Happy All Hallows’ Eve

Will you be in costume this evening, for trick-or-treating?  Or a party?  Or to hand out candy on your front porch?  A few days ago, Flavorpill compiled and published a slideshow of sensational costumes based on famous artworks or artists.

 

Today we’re offering inspiration for next year’s art-related costumes, and have singled out a handful of titles from our list that seem to lend themselves naturally to the holiday.

 

1. Dressing Dangerously: Dysfunctional Fashion in Film by Jonathan Faiers

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Dress as a scene from one of the movies in this book, and you can combine an eerie allusion to cinematic malfeasance with some Hollywood glamour.

2. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton; with contributions by Susannah Frankel and Tim Blanks; photography by Sølve Sundsbø; Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Distributed by Yale University Press

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Speaking of glamour and high fashion, the skull is a frequent motif in scarves and other clothing by iconic fashion designer Alexander McQueen.  His designs often turn on a certain dramatic, gothic beauty.

3. Houdini: Art and Magic by Brooke Kamin Rapaport; with contributions by Alan Brinkley, Hasia R. Diner, Gabriel de Guzman, and Kenneth Silverman; Published in association with The Jewish Museum

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Harry Houdini isn’t known as an artist, though his feats might be described as early 20th-century performance art.  We think dressing up as “Harry Handcuff Houdini” would be a terrific costume, and might offer ways to escape from the sugar crash resulting from eating too many mini Milky Ways.

4. Eva Hesse Spectres 1960, edited by E. Luanne McKinnon; with contributions by Elisabeth Bronfen, Louise S. Milne, Helen A. Molesworth, and E. Luanne McKinnon; Published in association with the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque

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The white-bedsheet-over-the-head is certainly a classic Halloween ghost look; but try transforming yourself into one of the hauntingly beautiful “spectres” creatied by Eva Hesse in 1960.

5. The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult by Clément Chéroux, Andreas Fischer, Pierre Apraxine, Denis Canguilhem, and Sophie Schmit; with contributions by Crista Cloutier and Stephen E. Braude

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On the topic of ghosts, what do real apparitions look like?  These photos by nineteenth-century spiritualists and animists, taken in an attempt to substantiate the existence of supernatural beings, offer a host of possibilities for realistic phantom get-ups.

 

Boo!

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