Halloweeny Goodness

It's that time of year again.  Last year I had very little time or interest, and ended up with my fallback costume, the Awesome Pirate:

...with his hawt rocker girlfriend.

But this year, I wanted to go a little bit darker, a bit more steampunk-esque, and channel my inner Vicent Price...

Yeah, that's the ticket.

The concept is an early-Victorian monster hunter, in the tradition of the classic Hammer and American International films of the 1950s & 1960s.  It's a concept I hope to parlay into some original fiction, and it starts right here:

 The only newly acquired elements are the velvet-finish top hat, goggles and 19th century vest.  The velvet front-flap Regency trousers were custom made by my high school theater pal Andrea Edelman, who is an amazing historical seamstress and milliner.  The deerskin gloves are part of my pirate/swashbuckler ensemble, as are the replica firearms, black shirt, knives and baldric (in which the pirate cutlass has been replaced with a mallet for stake-driving).  The boots are one of two pair I own for costume work, and are best suited for later-period endeavors (the others being massive gray cavalier boots).  The black suede jacket was one of those amazing $16 Goodwill finds, and is incredibly versatile.  Add in the brass-handled cane, silver cross and bottle of "holy water", and you've got a vampire-slaying, demon-exorcising, ghost-hunting, werewolf-shooting badass.  Can't wait to show it off at the neighbors' Halloween party on Saturday.  More pics (with me actually wearing the costume) to come, I promise.