the vintage pinup girl in the haunted manor

You might remember that I mentioned two costume changes this Halloween-- The Best Friend and I agreed that the more, the merrier. Plus she had bought too many props the evening before she came, meaning we should use them all. After we finished our Beach of the Dead Zombie Walk, I brought her for a tiny tour around Brighton before heading back to the flat where D was whipping up a delicious South Indian curry from scratch. Denise and I excitedly ran upstairs (we do that all the time whenever we go to each other's homes) and shortlisted outfits for the night, pulling out all our props onto the bed. In the end, she settled on my floral jumpsuit to match her pink wig. And I decided, what better excuse than to do my favourite vintage pinup look? 

D had purchased loads of plants earlier that day and the living room had been transformed. So whilst Denise was upstairs talking to her boyfriend, D and I did a mini-shoot in the New Tropical Lair.

 

The skirt was Denise's and from G-Market. When I was over in Stevenage, I was telling her how I needed a high-waisted, black and slightly-flared skirt, and she pulled this one out of her luggage. It was the same skirt I wore for the School Girl look, as I wanted to do a quick transition. So, I washed off my lipstick masquerading as blood, softened the eyeliner and topped it up with loads of eyeshadow in tones of gold and green. It'd been ages since I last wore my La Senza basque, so I decided to take it out for the night, cinching my waist with an m)phosis triple-buckle corset belt. Topped up the look with a beautiful Accessorize necklace I got for only £2 during the sales, a Diva gold ring and a red chiffon rose one, a vintage shell bracelet, before adorning my legs with beautiful Accessorize checkered tights and slipping on red Dolce & Gabanna pumps. The finishing touches were in place as I spread a long vintage honey faux fur coat over my damask-printed chaise lounge, embellished my curls with a deep purple feather-and-jeweled headpiece and brought out a beautiful Oriental fan, both of which were from Accessorize.

The glass shelves above the glass bricks have since witnessed a slight tweaking to their contents but I wanted them to be as sensual and Boudoir-like as possible, which is what I am slowly transforming my Lair into. My friends always ask me where on earth do I get so many props from, but I think these are worthy investments. Accessorize makes some rather good-quality ones and because no one really buys them, they go really cheap during the sales. The fan, headpiece and fascinator were probably about £6 in total after being reduced by 70-90%, things that I have been collecting over the years. Apart from that, I constantly like buying 'frivolous nonsense' because I love these trinkets. Incense burners, candles, headpieces, feather boas, Egyptian beaded headpieces. . you name it. They can easily be used for events that require dressing up, or just for beautifying your home.

The table now looks like an altar to shoes now, with an amazing red ginger & pomegranate candle, Fu dogs, and a Queen Nefertiti tealight holder, flanked by a ficcus plant and the lemongrass pot we bought from Glastonbury. Tropical plants at home make me feel at ease. When I was younger, we had a huge lemongrass my grandmother bought that we planted in the backyard in Sing, and I would pluck its leaves everyday to sniff, loving the citrusy-spicy scent. A twin peacock scarf with tasseled fringes now sprawls itself across the table-- good way to make a cheap coffee table look more expensive.

D said I remind him of some painting in this shot. . which was a lovely compliment. Sometimes I wish I could look like this everyday-- it takes less than twenty minutes to get into this entire getup, including makeup and hair. D's photography is amazing despite my paltry camera, and we were drooling at the results. Denise came downstairs and we chose a coat for her, D was all amused by the fact that she was wearing my clothes and realised, "Oh so YOU are the one who helps P smuggle shoes home all the time in Sing". And she happily detailed all our stories. Then it was time for Haunted Mansion Explorations! Denise and I had lined up a visit to Preston Manor, the haunted manor of Brighton, where seances are held regularly, complete with their own White Lady and Grey Lady. We saw some spooky things there, sneaked a few photographs (hoping to see ghosts in them but to no avail) and then. . something smacked my arm really hard and another thing hummed in her ear. Not kidding. I love the paranormal, there is only so much that our current levels of understanding can explain, but yet does not disprove what cannot be explained yet. . .

The manor itself was large and lovely, with amazing decadent furnishings, but a little spooky. The workers there do not dare to venture to the second level alone, as strange things have happened. Curators of the manor's archives note that over the years, letters to the different owners of the manors recount similarly eerie happenings that corroborate with each other. The manor was donated to the Brighton city council in the 1930s when the owners died and disinherited their son, Mad Jack. It is said that his spirit still haunts the place, along with that of wrongly-accused nuns and family dogs, and sometimes people get stones pelted at them from no where. . . .

So there Denise was, in her pink hair, telling me, "P, people here are starring at me as though I am a figment of their imagination". I told her, "Who cares if we're overdressed. It's All Hallows' Eve after all, and we have to look grand for the ghosts". Because we were planning to do a lot of walking after the ghost tour, I changed into my Topshop black lace up boots. We took loads of other photographs whilst waiting out in the cold for our cab, and the bottom-right one was our attempt to look kawaii (i.e. poke fun at it) and when I was reviewing them, it turned out that strange shadows messed up my look and. . let's just say I'm never meant to look kawaii and stick my fingers out in the peace sign. It's a look I hate with a passion.

 We proceeded to meet D, who decided to come out for the night as he was feeling better despite a nasty bout of bronchitis. He was, of course, dressed as himself or as The Source of All Evil, and we wandered around Brighton. It was the last night of summer, and Brighton celebrates its annual White Night festival then, with events concurrently occurring in France. The whole city is transformed and has a wide array of displays and performances. Denise and I tried one where we stuck our heads into a tunnel of darkness and attempted to channel our 'higher beings' to draw but to no avail. And D starred at me saying, "We are not going to the Buddhist center with you dressed like that". Well, they had some meditation events lined up which I was hoping to go to, but sometimes, I forget what I am wearing.

And so, we stopped for kebabs and cocktails instead. We'd been planning on going to this rather beautiful place called Havana (in her FB tags Denise captioned, "P chose the most expensive place to go. Crazy bitch" but in my defense I didn't know it was expensive) so in we went. Except that the service sucked and I wouldn't be going back there again. .

Have a glorious weekend ahead! The winds are blowing insanely like deranged ghouls and I'm loving it. . there's nothing more divine than the sound of the winds and the waves ;) x