HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS

Desirae as a nurse

Murdered Hugh Hefner and play boy bunny girlfriend

(sadly he took his headband off which had a stilleto heel glued) 

 (he is almost barfing here from the food fear factor we played)

Adult babies

Biohazard man 

(unveiling the fear factor food, which consisted of pig hocks, the stinkiest cheese ever, liver, and old mussels)

Army 

(he was actually in the army, so...)

Poncho Villa 

(sadly he took off the massive mustache for fear factor)

Stormtrooper

(after apple bobbing, he could've fit right into the Star Wars trash compactor scene)

white trash (with mullet wig)

Fairy (bridesmaid dress with wings)

Captain America

We ended the night paint balling

"Bloody" portraits 

(enlarged composer portraits...sorry Mozart!) 

with florescent spray paint blood (to glow)

The party scene

Need last minute costume ideas? Although we're a fashion blog, we can cover halloween fashion, right? We held a crazy halloween party a few years back and had quite a few ideas for you today. Since costume was mandatory (if you came without, you were the one paint balled at the end), all of our friends and family came dressed up (which posed a bit of a problem for who to paint ball). If you're looking for a fairly quick costume, the nurse idea Desirae is wearing up top started from making a nurse cap then pairing with a white dress (or skirt and top). Pretty dang easy. Biohazard man was also easy...paint suit and goggles (at any home depot), with biohazard symbol colored on with marker, florescent glow stick completes the look. Also easier is the white trash look - plaid shirt, jeans and mullet (if you're a girl, you could use a short wig the same color as your longer hair).

Last minute party ideas:
We set the party to Bach on harpsichord, white sheets over the furniture, bloody old portraits on the walls, crooked lamp shades, a coffin table (made out of two old boards set over oval coffee table, covered in black cloth), candle light, and blacklight bulbs in the recessed lighting.

Party fun: fear factor food competition was the hit. The prize (to entice people to participate) was the movie "Willow." We also had apple bobbing and donut eating (all for prizes...which included Michael Jackson albums, candy, and horror movies from the 70's). So if you've run out of ideas on your halloween party or costume, here you go!

Happy Halloween from Thread Ethic!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

We're definitely late today because of the crazy storm (read below for how we're doing). But here is the jacket that Melody has been excited to show. It is from H&M, but looks very similar to some of the Burberry fall and resort jackets (we'll show you a look very soon that was directly influenced). The top underneath is from an awesome store popping up in the big city called Joe Fresh. Our sister-in-law introduced us and we are in love. They have a small online collection so make sure and check them out. Belt is thrifted, jeans are Urban and boots are Macys. Little niece here is in Joe's Jeans, and boots are thrifted from Kid to Kid. We made our way through the pumpkin patch and she definitely thought it was like easter egg hunting. We felt bad having to take pumpkins out of the wagon every time she added new ones. I think eventually she started catching on.

By the way, for those wondering... Melody barely escaped from the massive hurricane by getting one of the last rental cars in the city and driving to Chicago through the night, where magically she was able to catch a flight monday morning. Desirae is safe as well (she lives on very high ground in the city). She is currently waiting it all out with her cat (husband is out of town). 

GINGHAM SKIRT

This particular skirt is from Asos, and is a great way to add a bit of summer flair into your fall wardrobe. However if you happen to own some gingham we do think you should hold onto it for Spring. Oscar de la Renta had a HUGE gingham moment on his Resort 2013 runways. And you can see a VERY similar skirt here (in green). You can also see another blogger Liz (from Late Afternoon) sport the same skirt here.

STYLE WITH SHANNON - blog highlight

Meet Shannon. One of us actually really did meet her a couple of weeks ago at the Opera. She looked so cute that we had to nab her to take a photo. But when we nabbed her (which can sometimes prove to be awkward) we realized one more thing about her...she was incredibly sweet and nice. So of course we went home and checked out her blog Style With Shannon. We found these looks on there and decided to feature her. We know we picked all pant looks, but we may just love how she styles them. For instance, going into fall we're realizing how few pant options we have. We may have to take some cues from her. Burgundy and jacquard? Such nice pieces to add to a closet. Oh and the J.Crew shoes she picked for two of the looks are quite fabulous. We say check her out.

MATERNITY COCKTAIL

So, not too many people address what to do when you're pregnant and you need some good evening wear. Let's just say we're lucky we pulled out a stack of dresses in our closet (yes a 'stack'...um, we may stash dresses for emergency stage attire) and this one happened to fit the maternity need. Of course we left it to the last minute (literally hoping that something would fit a half hour before we were to leave for the concert). This Nordstrom dress from a few seasons ago worked well since the ruffles help balance out the baby bump. Although this dress isn't exactly the same, it's another beautiful maternity dress in the cobalt color. You could also go with a good black dress, which will always work in a pinch. Throw on some awesome necklaces and shoes like these (all our accessories are Forever 21) and you'll be stylin. Oh! And by the way, thanks to Asos for having a pretty dang good maternity line! We'll definitely be checking that out from now on.

BURNT RED SKINNIES

OK so there's a story behind this fabulous woman. I spotted her in the indoor reptile exhibit at the zoo and spent many long minutes trying to get up the nerve to ask her if I could take her picture (she probably thought I was stalking her, eh hem...to which I kind of was). But you guys can guess what the lighting was like in the reptile area. Dark with florescents isn't terribly appealing. So I knew I was going to have to drag her outside when she had two little (and might I add, VERY cutely dressed) kids in tow. So I lost the nerve and went to meet up with my family at the giraffes. After a while of fawning over the baby giraffe, we decided to move towards the exit. And right as we were passing back by the reptile exhibit to leave, magically there she was! Burnt red skinny jeans, awesome black camo boots, outdoor vest and all. Definitely loved the look and she totally stood out in the pajama-pant type crowd (ok, ok, so maybe not everyone was wearing pajama pants....)

BURGUNDY AND WHITE COLLAR

Although we like this look better with the jacket, we wanted to show you what was going on underneath. The sweater and blouse combo was very much inspired by the Valentino collars we've been seeing. It's also heavily influenced by the Chanel line that just showed. White collars are all the rage at the moment so we had to get in on the action. The skirt length and cut was inspired by the burberry prorsum skirts and this photo. Burgundy is having quite the moment this fall and you're surely not done seeing us sport it. Our sweater is old from H&M (but we think this one is ultra fab and that you should buy it), white blouse underneath is thrifted (but similar here), blue full skirt is also thrifted (similar here). T-Strap leather sandals are from a store called Strawberry in NYC (no online store) and sadly can't find much similar, so be on the look out!

A DAY AT THE ZOO

We had a rather hard weekend in our musical lives. It's strange how something fun like going to the zoo can seem like ages ago now. But in the moment, our time at the zoo was happy and careless. And so we'll move forward with our post today. 

These are two of the lovely ladies we caught over our weekend outing. The third (and truly lovely lady) you'll see on Wednesday. We loved the first look with her green socks and camo boots, paired with the canvas and leather bag. The last look we loved for the black leather jacket paired with maxi skirt and awesome quilted bag.  We were appreciative of both looks since we realized that not many people tend to dress terribly stylishly at the zoo. And really, that's all right. We all have our moments when certain outings are just laid back. Oh! And keep a look out for the last look on Wednesday....

TAYLOR SWIFT - A Vision in Sky Blue

Well I guess our mother was right when she used to say that "blondes look good in blue." Taylor looked pretty amazing here in both looks of that color. Here at the bottom, she's in a Pre-Fall dress by Elie Saab which she wore while attending his Spring collection in Paris a couple of weeks ago. It looks like she decided to stay in town a bit longer to film her newest music video called "Begin Again" (don't you wished you looked so cool on a bike?).  We haven't had a more modest celebrity post in a while, so we figured we'd let you in on some of Taylor's wanderings as of late. I think we'll be taking note of the sky blue and red lips in the near future....

EDGY MATERNITY

Surprise! Someone's pregnant here! You've probably been wondering where Desirae's been on these pages, and to tell you the truth she's been sick to death. You can't tell at all here but Desirae is two weeks from her final trimester! (For non-pregnant folks, that's almost at the 6 month mark.) She's always been so so tiny in her waist that we have no idea where the baby is, but it's in there and it's measuring completely normally.  

So onto the look here. Who says you've gotta be prim while you're pregnant? We say not so! Also, the trick to not necessarily having the whole world wanna touch your belly is to keep things more loose up top. We've been loving all of our super loose tops as of late that Desirae figured, why not just take them into her maternity wear? So she bought all maternity skinny jeans and kept all of her tops. Although she can't necessarily do the half tuck anymore (which we LOVE doing), she can keep it skinnier on bottom. What's also key in this look is the shorter moto jacket. Playing with two different lengths (shorter jacket, longer shirt) on top definitely brings the attention away from the "touch my belly" syndrome. Also, the buffalo plaid shirt makes it all sort of mysterious as well. Of course there are days where you wanna show the "I'm a pregger chick" off, but this isn't necessarily one of those days (sometimes people touching your belly is just...well...awkward). The jacket is Zara, H&M plaid top, Target bag, H&M black maternity skinny jeans, and Forever21 combat boots. Want a similar look on the cheap? Try these...Jacket, Shirt, Boots, Bag.

RED PANTS

Here's a little street style for your Wednesday. And we must tell you how much we are loving the red pants here. We think basing the whole outfit in neutrals and letting the red speak for itself is a rather nice touch. Although this is our sis-in-law, we definitely wish we could ask her where everything is from, but eh hem...one of us may be writing this at 1 in the morning. So we'll suffice it to say that she looks cool in her many well-picked pieces.

WHAT WE WORE - Utah Opera, Il Trovatore

 

Images of the most recent Chanel (Spring 2013) runway were definitely in my mind when I put together this look. No Chanel runway is complete without the famous boucle jacket. But it was the pairing of the huge, pearl, bauble necklaces all over the line that stuck with me while dressing the other night. Although my necklace is no where near such a statement piece as those, I do think it kinda gets the idea across. I had another look ready to go pairing black lace with chiffon (Dolce and Gabbana inspired) but decided that I wear a lot of black. So, white it was! I thought about amping up the heels, but in the end decided to keep them understated.  Chiffon dress is from a NY boutique (and is surprisingly old in my closet), jacket is thrifted, shoes are Aldo (also old), and the necklace was from the nicer Target jewelry lines a few seasons ago. By the way, this white chiffon dress is quite amazing and is only $30! Pair with this white boucle jacket or this one from Zara and you too can complete the look. And why not add a nice big bauble necklace while you're at it?