Everyday Halloween Chic

The nights are getting longer, the crisp chill is in the air and we are all reaching for layers over - and under – those lush pieces of lingerie of ours. This can only mean one thing – that Halloween is upon us!

We are firm believers that lingerie should not be just for the boudoir, but also to be flaunted; happily incorporated into creative and fun outerwear creations! And so, we think that the spirit of Halloween can be enjoyed throughout the year, bringing spoopy inspiration to everyone’s outfits and lingerie drawers all year around. There is just no denying the long-standing links between horror and the macabre and a dark, lustful sexuality, an aspect of Halloween that can influence your sartorial choices throughout the year.

Saimhain, with its ushering of the end of summer and summoning of winter – season of passing and marking of the day when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest – can indeed seem to some as too macabre to celebrate more than once annually. But passing also means rebirth and making anew, as well as a celebration of life, most notably with Mexico's El dío de los muertes, as just one example among countless other societies celebrating a variation of the festival. In spirit of such rich and diverse celebration, it feels only natural to want to embrace an aspect of that creative artistry beyond one day.

The history of fashion inspired by the darker side of life is a long and hugely inspiring one, from Victorian mourning fashion, to the campness of Hammer Horror, to McQueen’s macabre yet beautiful "Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims" collection among countless similar examples, fashion has never failed to draw inspiration from the macabre, reinventing itself and creating something anew. Sweeping capes, witchy wide-brimmed hats, blood-red lips or sharp tailoring of The Hunger – whether you choose to channel a classic vampire, a Universal Monster or a tragic Hollywood starlet of times gone past this Halloween, there is a way to carry a token of this inspiration with you throughout the coming months.

In opposition to the homogenised, and frequently unimaginative, high-street standard of cheap plastic horns and boring, sparkly kitty ears, Halloween inspiration does not have to be all about the tired tropes of “sexy” witches or over-done vampires. Inspiration from the darker side can be as subtle, or as dramatic, as you like.

Black lingerie beats consumer preference polls time after time, and is indeed a great nod to the dark sensuality for sure, but inspiration can also be found in rich, bejeweled velvet tones, lashings of decadent, delicious lace, sumptuous devore and playful details such as tassels, or a hint of retro glamour, as well as countless variations of everything in between. Most importantly, it can be called upon to spice up your style whatever the season.

As someone who draws style inspiration from absolutely everything around me – from modern street fashion and glamorous haute couture to the fantastical, future-noir, as well as nostalgia of bygone era vintage, films and art, and of course, the endless possibilities of lingerie styling – few things offer as much scope for creativity, artistry and self-indulgent, or over-the-top inventiveness than the myriad of possibilities offered up by the dark yet endlessly enticing celebration that is Halloween. Because who does not associate the dark with tempting, sensual allure?

Spooky Selfie Competition: #spookyinplayful

We loved seeing all the entrants for our previous spooky selfie competition, and seeing as Halloween is dress up season, we thought we'd run another!

To give you more than enough time (and to prolong Halloween as much as possible), we thought we'd start the competition now, and end it on November the 13th.

We will pick THREE winners, each winning a £75 voucher.

Here's the rules:

1. Follow Playfulpromises on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter (depending on where you plan to post your selfie)

2. Post a spooky selfie (or have a friend take the photo, but it cannot be a professional studio/boudoir shoot) on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter with at least one piece of Playful Promises, Bettie Page or Peek & Beau lingerie or clothing on show*

3. #spookyinplayful and #prettyinplayful so we can see your entry.

* you needn't show your face in the image, and you can also do some creative layering of lingerie with outerwear should you wish. Creativity with styling and composition is what we are looking for, and you can have anything from our current or past collections included. Check out our Shop Instagram page for ideas

By entering the competition you are giving us permission to repost your selfie (with credit) on our social media. You can enter as many different photos as you wish, however they must be a completely different outfit combination each time. Winner's vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

Join in our spooky selfie competition!

We loved seeing all the entrants for our previous selfie competition, and seeing as Halloween is dress up season, we thought we'd run another!

To give you more than enough time (and to prolong Halloween as much as possible), we thought we'd start the competition now, and end it on November the 11th.

This time we will pick THREE winners, each winning a £75 voucher.

Here's the rules:

1. Follow Playfulpromises on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter (depending on where you plan to post your selfie)

2. Post a spooky selfie (or have a friend take the photo, but it cannot be a professional studio/boudoir shoot) on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter with at least one piece of Playful Promises or Peek & Beau lingerie or clothing on show*

3. #spookyinplayful and #prettyinplayful so we can see your entry.

* you needn't show your face in the image, and you can also do some creative layering of lingerie with outerwear should you wish. Creativity with styling and composition is what we are looking for, and you can have anything from our current or past collections included. Check out our Shop Instagram page for ideas

By entering the competition you are giving us permission to repost your selfie (with credit) on our social media. You can enter as many different photos as you wish, however they must be a completely different outfit combination each time. Winner's vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

Halloween Giveaway!

We are giving away a spoooooky goodie bag full of tasty lingerie, worth over £150, perfect for a Halloween dress up session!

To be in with the chance of winning this naughty bag of goodies, we want to hear about the WILDEST Halloween costume you can think of, including a piece from Playful Promises!

It doesn't have to be an existing costume, perhaps just an outrageous idea. Remember: extra points for a bit of cheekiness!

Leave your idea in a comment below, competition ends on Friday 16th October at 10am GMT

 (Competition open internationally)

Shop our Halloween Lookbook!

Victorian Spiritualism: Supporters and Sceptics

For this year’s Halloween shoot, we decided to take inspiration from the Victorians, and their strange obsession with the spirits of the dead!

In the previous post we looked at the rise of spiritualism and how it can be considered an important time for women’s rights; this time we'll look at the Spiritualist "celebs" and sceptics.

By the 1860s spiritualism had become a part of British Victorian culture, drawing in devotees all across the social spectrum, from Queen Victoria herself to the poor. There were spiritualist newspapers (The British Spiritualist Telegraph, Medium and Daybreak, Two Worlds and more) and societies (The Spiritualist Association of Great Britain, The Spiritualists’ National Union and more), with London having a great number of societies itself. 

With a little imagination and a repertoire of supernatural skills, mediums became celebrities. It was a calling for the theatrical of nature, with each medium able to channel different entities, each with a distinct personality. They could be aggressive, such as Annie Fairlamb's male spirit, Sam, repeatedly hitting a male guest until he guessed his name correctly. Others were flirtatious, such as Elizabeth d'Esperance's manifestation of Yolande, a girl who kissed and caressed her sitters. 

With the freedom from corsets and such an enclosed space, it was no wonder that these "spirits" were often quite sexual in their interactions; a famous example being the young and pretty Florence Cook and her manifestations of Katie King. A name that had cropped up in various séances up to 20 years prior, Katie King was said to be the daughter of Henry Owen Morgan, a long-dead pirate (who was never said to have a daughter, but would crop up in séances himself to prove this fact). In 1872 the female spirit announced that she would stay with Florence for 3 years, attempting to make herself visible via ectoplasm drawn from Florence's body. Soon Katie was fully formed, and could interact with the living world as an incredibly material form, sitting on laps, touching and on one occasion revealing her naked form. Funnily enough, she looked very similar to Florence, despite the medium being "tied up" inside a cabinet, yet none in Cooks' circle seemed to want proof of the two being separate beings. 

Others were more than dubious that such a flesh-and-blood manifestation could be conjured. On December 9 1873, a skeptical sitter, William Volckman, grabbed "Katie" by the wrist and waist in a fit of anger. Guests wrestled Volckman away, but not without the spirit ripping away a chunk of his beard, which furthered his belief that it was Florence in his grasp. Witnesses claimed that Katie King had vanished into thin air, and Florence was found still bound inside the cabinet. Volckman published his opinion, fueling the critics, while supporters denounced him for breaking the proper etiquette required in a séance; a delicate spiritual balance which could kill the medium. Funnily enough, Volckman was betrothed to another famous medium, Ms Guppy.

Concerned at this bad PR, Florence Cook approached William Crookes, an eminent scientist that would later be knighted for his work. Crookes had already been investigating various mediums and appeared convinced of the reality of the supernatural, but didn't believe all claims from individuals. They began a series of "private séances", with Florence invited to stay at his home for months on end. The idea was that Crookes would be able to witness both Florence and Katie in a room together, without the possibility of accomplices. An idea that was somewhat difficult to prove when Florence's sister, Kate, also lived in the house. Crookes created 55 photographs of Florence and Katie, although only a few remain today. Many of the photographs, as expected of the technology of the era, were poorly shot and lacked detail but did feature two figures, although only one face was in view, the other wrapped in an "ectoplasmic" shroud. 

Despite Crookes' findings, the skepticism grew; it was suggested that the two were having an affair, what with her being a pretty young woman, alone in his house. It's not unlikely, Crookes was clearly enamored with Florence, writing: "Photography was inadequate to depict the perfect beauty of Katie’s face, as words are powerless to describe her charm of manner. Photography may, indeed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever varying expression of her most mobile features?" Bet his wife (expecting her 10th child!) was happy with that.  Did this infatuation allow him to be easily duped, or did he begin to assist in her fraudulence? 

In 1875, Katie announced she would be leaving Florence, and said her final goodbyes. With the spirit gone, there was no need for Florence to continue investigations, and she revealed to Crookes that for two months she had been secretly married to a man named Edward Corner. She left her position as a medium for 6 years, only returning to manifest a new spirit, Marie. Eventually, another dubious sitter, Sir George Sitwell, noticed that the "spirit" wore a corset underneath her robes, grabbed hold of her and pulled aside the curtain covering Florence. An empty chair spelled the end of Florence's career, and she vanished into obscurity. 

William Crookes received overwhelming criticism over his investigations, and soon ceased the research, although he remained a supporter until his death. Despite this, his scientific career was a long and distinguished one, including a knighthood. Shockingly, he wasn't the only logical thinker to be drawn into spiritualism, with another famous supporter being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a medical man and the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle's wife, Jean, was a medium and he himself supported some outrageous claims, including two young girls who had claimed to photograph the Cottingley Fairies (they were actually paper cut outs). Doyle virtually abandoned Sherlock Holmes, and began writing books on spiritualism instead, clashing with the skeptical Harry Houdini, who argued that all spiritualism "evidence" was just cheap tricks.