A few days ago, I took a trip to the mall and had a fun surprise. Ragstock has their Halloween displays up! Ragstock is a vintage/used clothing store you might remember from last year's blog post. They did a great job with their Halloween decorations last year, and I was hoping they'd do that again. They didn't disappoint! There's something I enjoy about old-timey window displays, especially for Halloween. And I appreciate the creativity that goes into theirs.
...and walking over to the cereal celebrities:
Each movie killer looks like he is standing for his mug shot, holding a sign with his actual name. Hopefully you've all seen Scream if you plan to, because there's a bit of a spoiler here.
There were various feet and hands stuck in the cobwebs above these killers with the message "WANTED"
Oh, I see now. So it's like their mugshots are being shown on America's Most Wanted.
Back to the cereal. So we have a box of "Unlucky Charms" spilling into a bowl here. Note the broken mirror.
The bowl is filled with all sorts of spooky marshmallow shapes, like bones and bats.
Just look at that milk. That's pretty clever, using what looks like some white plastic trash bags.
And a marshmallow skull:
Here we have the unlucky leprechaun with its tin foil spoon. As I guessed, the Lucky Charms cereal leprechaun is named Lucky. So, here's Unlucky:
Remember Toucan Sam? And would you believe it just snapped into my head who the bee is? The Honey Nut Cheerios bee! (I just learned his name is Buzz) I was thinking "Why is there a random bee in the cereal display?" I would have liked to have seen the Trix cereal rabbit! Not that they had any room. But I know they had some rabbit costume parts in the store.
Peering inside the store doors:
The display at the front of the store has a medieval theme, with chain mail shirts axes.
A few crowns for a princess:
And a royal robe:
These boots were in the front window. Pretty wild, hey? I wonder how tall these heels are. Five inches?
The vampire section:
I tried wearing some of those fake individual fangs once. I'm sure they'd look cool if you know how to use them. I guess I didn't, because they kept falling off. This was some time back and I'm trying to remember if there was some double-sided tape involved. Looks like they have some glittery "blood" stickers you can put on your neck.
I got a kick out of this jumpsuit. It has a definite vintage feel. Oh! Remember those backup skeleton characters in the David Pumpkins skit? This reminds me of what they had on.
The hippie section:
I can never pass up taking a photo of a good Bob Ross set. For some reason, these Bob Ross wig and beard sets look different every time. I can see why they included Bob in with the hippie stuff. Oh, I see he's called the "Groovin' Guy" :D
A general view of the store layout:
We're getting into some funny stuff here. OK, check out that shark suit down there.
It looks like there are teeth that go around the wearer's head and neck?
The googly eyes!
Ah, the strange feeling you have when you look at a vintage clothing display and see clothes you may have actually worn.
"Neck Chain" 💎
The totally radical 80s/90s section! This feels like my childhood. Remember Jem and the Holograms? 🌟
These lashes look cool, although I imagine they would be super distracting to wear. I don't know how a lot of women can see with the lashes they wear now. I've always felt like half my vision was obscured when I wore costume lashes. I assume that wearing a pair of bright purple lashes would be extra distracting.
The hair! This is reminding me of a pink wig I had when I was a kid. Wow, black light makeup. I was so looking at her hair that I am only just now noticing what this product is. Hmm... I've never heard of this. I guess it's what it sounds like - bright spots on your face under a black light. That could be cool. I wonder where you could even go to be under a black light now. Again, very 90s.
How fun are these!
This guy cracks me up.
How'd that cow skirt get in there?
I was feeling the fabric on these pants, and as I suspected, they were kind of crinkly. I can only imagine what it would be like to wear these. Crunch Crunch Crunch.
"Faux Real"
A few cute insect items here. I thought these wings looked pretty cool.
And some ladybug tights 🐞
Now we're into the woodland fairy or creature section.
Some of this could be part of a Tinker Bell costume.
She's so serious in her mini antlers!
"Miss Behaved" 💋
See, there are some of those bunny accessories that could go on the Trix rabbit.
Getting into the middle of the store here... I was standing on the side of this rack with the hotdog costume when a man wandered over to the other side, across from me. I heard him say "Where are yoooooou..." And for a minute I was like "Oh here we go" but then I noticed that his little daughter was crouching down hiding next to me. She had the most mischievous look on her face. So I pointed down to her and was laughing. I think that man may have been a little embarrassed, because he didn't even realize I was there.
They had rack after rack like this of used costumes. There were plenty of these fake fur jackets and vests. Again, something for that rabbit costume I have going in my head.
A good Beetlejuice jacket:
OK, these beards are some of my favorite items in the store. "Hunting Beards by Quack Empire" Hmm... Quack Empire = Duck Dynasty. These guys! Especially the one on the right with that black swath of fur kind of hanging off the mustache.
But the ducks are the best part! That duck in the beanie! I wonder if you actually get tiny duck beards and scarves in the package? Probably not, but how great would that be for someone who dresses up their porch goose? Have you guys been seeing more of those porch geese out lately, because I have. I don't know if people have inherited them or what. But they're out there, and each one is dressed sillier than the next. I saw a porch goose dressed as a cob of corn recently.
A much different style of facial hair:
And in other manly accessories... I actually got a baseball cap with this exact pattern on it. It has serious Sherlock vibes.
Another pipe here. Wow, a "real wood pipe"? I wonder.
The cartoon woman on this package! Haha! Who has ever smoked a cigarette like this, even in cartoon form? I don't think I've ever seen fake cigarettes, but I've seen candy cigarettes.
There was a devilish section.
Next to the Angelic section:
Now here's a new one. I have seen a surprising amount of Ghostface masks. My favorite is probably the one I saw at Spirit last year that was covered in pink rhinestones.
I probably would have named the "Gothic Kit" something else, although I'm not sure what.
These sunglasses weren't in with the Halloween stuff, but I thought they were too cool not to share.
I appreciated how they dressed up the checkout counter.
They had some fun little items up near the checkout.
This is my favorite magnet from the counter. Can't you just hear this in George's voice as you read it? I'm hearing him say it right now.
So there we have it! Pretty fun stuff, hey? I love the DIY aspect of this whole store. The way they decorated with vintage clothes, cardboard, and foam. The way there are used clothes and costume accessories that you can piece together to make your own costume creation. It's such an old-fashioned idea. Going in this store reminds me of when I was a teenager, looking for costume pieces at Goodwill. I haven't been in a Goodwill for a while. It would probably be fun to visit one around Halloween and go down memory lane.
