We are intrigued by this photograph of Charade's upcoming Phantom collection.
Modern Jewelry posted the photograph and says the line will consist of 18k gold and diamonds. Charade is a a Valenza, Italy-based family company. We assume the line will probably be out in time for Halloween. We'll post more details as they are available.
Some of the outfits from The Watchmen movie would make very good costumes. Above are some Dr. Manhattan hands and below is Rorschach's mask.
If someone could make an animated Rorschach mask it would be fantastic.
Dr. Manhattan's hands can be found here and Roschach's mask
can be found here. Costumzee also has some Watchmen costumes here.
Kids will be wearing these in October but whether they are the most
popular choices are not remains to be seen - October is still a long way off.
Jakks Pacific, Inc., a toy and leisure products company, has acquired Halloween costume and decor company, Disguise, Inc. San Diego-based Disguise is a 21-year-old manufacturer of Halloween costumes and accessories. Disguise's portfolio includes non-licensed Halloween costumes including pirates, historical figures, aliens, animals, vampires, angels and more. They also make costumes based on popular licensed characters from top intellectual property owners including Disney, Marvel, Mattel, Hasbro and Sesame Street, among others.
Stephen Berman, President and COO of Jakks said, "We expect to maximize opportunities provided by Disguise and take advantage of synergies across multiple JAKKS divisions. We look forward to expanding our existing role-play and dress-up business, while firmly positioning Jakks in the Halloween industry."
Here are some links to blog entries and magazine articles revealing what some of the celebrities were wearing this year. Heidi Klum and the Today Show cast really stood out this year.
Nobody does Halloween like Martha Stewart. On her Halloween show, she dressed up as Medusa, with writing snakes on her head. She looked amazing. Her guest was Gossip Girl's Blake Lively who came as Cleopatra. Martha went all out with a fantastic set. She and Blake gossiped and had fun making pumpkin-chocolate marble cake. Take a look:
Bruce Springsteen posted a new song on his website as a Halloween treat for his fans. The song is called "A Night With The Jersey Devil". Bruce's message reads, "If you grew up in central or south Jersey, you grew up with the 'Jersey Devil.' Here's a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun!" You can watch the music video here. By this excerpt from the lyrics you can tell it is creepy enough to be a Halloween song.
16 witches, cast 16 spells
Make me guitar outta skin and human skull
Sing you a song like the wind in the sandy loam
Bring you baby out'cha your happy home
The AP asked several celebs what they'll be dressing as for Halloween. Randy Jackson said he always goes as a fruit or vegetable -- last year he was an onion. Padma Lakshi preferred being a Japanese anime butterfly. And Patrick Dempsey is running out of time to find a good costume. Take a look:
Here are some of the themes and trends we are seeing for Halloween 2008.
We already posted some of the popular costumes this year for kids,
adults and pets. These lists contain the results of a large survey from BigResearch. In costume searches Yahoo says
it was The Joker who topped the list. You might also be interested in Costumzee's list
of the Top 100 costume ideas.
Halloween is Too Sexy: Multiple media articles are covering this story - see here,
here, here, here, here and here. The articles and news reports generally include comments
from parents who emphatically agree that Halloween has become too sexy for young children.
Candidate Costumes: With the election just a few days a way it's clear you will be seeing the candidates
at the Halloween parties you attend. Sarah Palin masks and costumes are the hot trend - a
few articles that say Sarah Palin costumes are in hot demand here,
here, here, here and here.
Retailers Eager for Christmas: We ran this story yesterday about how retailers are so anxious for Christmas they are already
putting up decorations and selling Christmas products.
Strong Halloween Sales: Halloween sales appear to be up despite some retailers already switching to winter holidays. The scary economy won't stop our Halloween fun. Articles here, here, here, here and here
talk of increased Halloween spending.
Green Halloween: You can find some articles and ideas about Green Halloween here, here, here, here and here. There's also a Green Halloween movement which has a website at greenhalloween.org.
Inflatables: Those inflatables that have been popular during Christmas are now popular for Halloween see here,
here
and here.
Celebrity Halloween Galleries: 2008 Costume Galleries: here,
here and here.
Galleries of Costumes from Previous Halloweens: here and here, here, .
Celebrities Going as Other Celebrities: Jennifer Love Hewitt and fiance Ross McCall may be going as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Jennifer's comment on how they will do it: "We're just gonna have lots of babies! And I'm going to look really sultry and really drop dead gorgeous."
Halloween TV: These websites here and here list some of the shows on the tube tonight. The Simpson's are back with Treehouse of Horror XIX. The episode which airs November 2nd will include a spoof of Mad Men. You can watch a preview here.
We love this idea of mummy cupcakes. They are white cake with cream cheese frosting fluted on the cupcake with a flat frosting tip so they look like bandages. The eyes peeking out are jelly candies (Dots) with a dot of chocolate frosting in the middle. These are from Breadwinners Cafe. Happy Halloween!
Some retailers are already going full steam ahead with Christmas decorations and holiday banners. Candymakers pushing less new candies this year may have something to do with it but do we really need Christmas music playing already? This is happening despite the fact that we are all still in a Halloween mood. We want ghouls, ghosts and witches not Frosty and the Little Drummer Boy. The Wall Street Journal has also noticed this trend.
That's a pretty good costume your retailer has on. You can't tell it from Father Christmas.
Merry Halloween. Trick-or-treaters don't head out until Friday, but consumers are finding themselves pushing carts amid a barrage of Christmas decorations -- think pumpkins under the tree -- and having to choose between buying Halloween paraphernalia and getting a jump on purchasing gifts for Dec. 25.
The AJC also has an article about retailers unpacking their holiday decor pre-Halloween.
Christmas music in October. Holiday decorations on display before Halloween? Retail ads touting the best Christmas deals?
Christmas is apparently arriving early this year. At a local Wal-Mart, just days before Halloween, employees put the finishing touches on the "Christmas Shop".
If you have been out shopping lately you have probably witnessed this yourself. We saw a local drugstore reducing the amount of Halloween items and replacing them with Christmas products yesterday. Please retailers don't take down the Halloween decorations and candy before people even have a chance to buy them. Halloween is still three days away and no one wants Christmas ornaments yet.
Each Halloween there a new children's picture books released. Nothing captures the magic of Halloween quite like them. Here's a few of this year's releases. The book titles are linked to Amazon.com
Bats at the Library by Brian Lies (Houghton Mifflin) - Join the fun at the public library with these book-loving bats!
Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman (Margaret K. McElderry) - Can Bear overcome his fears?
Bone Soup by Cambria Evans (Houghton Mifflin) - Finnigin is never seen without his eating stool, his eating spoon, and his gigantic eating mouth.
Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex (Harcourt Children's Books) - Frankenstein just wants to marry his undead bride in peace but his friends Dracula, the Headless Horseman and Edgar Allan Poe are serious distractions.
Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara (Roaring Brook Press) - At the edge of town lives a clever girl with a spooky problem: Her house is haunted!
The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing (Grosset & Dunlap) - What will happen on Halloween when the monsters come face to face with human trick-or-treaters?
Now this is what we call the perfect Halloween party clutch. Alexander McQueen has created this delightful black evening clutch which is embellished with a jeweled skull closure. It's absolutely amazing. Made in Italy, the bag is made of patterned patent leather. The dimensions are 6 1/2" wide x 2 1/2" deep x 4" high. The skull closure is adorned with Swarovski crystals. What a fabulous evening bag -- even if it's not Halloween, it's perfect. We love the idea of this conservative looking black evening clutch which upon closer inspection actually has a bejeweled skull looking at you.
Hallmark has some cute Halloween photo cards that you can create online. You upload your personal Halloween photos to Hallmark's site and then drag them onto the card. You can also add an optional message. Hallmark will mail the cards for you or you can have the cards shipped to you. The 5x7 folded cards cost $3.95 each. You find them here.
Britney Spears recently visited the pumpkin patch with her boys Sean Preston and Jayden James. Britney's blog says her two boys jumped on the "jumpin pumpkin" trampoline. The paparazzi was there with Britney at the pumpkin patch as well as you can see here and here.
The Mimobot drives are the coolest USB Flash drives around. For Halloween the rayD8 USB flash drive is back. He can be ordered here The site notes that its a limited edition of rayD8 - just 200 of the 8GB glow-in-the-dark fiends were made.