|
Post by dem bones on May 18, 2018 1:18:49 GMT
Macabre wardrobe malfunctions. When trousers attack. Clothes hate you. My girdle's killing me, etc. D. K. Broster - Couching At The Door. ( The Cornhill Magazine, Dec. 1933). Persecution by feather boa. Frederic Brown - Nasty: ( Playboy, April 1959). The woman is yet to be born can resist a man in the Devil's Speedo's. Martin Mundt - Fashion Victim : (Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, Martin H. Greenberg [eds.], Horrors! 365 Scary Stories , 1998). A cute young trendy shopping for a new retro skirt; "something that screams ABBA, but hipper." Funny, this long, tight multi-coloured number didn't look like bondage gear on the rack .... A short-short proper horror story swimming in pop culture references. Bay City Rollers, Agnetha Fältskog, Gary Glitter, Emma Peel, Catwoman, Carmen Miranda, etc. Damon Knight - Maid To Measure: ( Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct. 1964). How kind of Yana the witches daughter to loan her love rival a skimpy bikini ... Robert Bloch - The Cloak: ( Unknown, May 1939). Henderson hires a swish little something for the Halloween ball. Robert Bloch - The Shoes: ( Unknown Worlds, Feb. 1942). "Hard night. Sold my soul. Killed myself. Smuggled my body into a hotel. Very hard night." By the terms of his bargain with the Devil, the little man can't be killed while wearing his talismatic patent leather shoes. Blast off his head, another, brand new body replaces that which was destroyed, leaving him only to dispose of the corpse. So how is he going to mess it up? Robert Bloch - The Weird Tailor: ( Weird Tales, July 1950). A suit designed to the specifications of a BLACK SORCERER brings murderous life to Erik Conrad's mannequin. 'Tarleton Fiske' (Robert Bloch) - Mystery of the Creeping Underwear: ( Fantastic Adventures, Oct. 1943). A MAD SCIENTIST's serum brings chaos to Mr Fooze's wardrobe. Henry James - The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes: ( Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1868): Oxford Book Of Victorian Ghost Stories, 1991, & loads more). Rosalind finally gets her hands on late sister's finery. Franklin Marsh - Christmas: A Time For Family: ( Vault Advent Calendar, 2017). Olivia Newton John's Physical video has a lot to answer for. Paul Errol - The Woollen Helmet: (Charles lloyd [ed], Nightmares, 1933). Possibly the single most preposterous, un-scary story in the entire Creeps repertoire, which is saying something. Sir Andrew Caldecott - Quintet: ( Fires Burn Blue, 1948). Featuring Mr. Markson, piano-tuner, the man with the poltergeist in his tweeds. Paul Finch - Snow Joke: (Rick Bennett [ed.], Unreal Dreams #5, Dec. 1998; Vault Advent Calendar, 2014). When even your football scarf turns against you. Mary Williams - Pink Knickers: Martha's "glamorous frillies" fail to rekindle a loveless marriage. Husband William reckons they'd look way sexier on his dream girl. Evidently, they do. ( Where Phantoms Stir, 1976) Ramsey Campbell - The Stocking: ( Demons By Daylight, 1973). Sheila's discarded nylon sets Tom off full throttle. Charles Black - Belt Up: ( A Taste For The Macabre, 2018). Fancy dress day at the book store. Chet Williamson - Ants: ( Twilight Zone, July 1987). Isn't it a little hot to be wearing a scarf? Charles Birkin - Henri Larne: Nina Lang buys John husband a thick belt from a Normandy market stall; it's previous owner kicked and beat his wife and infant daughter to death. ( Devils' Spawn, 1936). Later revised and expanded as The Belt. Joseph McCord - The Girdle: ( Weird Tales, Feb. 1927). Woe betide the German infantry when Pelham buckles his wolf-skin belt. John Brunner - Moths. (David Sutton & Stephen Jones [eds.], Dark Voices # 2, 1990). A stark reminder to never let loose a hateful sibling on your wedding dress. Michael Avallone - The Deadly Dress: ( Tales Of The Frightened, 1963). When Dolores Martinez's frock is ruined on the eve of the wedding, Mom spends her last $10 on a cutesy pink number, little realising another girl was buried in it ... A.E.D. Smith - The Coat: (Charles Lloyd [ed.], Powers Of Darkness, 1934). It belonged to a Napoleonic soldier with a vicious streak. A lengthy stint in the grave has done nothing to curb his excesses. H. D. Everett - The Death Mask: ( The Death Mask And Other Ghosts, 1920). The second Mrs. Enderley comes under attack from her deceased predecessor's handkerchief.
|
|
|
Post by cromagnonman on May 18, 2018 14:38:06 GMT
Frank Belknap Long - The Black Druid: (Weird Tales July 1930). Beware collecting the wrong overcoat from the closet of the local library. You just never know who might have been there to consult Lucian Brown's The Cromlech Jeelos before you.
August Derleth - The Inverness Cape: (Weird Tales January 1945). "Mordecai - put it back. Destroy it. For the love of God, don't wear it!"
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on May 18, 2018 15:07:41 GMT
Lots of great stories with this theme - the Broster, Bloch, James, Caldecott, Everett and Belknap Long are all classics. There's something particularly creepy about the whole idea of haunted clothing, at least to me.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on May 19, 2018 18:44:45 GMT
Hugh B. Cave - Dead Man's Belt: ( Weird Tales, May 1933: Murgunstrumm & Others, 1977). A grim story of murder and the sordid lives of those who dwell on a city dump. Life at the very bottom of the pile with the poorest of poor blacks during the early years of the Great Depression. Mulvahey's prize find, a belt like white folk wear, squeezes the life from rapist and murderer, Jum Peters, self-appointed "Gawd" of the garbage dump. Pearl Norton Swet -The Medici Boots ( Weird Tales, Aug.-Sept. 1936). Suzanne breaks in her retro footwear by giving the kitten a good kicking before turning her attention to family and friends. Read it hereRichard Matheson - Dress Of White Silk: ( MFSF, Oct. 1951: Third From The Sun, 1962: Vamps, 1987, & Co.). Little girl tries on late mother's wedding gown with dire consequences for her playmate. Tanith Lee - The Unrequited Glove: ( Weird Tales, Summer 1988). International playboy Jason Drinkwood is driven to grisly despair by his mauve silk tormentor. The glove in question belongs to Alys Ashlin, a young artist he callously used and discarded once he'd tired of her. Fritz Leiber - The Glove: (Stuart David Schiff [ed], Whispers, 1977: Originally Whispers #6-7, 1975). A 65-year old alcoholic is raped in by a masked intruder in a ridiculous wig. Culprit is eventually fingered by his own grey glove. Thanks to Justin Marriott for suggesting the Hugh B. Cave story, and - any ideas about this one? - "a Mummy cross-over where someone steals the waist-coat of a mummy and is haunted by nightmarish visions." Do wigs - haunted or otherwise - count as clothing? If so: August Derleth - A Wig For Miss Devore: ( Weird Tales, May 1943: Peter Haining [ed.], The Hollywood Nightmare, 1970): "The wig was certainly a beautiful one - what difference did it make that it had a grisly, murderous past?"
|
|
|
Post by johnnymains on May 20, 2018 15:23:01 GMT
The Wrong Category - Ruth Rendell (The Fever Tree and other Stories, 1982)
Barry has taken to wandering round at night, looking at the sites where six blokes habe been killed.
Going into the Red Lion, his local, he stands at the bar and spots a young girl. But is everything as it seems? Contains gratuitous use of scarves.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on May 21, 2018 6:10:47 GMT
Speaking of whom. Ruth Rendell - Loopy: ( Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Feb. 1983: Graham Masterton [ed.], Scare Care, 1989). Christmas Pantomime at the Church Hall. Colin, resplendent in shaggy Big Bad Wolf costume improvised by his Mum, puts the willies up all comers. A. M. Burrage - The Green Scarf: ( The London Magazine, August 1926). Royalist fugitive Sir Peter Wellingford was executed by Parliamentarians in 1649, betrayed by a servant who waved a scarf from an upper window to let on the master was home. Cut to the early 1900s. Artist Audrey Vair invites a friend to spend a week at his new residence, Wellingford Hall. The latter inadvertently shakes the dust from the now blackened silk rag at the same window. Cromwell's men storm the premises. Edward Lucas White - The Pig-skin Belt: ( Lukundoo, 1927). Bucks a trend in that the belt in question serves as talisman to adventurer Cassius Case. The Colonel uses it to holster his pistols in readiness for attack from an Oriental demon which has stalked him across three continents. The evil spirit can take the form of any human or animal it so chooses. This makes life especially tricky for Miss Kenton, the love of Case's life, who is forever dodging silver bullets. M. P. Dare - The Haunted Drawers: ( Unholy Relics, 1947). Sadly, despite a most spirited performance from the female lead, Dare's mildly ribald chiller doesn't quite qualify.
|
|
|
Post by johnnymains on May 21, 2018 14:55:31 GMT
Would Angela Carter's 'The Tiger's Bride' (The Bloody Chamber, Gollancz, 1979) make the cut? I don't have the book anymore, but it's ringing a bell for spme reason.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on May 23, 2018 14:20:49 GMT
Mervyn Peake - Danse Macabre: (John Carnell [ed.] Science Fantasy, #61, Oct. 1963; John Carnell [ed.], Weird Shadows From Beyond, 1965). Each Friday night Harry's suit absconds from the wardrobe, glides out the window to keep tryst with a blue dress belonging to Harry's estranged wife. When the couple reunite, they unwisely attempt to prevent such strange goings on. Richard Laymon - The Fur Coat: (Richard T. Chizmar [ed.], The Earth Strikes Back: New Tales of Ecological Horror, 1994: Dreadful Tales, 2001). Janet's glad rags land her in extreme agro with a pair of sadistic animal rights militants. Gordon Chesson - Little Red Shoes: (Christine Campbell Thomson [ed.], Nightmare By Daylight, 1936). The dead woman's slippers dance a jig on cruel husband's face. Charles Birkin - The New Dress: ( Spawn Of Satan, 1970). Will THE NEW DRESS drive Bettina's lover to ecstasy - or to unspeakable horror?. It's taken all summer but Victor finally persuades fairground employee Bettina, 'Tarantella - The Incredible Spider Girl' Brackett to agree to a date. He can call around her parents' place on Sunday. She'll even wear her revealing new dress for the occasion!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 3, 2018 11:03:04 GMT
Mary Danby - Red Shoes: ( Party Pieces, 2012). Tina has a brand new pair of killer heels. Susan Shwartz - Cold Shoulder: (Josepha Sherman & Keith R. A. DeCandido (eds.) - Urban Nightmares, 1997). Romeo 'Football' star acts the gent, lends jersey to mystery girl who lives in the cemetery. Laura Resnick & Kathy Chwedyk - She of the Night: ( Urban Nightmares, 1997). Adam's demon wife don't care that he's shacked up with some new bit. She just wants her coat back. Shaun Jeffrey - Envy ( Voyeurs of Death, 2007). Vivian Murphy wears a unique designer dress to the première of her break-through movie, Simple Minds. She'll not be around to film a sequel. August Derleth- The Satin Mask: ( Weird Tales, Jan. 1936). "What weird doom made the wearing of the mask so deadly - a strange and eery story." Full face, yellow satin, red lips. It originally belonged to Princess Guarantano, a gift from a vengeful lover. The Princess duly died of a wasting illness, as have the two women who've since worn it, the latest being Monica Jannerlie's aunt. Monica, twenty-two, has been warned never to try on the cursed mask, but temptation proves too strong. Between them, the three victims victims drain her blood. There may well be enough haunted mask stories to warrant an anthology of their own - come to think of it, Martin & Rosalind Greenberg's Phantoms is damn close. They tend to have the same effect on the wearer as all those demoniacally possessed belts. And while we're accessorizing: John Halkin - Slither: (Hamlyn, 1980). Should you visit the village handicraft shop on Westport, best not to invest in a trendy worm-skin handbag .... Dulce Gray - The Fur Brooch: (Herbert Van Than [ed.], 7th Pan Book Of Horror Stories, 1966). Gaston LeRoux- The Woman With The Velvet Collar: ( Weird Tales, Oct. 1929: Peter Haining (ed.), Gaston LeRoux Bedside Companion, 1980) Garry Kilworth - The Silver Collar: (Ellen Datlow [ed.], Blood Is Not Enough, 1989). Required to fend off fiancée's blood-lust.
|
|
|
Post by ramseycampbell on Jun 4, 2018 12:30:28 GMT
Aickman's "Ravissante" isn't primarily about togs, but it does have an inimitably strange plunge into a drawer. Mind you, "The Residence at Whitminster" gives you a good reason not to open one.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 5, 2018 17:41:00 GMT
Aickman's "Ravissante" isn't primarily about togs, but it does have an inimitably strange plunge into a drawer. Mind you, "The Residence at Whitminster" gives you a good reason not to open one. It's come to something when even the furniture hates us. There are numerous examples of folk falling foul of supposedly "inanimate" objects (I can already feel another thread coming on). Who knows what they're thinking, the evil, static bastards! Meanwhile the ghastly garments are still up to no good. Richard Matheson - Clothes Make The Man: ( Worlds Beyond, Feb. 1951: The Shores Of Space, 1957). Charlie's best clothes take on a life of their own and run off with his wife. According to Miranda, they are infinitely more exciting in bed than he ever was. Adrian Cole - The Genuine Article: (Roger Elwood [ed.], The Berserkers, 1974). Clothes-conscious hippie invests in a Russian military coat for winter. Long dead previous owner wants it back. Ramsey Campbell - Old Clothes: (Charles L. Grant [ed.] Midnight, 1985: Waking Nightmares, 1991). Eric lifts the demoniacally possessed raincoat while performing a house clearance. The late occupier, a medium persecuted by an evil spirit which continues to fill the pockets with gifts plundered from the dead. A pickpocket among a crowd of football fans inadvertently takes the curse upon himself.
|
|
|
Post by helrunar on Jun 5, 2018 20:13:43 GMT
I know it's off topic, but the funniest story in Steve Coogan's 2001 miniseries Dr Terrible's House of Horrible is something called "And now the Fearing," which is a spoof of the Amicus film Vault of Horror (hmm, that title seems strangely familiar). And the funniest snippet in "Fearing" involves a killer Danish modern coffee table. I laugh every time I revisit that thing.
cheers, H.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 9, 2018 15:59:18 GMT
Hugh Walpole - Tarnhelm: ( All Souls Night, 1933). A skullcap brings out the beast in Uncle Robert. Neil Davies - Ribbons Of Blood: ( The Midnight Hour, 2007). Jane's new 'scarf' has antisocial tendencies. Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) - Dead Man's Shoes: ( Weird Tales, March 1946). Those who are stricken with that curious and terrible hallucination should be thankful - for it warns of something far more terrible.. Jack Sherman was supposedly shot dead by a "Jap" during the Aleutian conflict of 1942. His paratrooper boots walk the real killer off a cliff-top. Eric Linklater - Sealskin Trousers: ( Sealskin Trousers & Other Stories, 1947: Michael Sissons (ed.) - Masque Of The Red Death, 1964). Robust lower body-wear for the human pinniped.
|
|
|
Post by ripper on Jun 12, 2018 12:15:07 GMT
Is there room for Hand in Glove by Elizabeth Bowen? The two Miss Trevors are desperate to snare husbands, but when one of them only has a short time to entice a very eligible bachelor and he is repelled by the smell from her gloves at dances, what's a girl to do but steal the key to her dotty old aunt's trunk of clothes to "borrow" the pristine ones within...
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Jun 26, 2018 22:27:35 GMT
Rosemary Timperley - The Hat: (Mary Danby [ed.], Nightmares, 1983) .... and what happened when the old lady removed it. Jody Scott - Shirley Is No Longer with Us: (Jessica A. Salmonson [ed.], Windhaven #3, 1978: Jessica A. Salmonson [ed.], Tales By Moonlight II, 1989). Our heroine visits Bloomingdale's during lunch break to purchase a new bra. Perpetually trapped in the revolving doors, the store honour her memory with a commemorative plaque. Mike Lee - High Heels From Hell: (Nancy A. Collins & Edward E. Kramer [eds.] , Forbidden Acts, 1995). Teenage kicks all through the night for Irene and punk boyfriend. Kathe Koja - Bondage: ( Extremities, 1998). Sexually adventurous couple take turns to wear tight white leather face mask in bed. Nothing remotely exciting happens.
|
|