Post-Halloween Fashion Minute: Heidi Klum Halloween!!

Heidi Klum: Skin-and-MonkeyTastic!!!

Heidi Klum as "Skin-and-Bones" at her TAO/The Venetian Las Vegas Halloween Party on Saturday (top photo) and with Seal as The Perfect Monkey Couple, last night at her NY Halloween Party at the PH-D Rooftop Lounge/Dream Downtown NYC

One word: Wow! My Project Runway DIVA Heidi Klum loves her Halloween Parties and for 2011, this was no exception! I was invited to her infamous "Heidi's Halloween" Party this year. Usually she has one in Los Angeles one year and NYC the next, and so on. I thought that LA was this year.

Hints of the Costumes--Heidi's Halloween 2011: The Invitation

If it was, I would have SOOO been there (sine I reside here!). But nope: for the 12th anniversary of her Halloween Parties, she chose to do two. One held in Las Vegas and the other, in NYC. I almost went to the Las Vegas one, only because it was so close to LA. But alas, I was too busy making my collection that well, I had no time to make myself a costume worthy of attending a "Heidi Klum Halloween"!

In 2007, I went as one of the Marie Antoinette Royal Court (photo above with Heidi Klum and my fellow Season 2 Alumni Santino Rice)

In 2009, I did some red carpet reporting for the Modelinia.com site and I made (with the help of my NIKOLAKI Design Partner David Paul) a "Bollywood-meets-Gay-Aladdin" Costume.

So, let's get back to Miss Heidi:

The Las Vegas event was held at TAO in The Venetian this past Saturday night, and for that one, the Mistress of Halloween Ceremonies, decided to go as a Skin-and-Bone Version of herself--straight out of "Bodies: The Exhibition". She looked INCREDIBLE!!! Oh and did I mention that she made quite an entrance...on a gurney--with some HOT HOT nurses (where did she find them??).

For Monday night's party at the Dream Downtown NYC Hotel (love that hotel and the pool!), Heidi and her husband Seal came as a loving Monkey Couple. Again: UBER fab! You see, this is what I am talking about: when Heidi and Seal go a out for their Halloween Parties, you CANNOT show up with something from Hollywood Blvd. Costume-in-a-bag!!

Speaking of her costumes: her fittings occurred while she was in NYC filming the Project Runway Season 9 Finale in early September. Recognize someone in the background? It's Nicolas Putvinski (right behind Heidi) from Season 6. He is the lead assistant to costume designer EXTRAORDINAIRE Martin Izquierdo (red shirt and glasses) of Izquierdo Studio, famous for creating the Victoria's Secret Wing ensembles. There's an article in UsWeekly that erroneously states that I had something to do with her costumes, needless to say, I didn't (I wish!), but they got me confused with Nic Putvinski, who really did help make her amazing costumes.

She even tweeted photos--as she was getting ready for the Las Vegas party--of the play-by-play transformation from Supermodel to Super Skin-and-Bones. Check out these photos:

And of course, The End Result:

Happy Halloween Miss Heidi!!! Hope next year it's in LA so I come!! Below are some of the guests that attended the NY Party:

Austin Scarlett

Fergie

Jesus Estrada (Project Runway) with Twin Brother

Marc Bouwer

Michelle Trachtenberg

Viktor Luna

[CARTOON] Pumpkin Facelift

[CARTOON] Pumpkin Pie

[CARTOON] Pumpkin Patch

Celebrate Halloween with Disney Villains From Graham & Brown

I do love anything that Graham & Brown does so when I heard about its collaboration with Barbara Hulanicki I was extremely excited. Together they have created a collection of flock wallpapers celebrating the dark side of Disney characters.

Inspired by the Disney classic ‘Sleeping Beauty’ with a touch of Graham & Brown magic, Hulanicki brings to life the magnificent Maleficent and her cunning feathered sidekick, Diablo. This sinister collection is perfect for a Halloween makeover. Incredibly spooky and delightfully wicked ;)

So I hope you do have a lovely weekend, I will be working as I am on a fabulous styling shoot tomorrow morning. I cannot wait should be fun. Take care and see you Monday oh and don't forget the clocks go back this weekend, here's a little reminder ;(

Butterfly clock from Diamantini & Domeniconi

[CARTOON] Halloween I

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[CARTOON] Chilean Miners vs. Charlie Brown

SAN JOSE MINE, CHILE - They were 33 miners trapped for 10 weeks and more than 2,000 feet under the earth, their only link to life above a narrow tube used for food and water... The second miner to be rescued (today), Mario Sepulveda emerged and gave Chile's president a handful of rocks. Sepulveda was greeted with cheers, then turned to President Sebastian Pinera and said, "Wait a minute I have a present, here you go," and handed Pinera some rocks. From wikipedia: The Great Pumpkin was first mentioned by Linus in Peanuts in 1959, and also inspired the 1966 animated television special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The best-known quote regarding Linus and the Great Pumpkin, originally from the comic strip but also made famous by the TV special, is "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin. What I most remember was Charlie Brown just getting rocks when he went trick-or-treating."

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[CARTOON] Zombies

"Zombies. A zombie is a creature that appears in books and popular culture typically as a reanimated dead or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful wizard. Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead."

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Halloween – Another great Irish Pagan Festival!

Hallowe’en seems to have grown around the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half. All Hallows' Eve, has over the years moved from the Celtic Festival of Samhain to trick-or-treat. Samhain was the time of the final harvest of the beasts of the field, and the crops, in preparation of winter provisions, the eve of Winter's first day, and the beginning of the next Wheel of the Year.

Samhain was in part a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through. The practice of wearing spooky costumes may have its roots in that belief: dressing up as a ghost to scare off other ghosts seems to have been the idea.



To the Celts Samhain marked one of the two great doorways of the Pagan Year, the other being Beltane on May 1. They held a 'dumb' or 'silent' supper in remembrance of those who passed over, placing a setting of food and drink for them at the family dinner table, or just simple cakes and wine.


Celtic sites in Ireland

In medieval Ireland, Samhain became the principal festival, celebrated with a great assembly at the royal court in Tara, lasting for three days. After being ritually started on the Hill of Tlachtga, a bonfire was set alight on the Hill of Tara, which served as a beacon, signalling to people gathered atop hills all across Ireland to light their ritual bonfires. The custom has survived to some extent, and recent years have seen resurgence in participation in the festival.


Hill of Tara

The name Hallowe’en is a shortening of All Hallows’ Even, or All Hallows’ Evening. All Hallows is an old term for All Saints’ Day (Hallow, from the Old English “halig”, or holy, compared with Saint, from the Latin “Sanctus”, also meaning holy, or consecrated). In the original Old English, it was known as Eallra Hālgena aefen. This comes from a Christian move by Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV to end the pagan Samhain festivals, by moving the feast of All Saints from May to 1 November.

There is a long tradition of the Christian Church taking other’s iconography and calling it their own! They even took the History of the Jewish People and called it the Old Testament. They took over the Basilicas of the Cult of Mithras which, like Christianity, had at its centre redemption through blood sacrifice. When they took over the Roman Basilicas after Constantine the Great made it the state religion of the Roman Empire they replaced the statues of Jupiter with those of Christos (The anointed one – a title used by the Pharaohs of Egypt as in Ptolemy VI Eucharistos on the Rosetta Stone) and changed the inscription from “J.O.M.” (Jovis Omnia Maximus) to “D.O.M.” (Deo Omnia Maximus). They even kept the gold disc behind Jupiter which represented his position as the Sun God (Helios) and depicted their images with the “Halo” as a sign of sanctity. So the Nazarenes have some form in this area, indeed after celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in early summer for the first 400 years or so they then purloined the Roman Feast of Saturnalia on the 25th December near to the Winter solstice which was associated with feasting and merriment. Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 AD) recorded that some Christians of the time placed his birth date in April (see Stromata I:21). Hippolytus (d. 236 AD) may have believed that Jesus was born on April 2nd.


Halloween in Ireland

The celebration of Halloween survived most strongly in Ireland. It was an end of summer festival, and was often celebrated in each community with a bonfire to ward off the evil spirits. Children would go from door to door in disguise as creatures from the underworld to collect treats, mainly fruit, nuts and the like for the festivities. These were used for playing traditional games like eating an apple on a string or bobbing for apples and other gifts in a basin of water, without using your hands. Salt might be sprinkled on the visiting children to ward off evil spirits. Carving turnips as ghoulish faces to hold candles became a popular part of the festival, which has been adapted to carving pumpkins in America.



The classic Hallowe’en jack-o’-lantern, a carved grinning pumpkin, is both a new and an ancient practice. Originally, it seems to have come from an old Irish legend of a man called Stingy Jack, a miserly farmer who played a trick on the devil and as punishment was cursed to wander the earth, lighting his way with a candle inside a hollowed-out turnip. When the tradition moved to America pumpkins were used instead of turnips, as they were both more available and easier to carve.

So this Halloween, as we Trick and Treat, let us acknowledge the contribution of the Pagans of Ireland to popular culture not to mention 100s of terrible Halloween B Movies!! Watch out for the Ghosties and Ghoulies and ‘tings which go bump in the night!

[CARTOON] Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is an animated television special, based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. Its initial broadcast took place on October 27, 1966, on the CBS network. Charlie Brown's repeated line of "I got a rock" caused some stir among many viewers of the show, according to Charles Schulz in the book and retrospective TV special "Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown." Schulz said that after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown."

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