Halloween Costumes 2013

Guys, I was digging through an old box I found stashed in the attic and found these awesome WWII era vintage photos that I thought should go on the blog.  I'm pretty sure this is the original Rosie the Riveter.

 

 

And I always thought this photo of a nurse and a sailor kissing on V-J Day happened in Times Square in New York, but apparently it was downtown San Jose.  Who knew? 

 

 

Oh wait, it's just us.  Silly me.  It's the House of Nash Halloween time again!  For previous years, see our first Halloween with Clara here (as the characters from Little Red Riding Hood) and Halloween last year here (as a bad melodrama).

 

We had so much fun taking Halloween photos this year.  Paul's costume is a vintage uniform from the 1940's that was worn on the U.S.S. Hamner (which didn't actually serve in WWII - I did the research - but the uniform itself is from the right era at least).  I was ecstatic when I found it on eBay for a reasonable price compared to all the other vintage uniforms I had looked at and that it was a good fit for Paul.  I made Clara's costume using a pattern for a little boy's race car driver jumpsuit and using fabric I picked up for free a year ago by a woman from church who was giving away her fabric stash (it was an insanely huge stash - I got maybe 1% of what she had and still walked away with two huge bags of fabric, elastic, felt, etc., including this lightweight denim).  My costume was from a vintage pattern that I found on etsy which has been out of print for years.  I was lucky to find it because I looked for a long time for a uniform/nurse pattern that wasn't "sexy".  (Incidentally - I loathe all of the sexified versions of every girl costume ever.)  This year's costumes were SO much easier to sew than last year's costumes! 

The location for the photo shoot with the airplane is nearby Vasona Park, which is actually also the place where we filmed the train sequence from the movie we made last year.  The plane is an actual WWII airplane that was used to train pilots and has been set up as a play structure for kids to climb on.  Except that a few months back there was a bunch of yellow "caution" tape put up around it, so nobody plays on it anymore.  We just climbed over the tape though and took our pictures in front of the plane anyway.  Paul's dad was our photographer and he did a great job!  I did the developing to make them look like they were taken during the war.

Seriously, Clara is the cutest as Rosie the Riveter.  I die.  I put her hair in rollers the night before and she slept in them (surprisingly well, actually - she was pretty proud to have her hair in curlers).  If you ask her if she is Rosie, she will correct you by saying, "no, Rosie the RIVETER!".  What. A. Beauty.

 

I have tried teaching Clara how to make "muscles" so that we could do a picture like the recruiting poster of the original Rosie the Riveter and this was her best effort.  She did a great job holding a little wrench and "working" on the plane for the photos though.  And she leaves the little bandana on, much to my relief, because the costume just wouldn't be the same without it. 

I can't help it - I know I have already posted plenty of photos of us in our costumes but I just love all of them too much!  So here are some more favorites.  Please forgive my vanity.

 

You had better believe I want to raise Clara to be a strong, independent, feminine, and courageous woman just like the icon (and thousands of actual women of the era) that she dressed as for her third Halloween.  We have had a heart-to-heart about it.

One of the insignia patches on Paul's authentic Navy uniform.  Incidentally, both Paul and I each have a grandpa who served in the Navy during WWII which made these costumes just that much more special to us.  It was kind of cool putting on these clothes and thinking what life was like for that generation.  I sort of loved that about this Halloween.

We recreated the "kiss" picture on First Street in downtown San Jose because it was as urban as we could get to at least sort of bring a tiny bit of the feel of Times Square to our picture.

 

I like the original "kiss" picture, but this one is my true favorite.  Happy Halloween!!

 

Post-edit: 

A friend and former Contracts TA from law school posted a comment about our Halloween costumes on Facebook to say that her grandma was one of the original Rosie the Riveters and her grandpa was in the Navy during WWII.  She had sent her grandma the link to our pictures and her grandma sent the following message back through Erin for me (which I am reposting here with permission): 

 

"Your friend is very talented...and I loved the sepia photography..brought back many memories....I tried to reply to her message but it did't go...so if you can please tell her I was there on VJ day and was kissed by hundreds of happy servicemen..went home with bloody lips but no complaint...also tell her I was proud to help build the B25 bomber and belonged to the U.S.O and gave up silk stockings for leg paint!"

 

Amazing, right?  I love Halloween.