Capsule #71 ft. Zing Tsjeng

Hello!

Hope your weeks have been okay. 🖤 And thank you to everyone who shared their lists of things they like with me - it was so nice to read them on my return, in that post-holiday, coming-to-terms-with-real-life-again phase.

Another thing bringing joy: the Halloween vibes everywhere, and so I’ve pulled together 10 costume ideas for you below. Very 2024, very zeitgeisty, some genuinely very easy and comfortable.

Also super excited to welcome Zing Tsjeng to the Hot & Not this week — make sure you scroll, it’s a great one.

Holly x

P.S. if your email gets clipped as there are a lot of images this week, click read online in the top corner.

Should you care about Halloween?

Halloween feels like a bigger deal at certain points in your life, like when you’re 19 and going to a party where the person you fancy will be, or if there are young kids in your family who want to go trick-or-treating. Beyond that, there are years of varying interest - there may be no party to go to, no cash leftover to sort a costume, or a bit of general life fatigue. I often fall into this gap, most excited to see what the 1% celebrities will show up as in their photoshoots for Instagram. But something different happened this year, which is that I just returned from the US, where Halloween is BIG.

The first few suburban houses I saw with crazy decorations - skeletons taller than the house itself, grim reapers emerging from picket fences, not one pumpkin but families of them - felt wild to me. How do they have the time? The money? What jobs do they do? Did they pay someone to do this for them? How much?

Yet the more I saw, and especially on seeing more homemade, DIY attempts at spooky decor, my feelings shifted. It felt life-affirming to see people care about something. The intentions may well be rooted in neighbourhood competition or the product of seeing a hundred ads and discounts, but the outcome is still one that signals a gladness towards being alive.

And so here we are: I think it’s cool to care about Halloween in the same way it’s cool to care about any occasion and make an effort. Rather than watching from afar and questioning why, I say, why not? What else will you do with that time?

Now you’re on board. What do you wear?

There are so many ways to come at this and the classics are always good (Wednesday Addams, all sexy cats are valid, ghosts are surprisingly chic). But this is Capsule so we are here to bring you the pop culture inspiration for this year. Let’s go…

1) Chappell Roan

We’ve talked all year about the rise of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, and here are two popstars with such a clear aesthetic. Chappell even advises gig goers on what to wear. These guides are ready made for you! Here is some inspo for the Midwest princess edition.

Links: Weekday top, Jaded cargos, Von Dutch hat, Skims bra, Urban Outfitters bag

2) Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter feels like this year’s Ariana Grande costume. Knee high boots, blow out hair, cherry red kiss marks. Bonus points if you bring along your own Barry Keoghan in an Adidas tracksuit.

Links: Cider dress, Wolf & Badger boots, Next hold-ups, Glossier blusher

3) Charli xcx

Another popstar gift: Charli xcx. Tights, boots, underwear on top, white vest, sunglasses.

Links: Weekday top, Heist tights, Zara boots, makeup tutorial 

4) Billie Eilish - Guess video

Also on the Charli theme, you could be Billie Eilish in the Guess video, with the sideways cap, little glasses, and sports jersey, or go as the mountain of undies.

Links: LA Dodgers hat at End. Clothing, Stradivarius jersey, eBay glasses, ASOS jeans, eBay dog tags

5) Troye Sivan

The final option from the Charli multiverse is Troye Sivan, which Timothée Chalament and boygenius showed us how to easily replicate on SNL.

Links: Urban Outfitters track pants, Weekday top

6) Moo Deng

One news story that felt like a Halloween costume as soon as it came out: Moo Deng. With a silver dress, some hippo ears, and some batshit facial expressions, you’re good to go. 🦛

Links: Urban Outfitters dress, Vagabond shoes, hippo ears

7) Cowgirl Bella Hadid

Next up: Bella Hadid in her horse girl era. It’s not usually easy to look like a Hadid. And yet, with some bootcut jeans, a half-buttoned shirt, cowboy hat, and whatever Western belts/accessories you can get your hands on, you’re good to go. Queue that Shaboozey song to get you in the mood.

Links: New Look shirt, Zara jeans, Urban Outfitters necklace, eBay cowboy hat, Free People belt

8) Wicked

This year’s Barbenheimer: you and a friend, one in pink, one in green. This is very much doable if you’ve left it to the last minute, and is enhanced by a tiara and witch hat.

Links: Cider pink dress, Claire’s tiara, Claire’s opera gloves, ASOS green dress, witch hat, e.l.f metallic eye shadow

9) Lana Del Rey (and her alligator husband)

Links: Lana - Cider dress, eBay veil, Zara shoes. Gator husband - ASOS sweatshirt, Urban Outfitters jorts, Bershka sunglasses, Amazon inflatable alligator 

10) The Substance

If you haven’t seen the film, make time for that! And then choose your avenue: Sue in her show costume if you want to use Halloween for your sexy moment, Elisabeth in the trench coat and big glasses if you want to feel more lowkey. Both are made better with some plastic syringes, which you can reuse for Uma Therman in Pulp Fiction next time around.

Links: Elisabeth - Free People sunglasses, Weekday trench, John Lewis gloves. Sue - eBay leotard, E.l.f metallic eyeshadow, ASOS eyelashes

If you need more ideas to scroll through…

But of course. Directing you to the Capsule Halloween Fit Guides from last year, across three themes:

• History and literature (Joan of Arc is the best)

• Movies (nothing better than the Ladybird pink cast)

• Cartoon characters (you can always pull together a Kim Possible or Spinelli on relatively short notice)

Some closing remarks on Halloween

• The best Halloween songs are by Lady Gaga. Not all playlists will serve this to you. Make sure you are queuing ‘Monster’, ‘Bloody Mary’, and ‘Judas’.

• Painting pumpkins is a fun and less messy way to have fun with decoration.

• A fact: Harley Quinn has been the top most-searched for Halloween costume since 2015.

• And I think Halloween themed food can actually be good. In the UK, the M&S zombie bao buns are worth a try, and in the US, I’m hearing good things about the pumpkin ice cream at Trader Joe’s.

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe this week:

• There are a new set of very charming Loewe campaign pictures

• Olivia Rodrigo finished the GUTS World Tour and announced that the concert film is coming to Netflix next week

• The Charli xcx & Troye Sivan Sweat Tour also concluded this week, and Troye got to be the last Apple girl (the clip is worth your time)

• Luxury is struggggling… Kering’s (Gucci’s parent company) sales are down 16%

• Ayo Edebiri is on the latest cover of Citizen mag, which also features these wonderful photos

• The festival lineup seal has been broken by Primavera and it’s looking good

• This is what Bella Hadid wears to Pilates

• Tom Holland launched his non-alcoholic beer brand, Bero, in New York. Zendaya was there

• SZA and Keke Palmer have made a movie together

• And the Gladiator II press tour started this week. I suspect this is the first of many P Mescal slays we will document here x

This week, Zing Tsjeng popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️…

Zing is a journalist, author and podcaster. You can buy her book Forgotten Women (at responsible bookshops only please!) and listen to her BBC podcast ‘Good Bad Billionaire’ on all good streaming platforms.

📺 Watching: Using this Rotten Tomatoes list of top horror films to choose some to lineup over the next week, which factors in both the critics’ and audience reviews. Also a reminder to watch Andrew Garfield on Chicken Shop Date if you missed it. And the video to the new Addison Rae song of course, which is called ‘Aquamarine’. Look out for the dress from the latest Isabel Marant collection.

📖 Reading: This great essay from Daisy Jones on why The Substance made her feel better about ageing, and this lovely essay from Rayne Fisher-Quann about break ups, autumn, and the pros and cons of narrativising our lives.

🎧 Listening to: What A Relief, the full Katie Gavin solo album, The Great Impersonator, the new Halsey album, and ‘Disease’, the new Lady Gaga song.

In honour of new Addison Rae music video day, Baloo wanted to share that Google search interest in “hair barrette” is at a 5-year high. We also wanted to share that you can win a chic Capsule barrette, just like Addisons, if you share the newsletter with your friends below…

If you’d like to adopt Baloo or one of his friends, click here to learn more.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear how you’re finding Capsule - let me know here. And if you have a friend who might like it, do refer them! 🥺

See you next week 💋

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