacks if they took off their wig/vest/leather pants to make themselves more comfortable. And most importantly, make yourself look like the best-dressed guest there!

Half-price candy? Check. Dry ice for the punch? Only touching it with tongs. Costume that you’ve been wearing all week? It’s still on, of course. It sounds to me like you’re ready to throw pre-/post-Halloween party that your friends will wish they had thought of (unless they read this article too, in which case you will get to celebrate more than once)! Blast your typical costume party out of the water with these theme ideas, which are also appropriate year-round!

My first is the much anticipated Thrift Store Prom party that I mentioned over a month ago. This popular party premise requires guests to dress up in prom attire that they bought at Goodwill, Savers or the Salvation Army. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly will be arriving at your door, in poofy blue polyester or too-short tweed suits. Make sure you put up decorations where people can pose for a cheesy prom photo, and carefully fill the punchbowl with dry ice and a punch-like beverage of your choice. Make sure to have an excellent soundtrack with a good mix of the 80’s, 90’s and today. Guests will dance, mingle and have an awesome time mentally taping over the memory of their real high school prom, which is definitely something I would like to do.

Next for party ideas is the “Simple Life in Laguna Beach Friends Will and Grace having Seinfeld Sex and the City” TV party. You might be wondering what time that show is on, but all you need to do is choose one of your favorite TV series on DVD. Make sure you have enough comfortable seating and snacks, as well as a quality, larger than 13” television. Invite your friends to dress up as the characters and enjoy coffee or cocktails while watching as many episodes as you want to keep them over for. They will know the party has ended when you don’t immediately skip to the next episode, or you let the credits roll all the way until the end.

Finally, my two favorite activities can be be combined into one celebratory setting. Those two activities, of course, are dressing up and singing karaoke. You could theme this American Idol and have cast members dress up as such, or take a different route and go with Boybands and Popstars. Another popular take on this is Rockstars and Gropuies, but make sure you’re prepared for all the metal and mullets that come with it. The karaoke machine should take center stage; you can rent one or find a lonely 30-something adult that might have one (just make sure you invite him or her). Have a variety of energy-boosting snacks and dehydration-preventing drinks on hand for your performers. Arrange your lamps as spotlights and get the cameras (or earplugs) ready. From “Don’t Stop Believin’” to “Baby One More Time” no song is safe.

I’ll end now so you can freshen up your costume, or go Goodwill hunting to find another. Happy Halloween (again)!

— Hayley Umphrey

Avoiding the store bought, skanky cstumes this Halloween

With Halloween but a week away, I thought it would be a good time to discuss last-minute costume ideas and shopping. Halloween is my favorite time of year; I find it incredibly important that you not only dress up, but also have a variety of costumes to choose from so that you are not seen in the same one twice!

You likely could have bought or rented a costume if this was September 24; it’s actually October 24, though, and stores are already picked over. Don’t give up on your Halloween dreams yet! You just saved yourself time and money in not trying to find the last Bad Cop costume in the Valley! Now you have the option of making your own, unique costume. What good is buying something you’re only going to wear once, that likely doesn’t cover all of you, anyways? You can avoid the frustration and embarrassment of showing up as Tweety Bird (“It was the last costume the store had in my size”) by letting your creativity flow.

Two years ago, I made a Tinkerbell outfit by attaching fake leaves to green fabric and then hot gluing the fabric around my body in a strapless dress shape. After I added body glitter, ballet slippers and fairy wings, ta-da! I had myself a one-of-a-kind costume! You don’t need to go to a fabric store to make it original; you can build a costume out of household objects as well. Cardboard boxes, sheets, saran wrap, aluminum foil and duct tape are all useful materials for moving to a new apartment AND designing a creative costume. Why not wrap yourself in tinfoil or saran wrap and go as Leftovers? The possibilities are endless!

Another option, besides creating a costume from what you find in your pantry or roommate’s closet, is to go to Goodwill. You can get incredibly lucky looking for a costume at Goodwill, Savers or any other discount store, but you have to be willing to hold your nose and dive in. Being thrifty is the next best option after making your own costume; the pieces are already assembled, just waiting for you to add your flair. With a pair of scissors and some fabric glue, you could turn any old, poofy prom dress into a Disney Princess of your choice. Anything hot pink, made of spandex or patent leather, could morph you into Barbie or an 80’s pop star. Think outside the box and go this weekend (there’s a student discount for showing your SunCard on Saturdays)!

If I wasn’t already planning on making my Cleopatra costume this weekend from gold lamé fabric and Goodwill finds, I would be a Bunch of Grapes. Get a bag of red, purple or green balloons and blow them up. Put on a combination of monochromatic tights and a t-shirt, then have a friend tape or staple the balloons to your clothes! I don’t know how you would fit in cars, through doors or in elevators, so you may want to create this on-site. The real joy comes from seeing the surprise in your friends’ faces when they see that you didn’t dress up as a sexy cat, devil or nurse like the rest of them!

— Hayley Umphrey

What’s in a number?

If we are talking double digits, its everything. This is not about your paycheck, the number of anytime minutes you have on your phone or the grade you got on your latest paper; I am also referring not to your mini golf score, but the number you want to be lowest of all, your clothing size.

Clothes used to be personally designed for individuals based on their unique measurements. This was the first “couture,” or custom-made clothing, and was only available to royalty or the wealthy, mainly in Europe. As society progressed, there was no longer much of a need for dramatic full-skirt ball gowns or perfectly fitting fur-trimmed robes. We can thank the Industrial Revolution for size standardization in the mass-production of clothing. It was both practical and cost-effective to manufacture clothes fitting in the size range of small, medium and large. Additionally, clothes became simple and uncomplicated as the workforce required it. People found it easy to approximate their body shape into one of those three categories and dress accordingly; but then, people began to change.

I am not going to delve into body image issues here; how models may or may not perpetuate the “thin is beautiful” mentality is a debate to save for a rainy day. But I will tell you that I know better than to have a few glossy photos affect what I eat, and you should too. In Michelle Lee’s book, Fashion Victim, she unveils a number of industry secrets that she discovered through her immersion in the fashion magazine industry. One of these secrets is what she refers to as “vanity sizing,” a fashion psychology concept which has fascinated me and spurred fitting room experiments of my own.

Sample sizes are 0 and 2; the first production of a design will be made in either of these sizes for the designer to fit on a model and better observe how the garment looks on a body. After the samples (requiring only a small amount of fabric) have been produced, the designer either goes back to the drawing board or sends the design to production for the whole spectrum of sizes. This process sounds like a simple idea, except that every clothing brand bases their respective sizes 0 and 2 off of different measurements and fit models. If you were to go to your closet and do some math, is it safe to say that your flattering size 6 work pants do not equal your favorite size 10 jeans?

Vanity sizing is only one of the many ways that clothing companies have a hold on their consumers. People will, in fact, buy clothing not based on how it fits, but what the number on the size tag is. If you think this is crazy, just remember the last time you convinced yourself that since you just started a workout regimen, you were going to “lose a few pounds.” Therefore, you bought the smaller size before the fact, rather than waiting until you actually could fit into the item. Whether or not the clothes ended up fitting you or not does not matter; the mentality of buying for size rather than fit makes women crazily squeeze themselves into jeans, skirts, dresses and even bras that do not fit them.

While I was shopping for a Homecoming court dress this past weekend, I was disappointed to discover that my size started in the double digits and only went higher. I do not consider myself small, medium or large, I am just Hayley. This experience was my final venture into the land of self-pity, threatening my roommates via text message that I was to eat no more pre-Halloween candy or delicious Ritz crackers and cheese. Once I finally found a dress (a medium, mind you), I returned home; I had achieved the size “average” and was content. After enjoying a few fun-size Kit-Kat bars, I picked up Fashion Victim again and realized that I had fallen prey.

When it comes down to it, sizes do not transfer across clothing designers, departments, stores, states or countries. Designers play to what size you think and hope you are rather to what size you actually are. Stretch fabrics especially enable clothing manufacturers to broaden their range of fit for a particular number size. In addition to selling more clothes, the customer also buys peace of mind with their purchase.

You are not the number that is on your tag! You are but a human, who happens to be wearing clothes which abide by a silly and inaccurate numbering system. From now on I vow to not let the number on the tag affect me; I hope that you will now stand informed and will not let yourself be squeezed into size categories either!

— Hayley Umphrey

Paris Fashion Week: A denim swimsuit says it all

Chances are if you think of the fashion capital of the world, you think Paris. But this season I was sadly disappointed because it did not compare to the greats I second-handedly witnessed in New York, London and Milan. Fashion is art, yes; but fashion is also a business and the clothes must be desirable and wearable for the target customer.

Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld used light-wash denim in every piece, from little jumpers that you might see on a toddler to wide-leg and high-waist jeans that might be found at a store featuring fashions with “Everyday Low Prices.” There was even a denim swimsuit; if you’ve ever been splashed with a large amount of water while wearing jeans, you know it’s no picnic. Among the slough of red, white and denim came Chanel’s epic little black dresses, though they were anything but; just unflattering and cartoonish, with grommets and Minnie Mouse bows.

Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz featured what looked like strapless and shapeless ruffles; not actual dresses, just fabric wrapped around models. The voluminous, fan-powered gowns provided as much coverage as wearing a large trash bag would, though the dresses came in a rainbow of colors.

Another fashion great, the eternally innovative Yves Saint Laurent, made me feel hopeless for Paris. YSL designer Stefano Pilati showed a collection of oddly-shaped skirts and tops, along with boxy sweatshirt-like cover-ups in gloomy heather grey. If I felt the need to dress sad and winter-y in the spring, I would move back to Seattle!

Maybe my fine-tuned fashion eye is not fully in sync with what is to come for the industry, but I have faith that what I saw wasn’t anything wearable or even conceptually inspiring. I was about to throw in the towel when I found two designers that finally screamed “PARIS!”

A gem among the fashion coal was designer Elie Saab. Known for glittering gold and sparkling silver evening gowns, the designer creates frocks for a fun, girly customer who thrives in the spotlight or on the red-carpet. This spring’s collection featured more casual dresses and cocktail looks than normal, though as I have discussed before, the short, frilly party dress is HUGE for spring. In a palette of bold sea greens, carmine reds, canary yellows and electric blues, Saab made his mark on eveningwear by accentuating everything with black; there were eyefuls of bows, ruffles and trims, all with a hint of pailletes, sequins or beads. Among artsy rose and leaf patterns there were the jaw-dropping sparklers, gowns reminiscent of Art Deco and the flappers that thrived in that movement. The outfits seemed to come to life with each step, even though I was just looking at still images. To say Saab’s designs are simple would be an understatement; they simply flatter a woman’s body and height with the right amount of mixed-media shimmer and glamorous shapeliness. Still drooling from all the glitz, I turned my attention to the innovative Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci.

Olivier who? O-lih-vee-ay Tay-skins. After a breathtaking debut in fall 2007, the hard-to-pronounce up-and-comer showed a dripping collection of silk tops and dresses. The theme appeared to be something of a “walk of shame” though the models still looked well-dressed. A plethora of dingy jackets and cardigans adorned each dress or skirt, though each was worn slightly askew. Every outfit also had some kind of feathered scarf or boa, adding a bit more texture to every look. The colors in the collection were delightfully dark; grays, silvers, browns and black, but the shapes and textures were appropriately spring. The gowns were cut on the bias, creating a fluted shape similar to a calla lily. Near the end there was an incredible ball gown that glimmered like it was made from thin strips of shiny aluminum beneath fluttering chiffon. All in all, Nina Ricci clothes are wearable, but not so much that you would see them on everyone. Theyskens should be deemed as the “new underground,” showing off the dirtier side of Paris chic.

From one outrageous glam to one understatedly impure, I found both ends of the spectrum in Paris. Despite initial disappointment, I will keep watching to see how Fashion “Week” comes to a close. In the meantime, don’t forget to take a pretty fall sweater to class; ASU still hasn’t adjusted the indoor temps to the outdoor ones!
— Hayley Umphrey

Spaghetti, espresso and tiramisu can’t compare to Milan’s Dolce, Versace and Prada

Adorning the sunglasses of ASU glamour girls across campus are the logos of Prada, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana. Though the clothes from these luxurious brands may not be financially accessible for you to wear, they are still the greats that we can look to for incredible trends and uncanny visual displays of style. Milan fashion week showed off the spring 2008 lines of these three incredible ready-to-wear collections.

I started with Dolce and Gabbana, where every outfit was truly a work of art. The collection opened with a variety of loose pants and dresses in black or white; it was looking like it would be a typical assortment of basics. But then, the materials changed to billowing, wrapped tulles and elegant brocade prints. Splashes of color gradually emerged, looking literally like the fabrics were adorned with a painter’s brushstrokes. Every piece was different from the one before it, though the colors and prints had an evident flow into one another. The most breathtaking dresses were those of pure fantasy; gathered full-skirt tulle concoctions in chartreuse, ultramarine and mahogany. Barbie’s got nothing on these dark, creampuff gowns with underlying black tulle layers and an asymmetrical bodice. They are so outrageous that you shouldn’t expect to see them in stores anytime soon, but you should definitely dare to dream about making a grand entrance in one!

Versace was next on my list. Donatella has since subdued herself from the over-the top acid neon colors and tiny spandex dresses of 2003, but the line’s over-the-top glamour lingers on. The spring collection started in clingy and shiny nude mini dresses. Belted coats and jackets in camel leather followed, all paired with the high-waist short that is turning out to be a big trend for spring. The colors and textures moved orderly through the spectrum, from nude to black and from shiny and matte. The obvious 1970’s vibe came through in the relaxed fits of the pants and the comfortable, moveable shape of every piece. I saw something for every type of woman, though the sexy Versace shape that the line is notorious for was obvious. The style bar was raised during this show; it is evident that each bold-colored gown in the last ten looks will surely be worn by lovely singers and actresses during the 2008 awards season.

Rounding out my Italian favorites was the collection from Prada, also with a 1970’s inspired presentation. From the gingham prints and piping on the dresses to the interesting flutter sleeves and wraparound collars on blouses, the odd mix made sense. With extremely wide leg pants, tunic sweaters and the colored and patterned tights that Prada is known for, there were a variety of eclectic colors and swirling, artsy prints. With a surprise from every look, there is no denying that Prada is meant for an innovative and forward-looking customer. Hard edges were adorned with soft chiffons, and blinding gold metallic skirts were added to light plaids. Tiny buttons redefined the shapes of long sweaters that would look extraordinary if toned down with jeans; the printed dresses that could add a special something interesting to the office.

While the clothes may be a little out-of-reach, in the “price upon request” zone, daydreaming is always free! I know I promised you Paris, but Milan surprised me first; don’t worry, it’s finally coming next!

--Hayley Umphrey