Toil and Trouble
Hi everyone, happy… Thursday??
Sorry guys, had a little mixup — I thought I’d scheduled this issue to go out yesterday afternoon, but apparently I never clicked Confirm. So it was just languishing in my drafts and I had no idea until this morning, when I was like “Hold up… wasn’t there supposed to be a WIWO yesterday?” But hey, better late than never!
I’ve got a fun, classic Halloween costume for y’all today: witches! In the past few weeks I’ve made a few cautious forays into WitchTok, just to get into the spirit of the season. I don’t know if I’m quite ready to start reading tarot cards and hexing the moon, but it’s fascinating to see the ways people weave magic into their everyday lives. Come join the coven!
Oh My Stars
Forget the tattered taffeta witch dresses you’d get from Party City — this elegant maxi dress from L.F. Markey’s sister brand Meadows somehow manages to be more subtle and more striking at the same time. The heavy navy velvet is dotted with embroidered suns, moons, and stars and trimmed with lace around the cuffs and neckline. I quite like that it doesn’t feature all the trappings of a traditional witch costume, with the dramatic bell sleeves and ragged hems and whatnot; rather, the modest shift silhouette is reminiscent of something a Puritan woman might wear — before she got dragged out by the hair and burned at the stake.
Claw Your Way Up
EARTHENWARE CANDLE HOLDER - NAOMI GILON
If I were to set dress the inside of a witch’s cottage, this creepy candlestick holder definitely wouldn’t look out of place next to a jar of eyeballs and a bubbling cauldron of green ooze. Belgian artist Naomi Gilon draws inspiration from pop culture, horror, and mythology; her ceramic art pieces take everyday objects (ashtrays, purses) and infuse them with the wretched and the grotesque.
The Cat in the Hat
PURPLE WIZARD CAT HAT - CATS IN HATS SHOP
Why should humans get all the dress-up fun on Halloween? Even if your familiar doesn’t happen to be a chat noir, they can still don this adorable crocheted witch hat from the very-aptly-named Etsy shop Cats in Hats. (If your feline friend feels more like a swashbuckling pirate or a devilish imp, there’s a hat to suit every personality.) Each hat is hand-crocheted by shop owner Andjelka and modeled by her cat Lea, who doesn’t seem to relish wearing the hats per se, but patiently suffers through the photoshoots out of love and duty.
Tried one of my recs and loved it (or hated it)? Wanna get something cool on my radar? Drop me a line at kittylguo@gmail.com or swing by my Twitter @kitguo!