Design follows us everywhere in our daily lives. The TV shows we watch, the articles we read on the Internet or for the Luddites, newspapers, everything we do and see has been designed by someone to inform, sell, gladden or sadden us. In exactly the same way, our lives are designed by us from the influences we see all around us each and every day. The difference is that some certainly have more fun than others!
I had an opportunity to spend Halloween in Palm Springs and I must say, OMG! I hear that the show
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| I didn't know what to wear! So I chose this. |
in West Hollywood is even more spectacular (depending on your point of view) but oddly enough getting there is much harder than going to Palm Springs. You might get there but have to find a place to park and certainly walk a lot farther than we did!
I will say however, the denizens of Palm Springs certainly have no lack of imagination or for that matter sense of design. As you can see here to the right, we have a parlimentary wig, dress coat complete with shirt and tie, sunglasses, a fan and of course those legs! The first time I saw him I ran into someone else. Later, getting up the nerve to photograph him he struck up this pose for me. Few are shy.
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| Costume Emcee |
In the course of the evening we saw the pope with his girlfriend, our Jesus bartender, along with two Polynesian beauties. There was even a contest for best costumes with an Emcee as outrageous as the rest! Don't you love that hair? Her beautician must live in New Jersey.
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| Swan Lake Anyone? |
I would never, EVER consider dressing like this but I did enjoy the time it must have taken to create these costumes and of course looking.
One in particular was outstanding ... one that must have taken hours to create ... the lady dressed like a swan. Putting that together was similar to what you might see at the ballet or theatre. Amazing.
The overwhelming theme of course is to have fun. Whether you are an out-of-towner (and the snowbirds are here in force) a local or worker, everyone gets in the spirit! It's not just for the kiddies anymore, that is for sure.
To say that we didn't have fun would be to tell a lie. It was fun and some costumes were definitely more outrageous than others easily earning nearly if not an X rating.While the streets and bars were crowded everyone had a great time. I sure know that I did!
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| The Pope and friend |
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| Jesus the Bartender |
Sitting and observing all this I realized that Halloween has morphed from Mom and Dad or, in my case big older brother, marching up and down the street getting goodies with a child to something far more involved. New Orleans may have Mardi Gras but today most big cities have nights of rivalry centered around Halloween. It is a time to let go, to regain that childhood dream of being someone else if even for a night. The number of year-round Halloween stores attest to that!
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| Polynesian Beauties |
I can remember a few years back going to the pet store a few days before Halloween and seeing owners and their pets waiting patiently to be photographed by the photographer set up in the store. While I know many dog owners, in particular, give their dogs almost childlike status what I saw before me took my breath away. The owner and the dog wore matching outfits ... elaborate ones like I saw here. Bumblebees, Dracula's, ghosts and so very much more. I started to laugh, got nasty stares, hurried outside to really laugh and finally once calmed down, went back in, bought the dog food I needed carefully averting my eyes so I would't gape or laugh anymore. The urge to return with my camera was hard to resist. Now with an iPhone you get almost professional quality right on the spot. I could have taken pictures to my hearts content. I don't know if the owners would have been as happy as the Palm Springs crowd but it certainly would have been worth the effort.
I wanted to point out here, like it or not, costumes require a great deal of time and designing effort. You get out of it what time you put into it. They inspire us to have an suspension of belief giving us the permission to live in a fantasy world. It is in the designing that it is so much more fun!
Thank you for reading my blog. Please review some of the others as well. All are written with design in mind, some are artistic and some merely my reflections of the world in general.
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