Eustratia Halloween Favourites and SALE!

Every year, I notice it’s coming up to Halloween on about the 10th of October and decide to schedule an appropriate photoshoot and a “top picks” collage from designs for Eustratia.

This year, I decided to be a bit more pro-active and post my selections early. This gives you guys more time to think about your outfit and also coincides with the mini SALE I’ve just put on for the remainder of the week! (but obviously you’d have to make up your mind quick for that, end midnight on Saturday GMT).

I’m not really into items that I see as tacky, or anything that is specific to a particular character, though I do love dressing up. I prefer to choose items that can make an impressive addition to a costume, but are versatile and can also be used in other situations.

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Here we have a few examples of items I have incorporated into past costumes but continue to come in useful today.

The Elizabethan Ruff

The latexlace mask

The bunny hood, bunny mask fascinator and bunny ear fascinator

The antler headband

The miniruff trim collar

and the kitty ears.

These are just some easy options I picked to save you looking through the whole website, if you have some spare time though, there are plenty more wonders in the sale section. Harnesses of any type are also a great choice in my opinion. They give a distinctive “tough” look that can also be toned down enough to wear every day, with the right outfit.

If you have something extra special planned and nothing on the site will quite do, I’m always happy to take on custom commissions and I will offer 20% off those until Saturday. That includes crowns, horns and hair covered, sculptured head pieces that you may have noticed in some of my work.

To give you some inspiration, here are some of my costumes from previous years that I’ve been photographed in:

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Jamie Mahon-5418a

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A few of these are a bit old now, but I hope you enjoy looking at them all the same.

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Manchester house

On Saturday we went to Manchester house for afternoon tea and cocktails.

They seem to serve a lot of classic treats with an interesting twist which really works for me and the staff are always friendly and helpful. Definitely one of my favourite places in Manchester.

The Manchester sky was sporting its trademark grey colour and I decided to take some pictures by the large windows on the 12th floor.

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Blazer: Karen Millen

Tunic: Topshop

Necklace: Richard Ayres

Earrings: Wildfox

Trousers: Eustratia

Clutch: H&M

Boots: Jeffrey Campbell

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Vidal Sassoon, Black Milk

A few months ago, I was involved in a hair presentation project at Vidal Sassoon in Manchester.

The theme was based around the darker side of nature; life-giving, but at the same time wild and dangerous.

It was put together to showcase Melanie Baker‘s hair dressing skills but also featured colour by Helen Jordan and cuts by different members of the Sassoon Manchester team.

A section of one the images from my “winter project” was used as the promo poster, after it inspired Mel to choose the theme.

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I then planned the styling, based on the theme, but also being mindful of the sassoon brand.

This shoot took place before the Vanguard collection launch, but we used some of the garments, as well as latex pieces from different collections and even some old favourites, such as veils, flower crowns and antlers.

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Model: Zoe Harlotta

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Model:

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Model: Lia @Vauhaus

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Model: Florence @J’adore

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Model: Stacey Black (me)

Images and retouch: Adam Mark Williams

Make up: Jules Daniels MUA

We also had to do a catwalk and each of the hair styles was inspected and judged individually.

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All the models and Mel.

11130208_10155479081415311_245537083010047501_nThe model in their full outfits, after the catwalk.

The presentation, catwalk and photoshoot all went really well, Mel did a great job and the whole team was awesome and a pleasure to work with.

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Monochrome dreams

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In the past, I probably never would have thought that pairing a t-shirt with a pleated chiffon maxi skirt was a good idea but recently I’ve been updating the categories I mentally assign clothing to.

I wanted a comfortable but striking outfit to attend a friend’s birthday drinks and this was definitely a hit.

The wedge trainers perfectly marry the contrasting elements and the accessories add the right amount of edge.

t-shirt: Topshop

skirt: similar here

trainers: Nike

harness: No:Wear

necklace: Eustratia

earrings: Richard Ayres

Images shot by Richard Ayres photography

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