Pre-Halloween

Here are a few of my better fancy-dress outfits:

For Halloween 2010 I went as a dickhead. As in, from the video Being a Dickhead's Cool:

I went all out: grew a moustache; bought a low-cut vest, purple leggings, the Game Boy; wore loafers (my Dubes) without socks; drew on the sailor-tat; got the pair of empty frames and the Polaroid app on my iPhone; tried to get a plus-one for a gig, went to a warehouse rave; and drank Kopparberg. It was very well received.

The previous year was my pun-extraordinaire:

I am a demon in the sack.

The following isn't Halloween but for a party I threw earlier this year, "Saturday Night's Best B-themed Bash", I went as Bruce Wayne:

and then midway through the party, I changed into...

In the foreground you can see the burglar that I fought off. The video hasn't made it to YouTube yet but it's full of amazingly awesome alliteration, appropriate to apprehending an assailant in such attire.

Back when I was cool had dreads, I tried to dress as Bosco.

That could've been better. That whole night could've been better.

Of course, the plan this year was to dress as a lifeguard or as Rambo but I left it too late. I'm going to whip out some fabric paints and work some magic with an idea I've got. I'll throw up photos after.

I've been shopping

So this blog has become my expensive hobby. I've even berated myself for going out some nights when afterwards I thought of the clothes I could've bought. Here's a few of what I have, I'll change the crappy eBay photo when I get the chance:

First up, I needed t-shirts so I got three of these bad-boys:

Not the black man. That would be racist and was outlawed here in 1833. They're t-shirts, they're white, and they're Ralph Lauren. That's about it. I got them on eBay and bought two Hollister shirts around the same time:

The first was sold as "Hollister Oxford Shirt" and is on the Hollister website as "Classic Daley Ranch Shirt." It looks as though Daley Ranch is a hiking spot just north of San Diego; only Hollister use the name in clothing. So Oxford shirts, eh?

An Oxford shirt is "long sleeve, button down collar, split yoke, with a pocket on the left breast, made of a certain type of fabric: Oxford is a type of weave employed to make the fabric in Oxford shirts. The warp has two fine yarns paired together. The weft has one heavier, softly spun fill yarn, which gives the fabric a very subtle basketweave look." I got that on Yahoo! Answers so it could be someone taking the piss.

Words I didn't really understand there: split-yoke, weave, warp, yarns, weft, fill yarn. It's like an Ann and Barry book here. Like, I know what weaving is, but couldn't explain it too well: they're just talking about patterns of over-and-under. YouTube knows best. The warp is the wool that creates the length in, say, a scarf. Yarn is a long bit of thread composed of fibres; thread is skinny yarn; string is used to tie things and could be yarn but could be nylon. Weft is the left-right (width) yarn in your scarf, aka the fill yarn. The yoke of a shirt is the top part across the shoulders; a split-yoke angles the warp and the weft so when someone moves, the fabric can stretch and the shirt will be more comfortable on the wearer.

I got the previous shirt because everyone's wearing Hollister. I got this one more because loads of guys are wearing striped blue shirts on nights out. I just noticed this week that Abercrombie own Hollister and Hollister is basically just cheap Abercrombie. I won't fret too much, it's not like there's anyone in Belfield not wearing Hollister. I bought more stuff, but it takes ages to write this.

Maroon

Absolutely everyone is wearing wine maroon clothes around campus.

Dani, Politics and Modern Languages, got her leggings in H&M, €10; jumper in H&M, €25; cardigan in New Look, €25; scarf in Penny's, €10; and shoes in Penny's or New Look or maybe H&M. I'd never heard of New Look. Looks like they're all over Dublin/Ireland in various shopping centres for the past two years. 

Dani never wears her hair down in college. She wore it down one night out last week but it "gets irking when it's down all night."

"...sweet, sweet, yeah, that's perfect. Thanks, mom, goodbye."

Paddy, SU Campaigns Officer, self-described "fashion icon to the masses", actual Politics and History student. He got his cardigan for €35 in H&M;  the t-shirt's from Penny's but I'm supposed to lie and say River Island/Armani; jeans are Top Man, €37; Cons from Footlocker, €65; and belt Penny's.

He said something about Footlocker but I can't read my own handwriting. I didn't ask him about his hair, but I promise to do a feature on guys' hair — unashamedly just to figure out how to manage my own.

Joey, reading English, in the Tribune office in the Arts Block. We didn't really talk. I was in there checking the archives for fashion coverage in times passed. So stay tuned for some outdated fashion advice.

I wanted five photos so I could make a joke saying wearing maroon means you will be loved but I'm not quite in the swing of taking photos of strangers yet. It's a bit daunting and I don't have moves like Jagger. So you'll just get this, love.