My partner and I have two anniversaries. The first is 11/13/12 when we had “The Talk” and officially became a couple. The second is 07/03/18, the day we eloped. Because our first anniversary is on the 13th of November, sometimes it falls on Friday the 13th. As such, we have started a tradition that whenever there is a Friday the 13th we try to take the day off work and spent it watching horror movies together.
I know that not everyone can get down with the horror genre. I have a lot of triggers myself, and sometimes people are surprised that I love horror so much. I said I wasn’t gonna list out all my triggers because I don’t want them inadvertently used against me in the future. (Here’s looking at you, my NSA detail. 😘) However, you might end up learning some of them as we go along.
After I decided that I wanted to wear clothes again, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the Halloween costumes I’ve wanted to wear and characters I’ve wanted to be. Because I am a person with multiple diagnoses that qualify for disabilities, I often don’t end up doing the things that I wish to do deep down. Almost every year that includes dressing up for Halloween.
I made a list of all the movies that have made an impact on me that I try to rewatch every October. Not all of them are horror movies. They’re not all even remotely scary. Some are just seasonal films that I might watch after I watched a scary movie so my brain could have something nice to think about as a buffer before I went to sleep.
My list turned into a spreadsheet. (surprise! surprise!) My spreadsheet turned into my next project where I decided I would go through my closet and my belongings and see if I could create a different movie character for each day of the month of October. While my original list and my current spreadsheet vary from one another, I think I’ve come up with 31+ different movie characters to showcase this October.
While I tried to only use what I already had on hand, I did buy a few things to ensure I had enough to work with. I do not currently have any sponsors and no one has paid me to link to anything that I am using. (If that ever happens in the future, I will clearly label it.) I know that cosplay and Halloween and fashion can be a very elitist thing with people who have the most money having the best outfits. Tim Gunn always says to “Make it work!” and I wholeheartedly believe in working with what you’ve got as I aspire to upcycle everything into something better. But I know that sometimes living within the constraints of capitalism and the kyriarchy you’ve got to spend money in places that don’t align with your values.
I’d like to say this is a judgment free zone, but I judge the fuck outta myself on the daily, so that is not the case. I aspire to live a zero waste life in a cyclical economy that is ruled by what is best for the greater good putting the planet and Indigenous people’s traditions and values at the forefront of all. Unfortunately, this isn’t the status quo currently.
While that is still an aspiration and something to continually remember, unfortunately I’m bound to stray from my ideologies. When that happens, I’m gonna try to realign, and as the laypeople say, get my shit together. I have to continually remind myself that I am only human and will no doubt fuck up.
In the meantime, in between time, I plan to post some outfits that will hopefully inspire people to dress for themselves again…to wear what not only feels comfortable but also what they feel good in. I’m just gonna share what I’ve done and how I’m navigating life. Hopefully, it will help someone (even just one person) and if not, it kept me alive and focused for one more day. I am open to feedback, if you are not a dick about it. If you’re just here to hate though, please keep it moving. I do enough of that on my own, thanks.
Thrifty Subversion 