As I described in the post Die Legende Von Halle Von Ween (which I’d really recommend reading if this post is to make any sense to you at all), the true meaning of Halloween has been lost. I’ve unearthed some rare photos of Ween, the world famous clothing designer, the real inspiration for the holiday of Halloween. Enjoy.

The picture below is of Ween as a child with his family traipsing through the mountains outside of Meisterstadt, Germany. As you can see, his parents dressed all of his siblings alike. Ween did not much like this practice of homogenization and conformity. Ween’s parents are obviously trying to stamp out any individuality in their children. Ween, second from the left, seems to be smiling on the outside, but deep down, you can tell he’s hating life in this outfit. I mean, who wouldn’t? Is that a dress he’s wearing?

The garb that Ween and his siblings were forced to wear only gets worse. Look at these horrible, matching ensembles below. Ween, second from the left, is clearly displeased with his outfit. You can almost see on his face that he’s designing a new one in his head. This is where the seeds of discord where sewn. Ween was truly a visionary even this early on.

The next picture shows Ween as an adult carrying an underprivileged child to his mountaintop cape workshop, presumably for a cape fitting. The cape was Ween’s first big fashion success. It became quite the trend and everyone had to have one. Even if it meant financial penury for himself, Ween always supplied fashions to the local fashion-challenged children at no or low cost before offering them at high prices to his customers. He was philanthropic to the last. Sadly, even though Ween was so against uniformity in clothing stemming from his horribly-clothed childhood, his designs were so popular that he ended up creating uniformity in fashion anyway as can be seen in this picture with the capes. It saddened and frustrated Ween that success seemed to come with compromise. He ended by hating everyone who wore his clothes except for the children.

Next, we have Ween after his first fashion show, which was a triumphant success. This is when Ween really gained international acclaim. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the fashion show itself, but based on the looks on the faces of his devotees and Ween’s face, it must have been remarkable.

Below is the last known picture of Ween taken just after Halle Von Ween was opened in Meisterstadt to celebrate his life’s work. He died shortly after this picture was taken.

Halle Von Ween still exists today in Meisterstadt. For a small donation, one can walk around and see some of his most famous clothing designs. On display is the very first cape he ever made and some of his most famous creations like the feathered hat. No photography, please, but you can buy a lovely book of his designs in the giftshop.

All photos courtesy of Halle Von Ween, Meisterstadt, Germany. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

This post is part of The Well-Known Facts Series.