The month of October is all about scary movies, jack o'lanterns, and Halloween costumes. Whether you’re grabbing something from Spirit Halloween or thrifting a costume, we’re all thinking about what we’ll be wearing on October 31st. For some people, though, costumes are on the mind all year long.

In honor of Spooky Season we interviewed Anna Glowacki, a costume designer by trade, to learn about her fantastical world of creating custom costumes year round. Of course, Halloween is the busiest time of the year for Anna but it doesn’t stop there. This costume connoisseur shared insight into everything from design inspiration to textiles to her own care tips. You can hardly call Anna’s costumes DIY, but she certainly made them herself.

Anna Glowacki has been in the costume design industry for almost 18 years. As a little girl, she wanted to be one of two things: a fashion designer or mermaid. She began sewing clothes for her dolls at a very young age and eventually went to college for fashion design. While studying fashion, Anna realized she was drawn to costumes over fashion, as her designs tended to be more conceptual and less “sellable” than typical fashion designs.
"The Garden Party Gal" Photo by April Love Photography

“I’ve always liked the one-of-a-kind-ness of costume design,” says Anna. “The way I can make one or very few of them and not have to worry about mass production. Instead they just have to tell a story on a stage or on a person.”

After designing for theater for several years, Anna found her niche in designing for movement and began working with circus and dance companies. She was soon getting requests from professional clowns, wrestlers, and ballroom dancers.

“Sometimes with theater you have a text or script that you really have to fit into the character. My designs were a bit crazy and wild, so some directors would tell me I was a little too nuts for them. When I started designing for circus and dance shows they were often all about what the performer was wearing. That’s where I started getting more and more inspired.”
"The Queen of Spades" Photo by Andy Marfia Photography

Anna isn’t scared of working with different types of fabrics and textiles. “I’m always into what’s new and interesting,” she says. “I love to see what new fabrics are out there and anything that’s different from what I’ve seen before.”

So what are some of the up-and-coming materials that Anna has noticed at fabric stores? Neoprene (the material used to make wetsuits), stretch leather spandex, and lace with unusual cutouts - to name a few.

“I’ve been seeing different types of lace out there with different cutouts,” says Anna. “Lace used to be just florals but now I’m seeing things like vinyl cutouts on top of lace or different textures and patterns. I recently made a costume for someone where the lace had a branch design on it instead of flowers.”

Anna finds inspiration from everywhere, but especially from nature and animals. When she’s designing for a specific era, she goes beyond just looking at the fashion trends from that time period. “If someone wants to get a 1920s costume made, I won’t just go look at images of 1920s flapper costumes. I’ll go back and look at the decade and the architecture and art deco designs and colors that were used. I try to look at the whole picture.”
"The Ice Queen" Photo by Kirsten Miccoli

Anna has learned plenty of clothing care tips throughout the years behind the scenes. Her nightmare fabric to clean is white spandex or satin. Anna suggests that if you get a stain on these materials, don’t bother trying to spot treat them because the stain will just run down the entire garment. Instead, you need to go ahead and wash the whole thing.

One of Anna’s favorite costume creations of all time is her Viking Ice Queen, a character on stilts that serves food at corporate parties. For this costume, Anna made a giant hoop skirt out of crushed plastic made to look like ice and giant shoulder pieces that appear iced over. She also goes all out on her own Halloween costumes. This year, Anna will be dressed up as an interactive human coloring book. Her costume will feature long kimono sleeves that open up like a book, allowing trick-or-treaters to color in the pattern.

Halloween is all about dressing up in fun outfits that you might not be able to wear on a day-to-day basis. It gives us all a break from our normal wardrobes and is the one night of the year where we can transform into another character. On November 1st we’ll pack our costumes away (read our care tips on how to keep your Halloween outfits fresh), unless you’re Anna Glowaki who will be busy sewing her next big thing.
"The Ice Queen and her Minions" Photo by Kirsten Miccoli

We believe in taking care of your clothes so they can last a lifetime. In that pursuit, we’ve partnered with Storey, an innovative digital wardrove app, to help extend the lifespan of your wardrobe and advocate for more sustainable fashion. Do you ever feel like you have nothing to wear, yet your closet is overflowing and your dresser drawers are too stuffed to shut properly? We’ve been there, and Storey has created a solution.

What is Storey?

Storey is on a mission to digitize wardrobes in order to make your clothes more wearable, shareable, searchable, re-sellable. It’s basically the modern version of Cher’s virtual wardrobe in Clueless. You can upload your entire wardrobe, create collections, and connect with other fashionistas.

Storey gives you easy access and full visibility of what you own so you don’t accidentally repurchase something you already have in your closet, and helps track what you wear the most often. Did you know most of us don’t wear at least 50% of our wardrobes? If you’ve been interested in starting a capsule wardrobe, downloading Storey is a great place to start. They also leverage technology that encourages you to be more thoughtful and creative with the clothes in your closet through their outfit recommender engine. This community also helps promote sustainable fashion by letting you list items for sale (or borrowing) on your profile, while documenting their journey through circularity. 

Meet Ellie

Ellie Baer is a business professional based in San Francisco with an eye for fashion. She’s on the road a lot, visiting new cities almost every weekend. Ellie is passionate about curating her wardrobe and adamant about bringing her most special, beautiful pieces wherever she goes. In other words, she doesn’t pack lightly. At the end of the day, she wants the items she spends hours researching, curating, and purchasing to last a lifetime. Ellie, a fashion icon in our eyes, answered a few of our burning questions about life, travel, and fashion. Be sure to follow Ellie on Storey (@Ellie Baer) so you can admire her gorgeous wardrobe and travel escapades!

What do you love about living in San Francisco? 
San Francisco is an exceptionally special place to me. Aside from the fact that I was born in SF and spent my childhood down the Peninsula, San Francisco and the broader Bay Area are like nowhere else in the world. The city itself is alive with light and energy - from some of the most exceptional chefs in the world, to unique exhibits at the many cultural institutions that highlight the diversity and color that this area is so unique for, to the thrilling underground music scene. The culture of creativity, openness, and adventure is apparent in everyone who chooses to take up residence here. Beyond the city itself, the Bay Area has world class golfing in Pebble Beach, breathtaking views on Marin County hikes, award winning wine country in Healdsburg and beyond, and the coastline is dotted with charming towns with their own eclectic histories and activities. It’s a place where you can do anything you want, with perfect weather, all year round. As I mentioned - lots to love!

What your favorite thing about traveling?
My favorite thing about traveling is absolutely building a community wherever I go. I spend a lot of time making friends with locals and other travelers with similar interests. Whether I end up visiting again and making plans with those I meet or not, I deeply appreciate understanding different cultures and sharing experiences with strangers. Being a tourist and being a traveler are markedly different things, and I work to make sure I am never the former. I spend huge amounts of time curating travel lists (as all of my friends know, I am very generous with my 80 or so Google Maps lists when requested!) and delight in finding hidden gems across the world that I can share with my networks. 

What is the best destination you've traveled to recently?
We recently traveled to Placencia in Belize which was an incredible trip I would recommend to everyone (and often do!). We spent our days among the wildlife - bird watching, boating down the “Monkey River” in search of howler monkeys and manatees, snorkeling with nurse sharks and rays, and on a rainy day, making new friends at a local bowling alley and playing lots (and I mean LOTS) of rummy 500. Lately we’ve been excited by the adventure of ecotourism after a few years of some admittedly less outdoorsy locales (think Saint Tropez, Tulum). We hope to check out some wildlife in Kenya next.

How would you describe your personal style?

I think a lot about how to capture my style and have gone through a myriad of ways to try and put myself into a more manageable box. I've done the Kibbe Body Type test to understand what shapes flatter me best (soft classic, with longer lines and silhouettes), the "three word method" to attempt to distill my essence (I can never choose three - somewhere between polished, playful, feminine, elegant, and dramatic), and seasonal palettes to stick to colors that look best with my skin tone (warm/deep spring, leaning towards lighter neutrals and greens). All of this, of course, flies out the window when I find something that speaks to me - often in the wrong color, a shape that doesn't flatter me, and something entirely incompatible with the rest of my wardrobe. But for me, style is supposed to be fun, unexpected, and though maybe we all reach for certain shapes, colors, and styles - at its core - I really love playing dress up. I love to wear my glossy custom cowboy boots when I spend summer nights in Park City, and dress like a 1950's flight attendant when I'm in Italy. I don't care if something doesn't flatter me if wearing it makes me smile.

Where are some of your favorite places to shop for clothes?
I tend to gravitate to certain brands based on the season and activity. For summer, I lean towards Zimmermann, Agua Bendita, Ulla Johnson, and Johanna Ortiz. Spring, I love Chloe, Aime Leon Dore, Celine, and Gucci. Autumn, I spend a lot of time in Maje, Sandro, ALC, and Ralph Lauren. And winter I'm in Jenni Kayne, Frame, Acne, Sezane, Allsaints, and Valentino. I think Ronny Kobo makes gorgeous wedding guest attire, and I'm a sucker for Prada and Gucci shoes. I spend a lot of time (and money) at The Real Real on vintage, and love supporting friends who make gorgeous clothing and jewelry (By Fede makes all of my summer jewels, and Sullivan makes the cutest neutral sets).

What’s your favorite piece in your wardrobe right now?
The item I have been reaching for seemingly every day is my white Gucci Jackie bag, which a friend aptly commented is "Ellie in bag form." The silhouette is classic and sophisticated, and since I wear tons of lighter colors throughout the year, it has become a bag I can't stay away from. As fall approaches, I know I'll be reaching for my favorite Acne coat, which I searched obsessively for after ordering last year, and received an email letting me know it was out of stock. It's the perfect long, loose silhouette that balances slimmer evening wear, and adds something unexpected to more casual street style.

Do you have any packing tips?
I will scream from the rooftops how much I love using Storey for putting together packing lists when I leave for a trip. I pride myself on packing well, and finding modular ways to wear pieces in different ways when I travel. I don't fully subscribe to the idea of capsule wardrobes, but that may just be since I'm not very good at or interested in wearing basics. Traveling provides a great opportunity to find, say, four new ways to wear something you may not have reached for in the last year and falling in love all over again with a piece you used to love. I try never to bring more than five pairs of shoes and four bags, even if I'm gone for as long as two or three months. Those are the pieces that end up being challenging to travel place-to-place with, but this is always tough for me given a collection of both I am incredibly proud of. More specific tips include: a scarf can also be used as a shirt in about 30 ways in the summer with the right necklace to hold it up. Always pack bags within other, larger bags. Keep a travel bag ready of all of your toiletries and travel-size versions of your makeup, and keep jewelry packing simple aside from one or two statement pieces (if you bring more, you'll never wear them).The one rule my partner and I abide by is to NEVER forget a swimsuit, no matter the location.

Are you as obsessed as we are? Go find @Ellie Baer on the Storey app! Then upload your own wardrobe so that your closet can reach its full potential. Finally, don’t forget to use Rinse to dry clean your most loved pieces so they last a lifetime! Storey members who create a Rinse account will receive a $50 credit towards extending the longevity of your wardrobe.

It’s that time of year where suitcases get swapped for briefcases. Summer vacation is over, school is back in session, and many of us are returning to the office. As the weather cools down and work heats up, it’s important to get back into a solid routine. That’s easier said than done, so we’ve gathered some action items to help you transition back to the grind.

Save Time With Subscription Services

There are never enough hours in the day to balance work, school, and managing the household. This juggling act is especially difficult as you switch out of vacation mode and head back to the office after an extended period of working remotely. One of the best ways to make this transitional period easier is to automate your life with subscription services. These three subscriptions are sure to help you save time and energy that could be spent working out, impressing your boss, or just getting some much needed beauty sleep.

1. Rinse Repeat
   You saw this one coming! Laundry: one of the most despised chores. Let’s be real, you’ve got more important things to do with your time than laundry. With a Rinse Repeat subscription, we’ll pick up your laundry or dry cleaning and deliver it back to you clean and ready to wear. Just throw your dirty clothes in the bag and we’ll take care of it. Learn more about our Rinse Repeat plans and save 3+ hours a week.
    
2. Meal Prep Subscriptions
   Stop worrying about what’s for dinner when you sign up for a meal prep subscription. Spend less time grocery shopping and meal prepping when you join a subscription such as HelloFresh, which delivers step-by-step recipes and fresh ingredients to your doorstep. Picture it now: a Wednesday night to yourself with no laundry to fold and minimal kitchen clean up.
    
3. Productivity Subscriptions
   You probably use productivity tools at work, but why not incorporate them into your personal life as well? Subscriptions like Evernote help keep you on track as a place to save notes, manage tasks, and stay organized. Keep your calendar, notes, and to-do lists synced so you can get your routine on point and save time by keeping everything in one organized virtual space.

Use That Extra Time to Get Active

Now that summer travel is winding down, it’s time to get back into a fitness routine. With those extra hours you’re saving on trips to the dry cleaners or grocery shopping, you get time back for physical activity. One great way to ease back into an exercise regime is yoga, which offers endless benefits for both the body and mind. Or you can use those 3 hours you saved with Rinse Repeat to go for a hike, because the only mountain in your life should be one you’re climbing, not a heap of dirty clothes. Perhaps you want to try something new, like Barry’s Bootcamp, the international gym that’s all the rage this season. Barry’s incorporates running and weight training in their famously red-light studios. However you decide to get active, exercise endorphins will help alleviate your post-vacations blues and kick start your routine.

More Tips To Help Optimize Your Routine

Everyone wants to be the best, most successful, healthiest version of themselves. Here are a few more underestimated tricks to get you back into a troutine.

• Make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Being well rested can make all the difference in your day, so be sure you’re sticking to a consistent bedtime routine and getting at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
• Don’t forget to drink plenty of water. The general rule of thumb is that you should halve your body weight and drink at least that many ounces of water per day.
• Take your vitamins. Now that you’ll be spending more time indoors, give your immune system a boost by starting up a vitamin regime. Start with a multivitamin to improve your overall health and check with your doctor to see where you might have deficiencies.
• Try journaling. Take a few minutes before you start or end your day to get some thoughts down on paper. How are you feeling? What goals do you want to achieve? What are you grateful for?
• Test out a meditation app. HeadSpace or Calm are great options to help decompress after a long day through guided meditation.

It’s easy to gloss over these general knowledge tips, but they can make all the difference in your energy levels, and you’re going to need all the time and energy you can get to master your post-summer routine. Read more about subscriptions that are worth every penny (in our humble opinion) to help reclaim your day. These investments will help you get back to the grind and stay happy, healthy, and hustling!

Today is National Working Parents Day, which is a day to pay tribute to all parents, working or not, who are caring for their families. In the wake of COVID-19, this year’s Working Parents Day is especially important to celebrate.

The ongoing pandemic has disrupted the lives of parents across the country by forcing them to work from home all while managing their children’s remote school day.

For many, this is a massive change. The new norm of remote work and school is causing stress and additional challenges. If you’re a parent that is trying to balance your new life at home, just know you’re not alone.

On this special day, Rinse wanted to help parents who are trying to navigate these new challenges by sharing tips and tricks from Rinse customers who are parents.

Tips & Tricks to Navigate the Challenges of Managing Work and School at Home

Below are some of the top tips and tricks from our customers!  

Find Balance and Stay Focused

1. If you have space, make sure to set up private areas for study and work to help with concentration. Sean M., San Francisco
2. The thing that has helped me the most with managing my new normal is the iPad to entertain my kid while I’m in a Zoom meeting. I also created her own workspace for learning, playing, or for art/creative hour. Alexa helps with setting timers and reminders to keep our day on schedule. And we’ve used UberEats, Caviar, and Instacart for either breakfast lunch, or dinner. Basically any kind of home delivery service has been essential for us. - Crystal O., San Francisco

Create Structure and Accountability

1. At the start of each day, I meet with my daughter for 5 minutes and we go over her schedule and what she needs to do. We write it on the whiteboard and when she's done she puts a checkmark. Then when I have a break between meetings I can see her progress and ensure she hasn't forgotten anything. - Bonnie S., San Francisco
2. Structure in me and my daughter’s daily life is a big help. Making sure we have our own spaces to work and all the tools we need. - Terrence B., San Francisco

Discover New Tools and Services That Free Up Time

1. We use outschool.org, they hire trained teachers to teach virtual classes of all topics and levels. The classes are one-off or in a series and they're a great way to keep a child entertained and learning while not in school or engaged with school activities so that my husband and I could work. - Katherine D., Washington D.C.
2. Removing the laundry from our housework helps significantly with the quality of life. As parents, we can spend more time playing with kids, and it’s less stressful. We can not live in the pandemic without Rinse. - Koji K., San Francisco
3. Having Rinse to do laundry has helped tremendously during COVID-19. I'm able to focus on my work and my daughter's school which has been very helpful. - Alicia V., Los Angeles

Breathe Deep and Accept Imperfection

1. You don't have to do it all. If the kids watch YouTube at 10 am, don't stress. If you can't finish your work because you've chased your kids, don't worry. - Amanda P., San Francisco
2. Let go of high expectations for yourself and the kids. It's too much to expect us to perform as we did when working in-person. Three video calls a day is a lot. - Crystal M., Rinse San Francisco

The team at Rinse would like to wish all parents the best as they continue to persevere through these uncertain times! 

Have laundry or dry cleaning to do?

Rinse picks up, cleans and delivers 7 days a week. Amazingly awesome. Ridiculously simple.

Try Rinse

Every parent right now is tasked with the tough decision of how to educate their children this fall. Whether you choose distance learning, going back to school, a learning pod, or a combination of these, the risk of germs being spread is still a concern. Squelch any fears of bringing the virus into your home by setting up a disinfecting zone now.

We asked the home organizing experts at NEAT Method to share tips on how you can make disinfecting simple and fill your home with joy, not germs, this school year.

Choose a Location

You’ll want to locate your disinfecting station near the entry in your home that is used most frequently. If you’re lucky enough to have a garage, you might consider locating dirty items just outside the garage door, so anything that needs to be washed is contained in the garage until it can be cleaned.

Gather Supplies

Masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and whatever else you choose to place in your station should be gathered together and sort it by type. Make sure you have extras on hand. This is one area where we fully support a back stock supply. Just make sure you don’t buy more back stock than you have room to easily store. Creating additional clutter will likely cause more chaos, and that’s the last thing you want.

Keep it Separate

Place your categories where you want them to “live”, making sure to create separate areas for clean and dirty items such as reusable masks. Consider hanging one Command hook per family member on a nearby wall for clean masks, and a bin below for dirty ones. If you choose to have your children change clothes when coming home, add a hamper as well.

If you need it, Rinse is here to pick up, clean/disinfect, fold, and deliver your laundry - 7 days a week. Feel free to learn more about our cleaning procedures in response to COVID-19 here.

Contain & Label

You may need to repurpose a small end table or bookshelf to corral all your supplies, if you’ve chosen an entryway with no existing storage. If purchasing an organizer makes sense, we like this rolling cart. Place each category in its own easy wipe bin. Don’t forget to add labels to keep everyone in your family on the same page and to avoid mixing clean and dirty categories. Make sure they are visible and fool proof.

With a dedicated zone in place for disinfecting germy surfaces and hands that enter your home, you can breathe easy if going back to school is what you ultimately decide. Rinse and the folks at NEAT Method have got your back no matter what!

Feeling like you’re in a COVID-caused rut? What you put on every morning may have something to do with it. We went to Nicole Chiu-Wang, style expert and previous co-founder of Boon + Gable, a fashion technology startup that connected customers with personal stylists, for advice to break out of your funk and sweatpants at the same time.

What are you wearing right now? What have you been wearing for the last four months of working from home? Have you considered that what you’re wearing while you work from home might be affecting your emotional state - and not in a good way?

When Shelter-in-Place was announced in mid-March, many of us settled in for what we thought might be a month or six weeks max at home. For those working from home, this often meant video meetings and, so began the COVID-19 work-from-home uniform equivalent of a mullet. Instead of “business in the front, party in the back”, this work-from-home uniform consists of comfy yoga pants (or some similar athleisure / pajama pants) on the bottom paired with business casual on the top.

Now, most of us are going on four months working from home and it is starting to take its toll. While your new work uniform sounds like a perk of working from home, it may actually be contributing to your less than sunny mood.

How do I know this? I’ve been working as a personal stylist for almost a decade and have dressed hundreds of people. I founded Boon + Gable, a personal styling and shopping service, to take the pain out of shopping and to give more people access to the help of a personal stylist. Over the 4+ years we operated, Boon + Gable stylists shopped for more than a thousand women and men in the SF Bay Area and New York City. What I’ve learned from helping this many people get dressed is that it’s never really about the clothes - it’s about how the clothes make us feel about ourselves. It’s pretty simple - if you love what you’re wearing, it will help you feel better about yourself.

Here is my list of the top four things you can do to get out of your work-from-home funk and start feeling better about yourself:

1 - Shop your own closet

While it’s tempting to shop all the online sales and purchase yet another pair of stretchy pants, look no further than your own closet to find something to wear that will instantly make you feel more like your pre-pandemic self. Pull out something that used to make you feel your best, that you were saving for a special occasion, or that reminds you of the great times when you wore it in the past. Wear it on your next walk around your neighborhood or your next essentials trip to the grocery store and remind yourself who you were before Shelter-in-Place.

2 - Upgrade your yoga pants

The double-edged sword of yoga pants - they’re so comfy and yet four months in, you may find wearing them around the clock is taking a toll on your self-esteem. The good news is you don’t have to sacrifice comfort to feel better about yourself when it comes to what you wear on your unseen bottom half during your video meetings. Try splurging on a pair of cashmere joggers - they’re just as comfortable (I’d argue they’re more comfortable) as yoga pants and the cashmere softness is so luxurious. And if you find that cashmere joggers are your new favorite thing, you may want to go all the way and invest in a cashmere jumpsuit or a cashmere hoodie to pair with your joggers. On the other hand, if cashmere makes you itchy, opt for fleece-lined joggers!

3 - Splurge on a silk scarf

In April, every magazine from People to Vogue was touting how to turn your favorite silk scarf into a face mask. YouTube videos abound showing how to DIY a face mask from a silk scarf. Have you always wanted a beautiful silk scarf à la Hermes and the like? Well, now you have two excuses to splurge on a fancy silk scarf - you can spice up your video calls with it tied around your neck (or in your hair) and you can turn it into a super practical yet beautiful face mask!

4 - Dress up for yourself

As we hunker down at home for the rest of 2020 and potentially beyond, you may be planning more socially distanced gatherings with friends - from picnics in the park to front yard happy hours and 6-feet apart walks. Whether you buy something new to wear or shop your own closet, make the proactive choice to dress up and do it for yourself. I promise you won’t regret it and you’ll feel better for doing it.

Despite our desire for 2020 to be over, we have a ways to go. Prioritize your mental health and practice the self care of getting dressed. At a minimum, feeling good in what you’re wearing is definitely going to help your disposition and you may even find that following the tips above is actually fun - which we could all use more of in our lives right now.

So, what are you going to wear tomorrow? Not sure? Shoot me a note!

About the author: Nicole Chiu-Wang previously co-founded Boon + Gable, a fashion technology startup. She now works in Product at Google and continues personal styling clients as her side hustle.