This is my 8th season volunteering at the Salem Haunted Happenings Information Booth (see past stories here). The first outfit I wore on my very first shift has evolved into my traditional, signature first outfit each year, now known as “Ambassador Witch.”

Does anyone still wear a hat?!
It all started with the idea of wanting a pointed witch hat, but one that had a more stylized, ‘masculine’ feel than the commercially available ones. I definitely wanted it to be part of an “outfit” rather than a “costume,” as if it were part of an everyday uniform. I also wanted to challenge myself, as I had no pattern, and had never made a hat before. What began with just the hat expanded to a matching hatband and bowtie (plus matching pocket square on days cool enough for the corduroy sport coat), then I found striped socks and realized I could slide my pants up to my knees to look like knicker and show-off the socks. Voila! Having been worn every year for multiple shifts, the jacket and hat are starting to fade and show some sign of wear-and-tear, and none of the blacks match, but it still feels like putting on an old friend or stepping back into a service uniform after retirement.

New year, new outfit
Each year, I try to add at least one new outfit to the roster, so I have options. Sometimes it is unseasonably warm, or rainy, so outfits were made out of necessity or comfort. Each time I create a new one, I try to push myself and learn a new technique or how to improve on what I have already done. I have three pointed witch hats now – the black one, a green tweed, and an orange flannel. Each one is nearly identical in shape and size, but more refined than the last. In 2021, I decided to finally make a “costume” by recreating Mickey Mouse’s Brave Little Tailor, which wound-up in the 2022 brochure!! Hundreds of thousands of people were walking around with my face in their hands. It was wild.

This year was a tough one, for many reasons you will soon hear about, and designing a new outfit was on the back burner. All of my planned sewing projects for this year were focused on the travel we had planned for the year (our first cruise, a trip to a mid-century-modern themed resort, and a Christmas cruise with my Mother-in-law). I made multiple shirt styles, fitted shorts, bathing suits, and bags for the cruise (cancelled – see below), cabana outfits and bowling shirts (that trip happened and was wonderful), and I began a tropical holiday sport coat that is now on hold, as that cruise was moved to next year. It wasn’t until I had time to breathe in late August that I realized I didn’t have anything new for the booth, and a very full schedule between then and October!

Anticipation and Loss
My husband’s coping mechanism for getting through the 2022-2023 school year was to plan our first cruise for June 2023. He spent hours and hours on research: blogs, message boards, websites, travel agents, booking and rebooking for deals, buying supplies, and planning our outfits. It would be a gross understatement to say this cruise was highly anticipated. As I said, I had made us multiple shirts, shorts, bathing suits, and bags in my free time. We thought we were going until 48 hours before our flight to Texas to meet the ship. That is when my brother, who had been battling cancer, moved to hospice care. We made the decision to cancel the trip (praying our trip insurance would reimburse us some of the cost) and go to Florida to say goodbye to him. We rearranged our luggage, booked new flights, and went directly from the airport to the house to see him, then to a fundraiser for him that was being held at his local bar. We stopped in again to see him the next day where I had a chance to tell him about the wonderful community that had rallied around his family at the bar, and that they would be taken care of – he could stop suffering and let go.

Our flight home was delayed and then cancelled, which would have stranded us in the Fort Myers airport for 3 more days. We were able to find flights out of Orlando for the next day, so we rented the second car of the trip to drive 3+ hours to Orlando to stay overnight. That night, my brother passed. Some other time I can tell you more details of how our 3 day trip turned into being stuck in Florida for 18 days (4 flight cancellations, checked baggage retrieval, 5 rental cars, 6 hotels, a wake, a funeral…. it was a lot).

Losing my brother, only 4 years older than me, was (and is) extremely painful for all of us.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign…
After my Father passed, his way of letting me know he was around was to play a song that had special meaning to us. I remember one really rough commute that made me ornery and angry. I walked into my go-to coffee spot and as I was steaming next to the bakery case trying to decide which muffin to get, Country Roads by John Denver came on. This was a popular spot with students near MIT and usually played more (shall we say) modern music. I immediately stopped fuming, took a breath and whispered “Thanks Dad.” Other out-of-place songs happen whenever I need him, and I know he’s with me.

My brother also had many songs that I immediately equate with him any time I heard them, most of them Neil Diamond classics. This became common knowledge for anyone that met him for more than 10 minutes. At the wake, there were only 3 songs played on repeat: 2 Neil Diamond songs and one that you can probably guess if you noticed the title. Cut to August: I’m frantically trying to think of something I can whip-up for the booth with no success, and out of the blue, this song starts playing in my head:

At first, I thought it was because we had been listening to it at the wake and singing it at the top of our lungs at the bar after the funeral, but it was increasingly insistent and immediately present whenever I thought about October. So thank you, Brother. I hear you loud and clear.

But First, Some History
The song Rhinestone Cowboy (and the movies Rhinestone and The Electric Horseman) would not exist if not for Nudie Cohn. This Ukrainian Jewish refugee is the unlikely father of the Western suits covered in embroidery and rhinestones that are still known as “Nudie Suits.” You can see some examples of his work in the Country Music Hall of Fame, or visit Nudie’s Honky Tonk bar in Nashville, where they have many of his suits on display, along with one of his custom cars!

My Dad was in a country-western band while I was growing up, and while he didn’t wear Nudie suits, he did have fancy Western shirts, ties, and white Chelsea boots that I loved (and wish I still had). We also watched Hee Haw growing up, and I was always drawn to those guest stars with the rhinestones and fringe. These days, I’m obsessed with both Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile, two female Nudie Suit lovers. In fact, I have thought for a long time about recreating one of Dolly’s iconic outfits translated for a man… maybe next year? I am really looking forward to Dolly’s new book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones! Anyway…now we have our inspiration.

Getting a Base Color
I didn’t have enough time to construct and tailor a suit from scratch, and I wasn’t going to use one of my suits, so I went to the internet to find a (relatively) cheap suit in a deep, saturated color. While orange would have been an obvious choice for a Halloween-themed Nudie suit (again, maybe next year?), and my research had shown Nudie suits in mustard yellow, white, hot pink, gold, and black, I was drawn to a deep Royal Blue for my base suit.

King of Shreds and Patches
While I have some very basic embroidery stiches on my sewing machine I’ve used to embellish some of my other booth outfits, and my good friend has a proper embroidery machine, I knew that there wasn’t enough time to make sure it was done properly, so I decided that I would use off-the-shelf iron-on embroidered patches to achieve the right look. The only problem was: what theme?!? Vintage Nudie Suites had cohesive themes – music notes, cowboys, wagons, fire, gambling, even marijuana. I scrolled for hours through hundreds of patches online looking for inspiration. When the suit arrived, I tried it on and envisioned myself covered in patches and rhinestones. I already felt like a peacock.

Aha!

I immediately narrowed my search and grabbed as many different sizes and styles of peacock and peacock feather patches. I also grabbed some elaborate phoenix embroidery pieces and patches of other colorful birds. I bought anything that was a showy, colorful flying creature. I went to Joann’s Fabrics and Crafts and scoured the shelves for more, picking-up some flowered vines and some beautiful moths and butterflies in different colors and sizes. I even picked-up some patches that would be hidden from view. There is a small patch that says “a lil’ bougie” that I put on the left butt cheek of the pants (cheeky!) and “IT IS WHAT IT IS” on the inside of the jacket. During my brother’s time in hospice, his passing, and while we were dealing with travel issues, this last phrase was my go-to response when someone asked how I was doing or how I was coping. I know it’s there against my heart and it reminds me of the inspiration for the suit when I see it.

When I felt like I had more than enough patches, I laid the suit out and started playing with the placement until I was happy with it. When I asked a few friends for advice, I was told “More is always better,” so I got to work ironing and gluing all of the patches on.

One Can Never Have Too Many Shoes or Hats
While the suit was coming together, I knew there was one hurdle that still loomed ahead. Here in Massachusetts, there are not a lot of call for Western clothiers. I have a large head and pretty wide feet, so ordering a cowboy hat or boots online frightened me, especially with the limited time. I didn’t want to have multiple rounds of purchase -> ship -> try on -> return -> repeat. Thankfully, I found a Boot Barn about 75 minutes away just over the border in New Hampshire, and I had one day that I enough free time to drive up and try things on.

I bought the first pair of boots I tried on. They were the ones I was looking for, they came in wide, and they were so comfortable! The same with the hat. Both are a silvery gray color. White hats and boots aren’t truly stark white and would clash with the bright white of some of the patch edges, and I thought black was too somber or had too many bad connotations. I was done shopping in less than 15 minutes, but that 2.5 hour round trip was well worth my peace-of-mind. On the drive up, I had the thought that I should probably look for a flashy belt buckle while I was in the store, as it was something I hadn’t yet planned for. When we walked in the door, my husband turned to me and said “Why don’t you already own that?” walking over to a rack of women’s belts hanging just opposite and pointing to a belt that was ENTIRELY crusted in rhinestones. I obviously bought it and it is the perfect addition to the suit, as was the fancy white Western shirt with pearl buttons I picked-up.

It’s Hard to be a Diamond in a Rhinestone World
As I mentioned before, I’m always trying to learn new techniques, so I look for those opportunities when picking a project. My foray into adding rhinestones to anything was very limited. I quickly learned how to apply hotfix rhinestones a few years ago when my friend asked me to decorate her chemo bag with a purple tiara, and I do own a Bedazzler, though I don’t think I’ve every really used it. Hotfix rhinestones come with a glue already applied to their flat side. You use a special tool, like a wood burning or soldering iron, to press and heat the stone, melting the glue into the weave of the fabric to adhere it. Real Nudie Suits had hand-sewn stones or were typically fastened onto the garment by a pronged setting from the back side of the fabric, like the Bedazzler does. Since all of my patches were affixed with an iron, and because I was putting the stones on an already-constructed garment, I went with hotfix. They may not last forever, but that is OK.

Finishing Touches
Once the patches and rhinestones were set, something was missing. I went back to the source material to try to find what I had missed. In many Nudie Suits, the pockets, lapels, and cuffs are usually trimmed in a contrasting color. With such a richly colored suit, it helps to make these elements pop, rather than blend in, especially on stage, where they were meant to be seen. I found some white satin piping and edged the lapel and the two flap pockets on the jacket. With the white shirt underneath in the front and the white edging on some of the patches on the back, this really brought everything together better than I could have hoped.

I had a hard time choosing whether to have the shirt open at the neck or wear a cravat or a bolo tie. In doing my rhinestone accessory shopping, I came across this rhinestone rope meant to be a hoodie string replacement, and decided to make my own ridiculous rhinestone bolo tie. I grabbed a brooch that looked thematic, glued it to a bolo slide blank, and voila!

For the hat, I found a trim at Joann’s that I stuck on top of the existing band, and secured it with a phoenix brooch from my collection, bringing a little bit of color and theme up to the hat.

For flair (too late!), I sprayed my “Ask Me I’m a Local” button with glitter and glued some extra rhinestones around the edge and added the most important accessory: the rhinestone blue ribbon brooch in remembrance of my brother and his battle with Colon Cancer.

The Reveal
Do you feel like you’re on a baking site scrolling forever through someone’s ramblings and ads when all you wanted was a recipe?!? Sorry. If you’ve made it this far (or just scrolled through pictures), here is the payoff:

I am so happy with how this turned out. I had a vague idea of what it should be, but not a clear design. This is the first time I felt like I was winging-it and designing as I was going. It was freeing, in a way, but also frightening. I second-guessed a lot of my gut reactions and that delayed the process. I was having trouble committing to designs and layouts because I was afraid of messing it up. If I had sat down and drawn-out a fully-fleshed-out design before getting started (as I usually do), it would have been less stressful, and I wouldn’t have bought so many extra patches and stones!

I now have a custom Nudie-style suit and an itch in my soul to bedazzle everything I own…

Thank you, Brother. I love you and miss you.