The story of a hand-painted Halloween costume that effortlessly combines a love of style, history, and music.
Hi Friends,
In case you were wondering if it was possible to get more random and deep-cut than last year's Hawaii Volcanoes National Park costume, I present to you my husband's and my decision to be the bands Bastille and Maroon 5.
The hand-painted design features the French fortress Bastille (famous for being stormed and destroyed during the French Revolution), plus lyrics from the band Bastille's songs.
Five pieces of maroon clothing plus a "5" pin.
This all started as a silly conversation thinking of how the names of different currently popular bands/musicians could be visually represented in an outfit, and then somehow evolved (devolved?) into a Halloween costume brainstorming session.
1.Obviously, we needed to do artsy band shots...
2. His five pieces of clothing were the hat, vest, pants, shoes, and socks.
So why these particular artists? While we do enjoy their music, we chose them not because they're our favorites so much as we thought they'd be the most interesting to do. After coming up with everything from dragons in thought bubbles (Imagine Dragons) to a Swift (the type of bird) with a needle and thread ("Tailor" Swift), mine simply came down to the thought that painting the famous Bastille Fortress would be a really fun departure from things I'd done before. Plus, I liked how a lot of lyrics by the band could be included in the piece because they oddly fit perfectly with the fortress's story.
1.Storming of the Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël
2. East view of the Bastille, drawing c. 1790
So I used:
"And the walls kept tumbling down" as well as "How am I gonna be an optimist about this?" from the song "Pompeii"
"Maybe we started this fire" from "Things We Lost in the Fire"
"We are full of stories to be told" from "Laughter Lines"
Also...I couldn't help including "you have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve" on the sleeve of the jacket (from "Flaws"), and "you said you always had my back" on the back (from "Bad Blood")
It was just as fun to make this bold fall jacket as I thought it would be. I also loved all the guesses that everyone wrote in with this month! A few of my favorites were the Steadfast Tin Soldier (would have loved to do that, with Cole as the ballet dancer), Kit Carson, a body of water, and a bouquet of flowers. Who knows, maybe one of those will turn up for a future Halloween!
If you're unfamiliar with either the fortress or the band Bastille, here are some links for the curious. 😊👇
Finally, here are the bad photoshop versions of a couple costume suggestions people wrote in for the Studio Assistant:
1.The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
2. The Easter Bunny
He's pleased he didn't have to wear those in real life, and wishes everyone a very Hoppy Halloween!
Until next time,
Kendra
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