‘tis autumn

It is officially the girls and the gays favourite time of the year. Happy fall to all those who celebrate! Although it doesn’t officially start until the 22nd, spiritually it starts at the first sign of a crisp breeze. But I had my post ready sooner than I expected, so here we are a couple days early but, all the less, just in time! Hopefully you noticed the revamp of the website (no pun intended since the theme is vamp), just something fun for fall. I am already itching for the pink and black back though, not gonna lie. Anywho, it is the best stretch of the year, the ‘ber’ months, although July takes the crown for best month ;) Let’s talk about all things fall. A fall lookbook, if you will.

Fall has always been the best time of the year. Besides the weather and scenery being absolutely perfect, we get the PSL, iconic TV, and cute couture. And it has always been the most eventful time of year. Somehow, fall makes summer look like those thin books from the Scholastic fair with a grade 1 reading level. Being in school during fall has always been a good time, especially high school and although I honestly hated those years of my life, the fall semesters were always super fun. Harry Potter and Draco Tok was 2020, the return of high school from COVID lockdown was 2021, I went bonkers yet had the time of my life in 2022, first year uni in 2023, SWEAT tour in 2024, I perfectly encapsulated the inner Halloween vibes in 2025. And 2026 is looking very, very hopeful! Cannot say much since I am a firm believer speaking out into the universe is only going to rebound on me, but I am super excited for my final fall as an undergrad. There is A LOT planned.

Today’s blog is going to be about all things fall, as mentioned earlier. I’m talking autumnal staples, music to listen to when you feel that chill morning breeze, movies and tv to watch into the witching hours of the night, holiday hotspots, some more quizzes and mood boards, and for my fellow bookworms, some good fall reads for a rainy day. Of course, this is just my own perceptions and ideas of fall staples, I am very aware and have no doubts that I will be missing a bunch of important things. But, let’s get on with it. Also, have a bottle of vodka ready, take a shot every time I say fall or autumn.

Fall Staples

Now fall is undoubtedly the best time of the year for fashion. Weather that requires heavier clothing if you need it, but you’d be fine with shorts and a tee as well is amazing, even if we only get 2 full weeks of that perfection. Here are what I would consider to be fall staples. Dive into the ‘look’ that best suits you :)

If you like a chic look (let’s pretend that TikTok did not ruin that word please) …

A trench coat, bonus if it’s Burberry, but we are mostly baddies on a budget.
Burgundy or black ballerina flats.
A good pair of bootcut jeans, light or dark blue.
¾ tops are the moment right now.
Shrug shawl thingy’s.
Capris, never did I think we would see the day of their return.
Off-the-shoulder long sleeves.
Ditch the teeny purses for a medium-sized bag.

If you like a more witchy, vampiric look …

Lace tops, especially ones with bell sleeves.
Ruffle, ruffles and ruffles! Tops, I mean. The chips are good too, though.
Dr. Marten’s combat boots.
Leather heeled boots, bonus points if they are pointy at the tip.
Midi skirts, asymmetrical or symmetrical.
Black flare bottoms.
A fitted leather jacket.
Dark coloured turtlenecks.

If you like a classic fall look …

White and black wrap tops are a staple.
All manner of sweaters or cardigans, wool, cashmere, cotton, etc.
Suede and denim jackets are always a good idea.
Dark-wash jeans never fail.
A plaid or cashmere scarf.
Brown or black leather boots.
Uggs, the best.

If you like a downtown girl look …

Striped long sleeves, Brandy Melville style.
Baggy leather jacket, to protect you from the crisp breeze.
High-top converse, duh.
Henleys, in every color imaginable.
Baggy jeans or even flare bottoms.
A tote bag.
Doc Marten’s, specifically the Mary Janes.

Autumnal Music

Moving onto music, here are some of my favourite songs that I have curated into playlists, if you are like me and appreciate music recommendations. Even if you have Spotify (boo), you should be able to access the playlists, I believe Apple Music will give you 1 minute long snippets if you tap the album cover icon. If you like gut-wrenching, haunting, slightly depressing music, then you will like my taste

i put a spell on you: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/i-put-a-spell-on-you/pl.u-b3b8YWGuyvjX7VX
- Inspired by the spookiness of late October. Songs I would think about if I walked around a haunted castle in the wee hours of the night, in my nightgown while holding a candelabra. Think Mia Goth in Frankenstein, Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu, and Mia Wasikowska in Crimson Peak. Songs that give you a slight bodily chill.
- If you like Deftones, Massive Attack, Grimes, The Weeknd, and Nessa Barrett, this is probably up your alley.
true fall: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/true-fall/pl.u-RRbVLPWC310XMGX
- The most popular songs of fall. I put all the Tik Tok staples in here, probably missed about 50 of the good ones, but if you like the classics, this one is for you.
- It is truly a mixture of everything, no artists appear more than twice!
witchful thinking: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/witchful-thinking/pl.u-leylWZ6tj356Go6
- For all my sad music lovers, here is some perfection for long drives in the countryside as the leaves fall onto your windshield and your mind wanders like a winding road. Music with a hauntingly beautiful edge, so sad and solemn that you cannot help but love it. Songs that gut me from the inside out.
- If you like Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, Lorde and The Neighbourhood.
madelemoiselle’s fall. : https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/madelemoiselles-fall/pl.u-BNA6LBjT1PGob2o
- My personal fall favourites. This is of course the best playlist out of the four, totally not biased on that.
- My music is mainly Beach House, Deftones, Nessa Barrett, Arctic Monkeys, The Neighbourhood, The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey and Harry Styles.

What kind of autumn are you?

Now, my favourite part of fall is the makeover on my feeds. The transition from summer to autumnal this or that’s, pick your favourites, pick a day in the life, just everything about it is so fun. I made some fall moodboards to accompany the following quiz, as well as a this or that game. Let’s start with a quiz to find out what kind of autumn you are. The moodboard to accompany your answer is in A-E order throughout the post!

You wake up in the morning, to yet another beautiful, crisp, fall day. What is your ideal weather?
a. Foggy, with a hint of rain.
b. Blue skies with cold winds.
c. Sunny and a bright blue sky, with some heat.
d. Overcast skies.
e. Stormy and rainy weather.
You have to decide on the perfect outfit to wear. What is it?
a. A leather jacket with flats, an off the shoulder shirt, and capris.
b. A soft, white cashmere sweater, a brown mini or midi skirt, and some Frye boots.
c. A henley with your favourite pairs of jeans, converse, and your most worn in leather jacket.
d. A lace tank top with a long sleeve over top, jeans, and ballerina flats.
e. Anything that is all black or striped.
You go downstairs to make a drink. What is your go to?
a. An iced pumpkin chai.
b. A hot PSL, of course.
c. A salted caramel latte.
d. A piping hot London fog.
e. An iced Americano, black.
You go to greet your pet. What animal is it?
a. A fuzzy grey ragdoll cat.
b. A King Charles cavalier.
c. A golden retriever or lab.
d. A chocolate brown dachsund.
e. A black cat.
It is a solemn, rainy day. How do you spend your time?
a. The Big 3. Journaling, writing, and listening to music.
b. Baking some sweet treats, like cinnamon rolls, pumpkin loaves, jam cookies …
c. Watching all the best childhood Halloween movies.
d. Curled up with a good book beside the window.
e. Go for a walk in the rain with your music to your local coffee or crystal shop.
What would be your ideal autumnal day?
a. Going to a corn maze or orchard with friends, followed by coffee and walking around the shops of a small town.
b. Baking, followed by a potluck and a Harry Potter movie marathon with your besties.
c. Going to a pumpkin patch, taking too many IG pics, and then a farmer’s market to get some goodies.
d. Going to a quiet cafe or library to do some homework and browsing the shelves full of books.
e. Go to an apothecary or crystal shop, wandering through the forest followed by a picnic as the leaves fall around you.
What book do you choose to read when you get home?
a. Twilight
b. Pretty Little Liars
c. Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone
d. Wuthering Heights
e. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
You decided to bake a sweet treat to eat before bed. What did you make?
a. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream.
b. Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.
c. A pumpkin loaf, mmmm.
d. Chocolate chip banana bread.
e. Apple crumble, with some vanilla ice cream.
What do you do before you get ready for bed?
a. Journal a bit about your day, maybe some painting or drawing?
b. Have a self-care night, with a warm bath, skincare, and cozy pyjamas.
c. Watch one of your favourite Halloween movies with candles lit.
d. Read a classic novel by the candlelight.
e. Light some candles, pull out a tarot deck, and read till you fall asleep.
What movie do you choose to watch at night?
a. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
b. When Harry Met Sally
c. Hocus Pocus
d. Saltburn
e. Corpse Bride

Answers

Mostly A’s: You are a dark autumn. She’s romantic, a little mysterious, and loves the moodiness of fall. Think dark florals, leather, candles, rainy afternoons, and a slightly gothic edge. Your characters are Elena Gilbert, Aria Montgomery, and Bella Swan.

Mostly B’s. You are a light autumn. This is your cozy, feminine, Pinterest-fall girl. She loves baking, warm sweaters, PSLs, golden leaves, and making everything feel like a Hallmark movie. Your characters are Hanna Marin, Serena Vanderwoodsen, and Carrie Bradshaw.

Mostly C’s: You are a nostalgic 2000s autumn. You love all the classic flicks and TV shows like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, you name it. Your idea of a perfect fall is basically crawling under a blanket, putting on something you watched growing up, and pretending it’s 2009 again. Your characters are Lorelai Gilmore, Emily Fields, and Coraline Jones.

Mostly D’s: You are an academia autumn. This girl sees fall as back-to-school season. New notebooks, libraries, reading classics, studying in cafés, trench coats, rainy windows, and pretending she's the protagonist of an old novel. Your characters are Spencer Hastings, Rory Gilmore, Hermione Granger and Blair Waldorf.

Mostly E’s: You are a spooky autumn. Halloween is your time of year to thrive, doing all the activities you waited year long to do. She wants black cats, ghost stories, crystals, haunted houses, vampires, witches, cemeteries, horror movies, and walking around town at night when it's raining. Your characters are Lydia Deetz, Wednesday Addams, and Sabrina Spellman.

It is time for this or that! (It is in autoplay, so it will change every 5 seconds)

Fall Movies

Moving onto all the best movies! Those who truly know me know that I loveeee my Tim Burton movies. Or anything Halloween or gothic-romance related, it is my preferred genre. Here are some of my favourites, with a star beside my top 5’s.

Corpse Bride ⭐️
Bram Stoker’s Dracula ⭐️
Frankenstein
Beetlejuice 1&2
Dracula: A Love Tale
Sleepy Hollow
Nosferatu
The Twilight Saga
Harry Potter
Coraline ⭐️
Edward Scissorhands
Alice in Wonderland ⭐️
Monster High
Pratical Magic
Hocus Pocus
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Batman ⭐️
Crimson Peak

Fall TV Shows

Now, onto fall’s best TV shows. A lot of early 2000’s shows take place around this time of year, or they live in small towns which give the whole spooky, Halloween, supernatural and mysterious vibe that is so very October.

Sex & the City: Oddly this one is very autumnal vibes to me. A watch that every woman needs to do in her 20s at some point.
The Vampire Diaries: I only recently began watching this one, shockingly! Mystic Falls was made for fall. Also, who doesn’t love a vampire romance storyline?
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Only watch the first season, tbh. It gets super weird and has me clutching my cornuto, but it has perfect Halloween vibes.
Pretty Little Liars: In my opinion, the TV show is good the first couple seasons, it obviously got lost along the way, but it would have been 10x better if they followed the true storyline of the books.
Scream Queens: This one genuinely never fails to make me laugh, it is so stupid but that is what makes it so funny. Emma Roberts is TV gold.
Wednesday: Season 1 was my shit. I love a good murder mystery.
American Horror Story: Coven is peak. I need to watch some of the other seasons still but just know that Season 1 and 3 are good.
Riverdale: I do not even care, the first season is so damn good. Another show that got lost along the way but the small town murder mystery was so good.
Gossip Girl: Season 1 in November always hits the spot, scratches all the itches.
Euphoria Season 1: The timeline coincides with the ber months, September to December, so I always love to do a quick rewatch. Especially of the Halloween episode, literal throwback to high school.
Gilmore Girls: I do believe this to be a fall staple that everyone has to watch at some point. But do not hate me when I say I cannot stand any of the characters, especially Rory. She makes my teeth grind. It also got a bit boring at times.

Fall Drink Recipes

I know the majority love Starbucks at this time of year, but a lot of the drinks are super easy to make at home, especially since they have their creamer in grocery stores now. Although, I will be real asf, my lazy ass is just gonna go buy a coffee if I want it, I usually am not out here making crazy concoctions. But every single time I get a pumpkin chai I have a crippling headache from all the sugar, so I am trying not to spend my money there recently, as not only is it overly priced, but it also makes me feel like shit. They also discontinued the pumpkin loaf to replace it with mini pumpkin pies which I am MAD about, like please.

Now, I personally am kind of plain with my morning coffee, only recently have I started using creamer and it’s pretty good, it just gives a bit of oomph to my coffee but I will never turn my back on my espresso. I need a really concentrated and strong flavour of coffee, none of that double double bs. Also, I hate regular coffee it always tastes like dirt to me, so I am strict with my espresso which keeps my options limited, but anyway. Here are some recipes for at home coffees, from a former barista.

The Madelemoiselle Special (do not sleep on it, ik its boring)

Spoonful of cane sugar
2% Milk
Single shot of espresso
OPTIONAL: Splash of the original Silk creamer

The Madelemoiselle Fall Special

Same thing but pumpkin spice creamer instead.

Pumpkin Chai

Steep your own chai, Tazo makes an alright one, although I would use real masala chai if you want the good stuff.
Pumpkin Spice creamer, if you have a frother you can turn it into cold foam.
Your preferred milk!
Add as much or as little as you want, you’re the boss.

Salted Caramel Shaken Espresso

Double shot of espresso.
Your preferred milk.
A pump of salted caramel syrup, Monin seems to be the universal coffee shop syrup, I personally like it the best.

Line the cup with caramel and add a pump of the salted caramel. Add ice into a martini shaker, pour your double shot on top, and shake, shake, shake. Pour the now shaken espresso into your cup, then add in the milk and BOOM.

Book Recommendations

Here is my favourite part and probably where I lose most of the crowd because nobody reads anymore (I can’t get started on how sad this makes me). For my fellow bookworms, here are some of my favourite novels/series in general, but especially this time of year. Also, I love to talk about books so if you have read any of the following, I would die to chat it up with ANYONE. I only have two bookworm friends and we cannot keep up with all the different reads.

Pretty Little Liars by Sarah Shepherd: I cannot recommend this series enough! They give that early 2000s mysterious fall, high school vibe, heels to school, kilt and purses as backpacks. Even if you already watched the show, there are very few things in the books that actually coincide with it, it’ll be like you are reading a completely different story, one that is A LOT better.
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: Reading Twilight in September is peak vibes. A chilling deep romance, that gets stupider the older I get, while my hate for Edward grows deeper, but I still love it so much.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling: Personally my favourite of the entire series, I just love the fact that Voldy isn’t in it at all. The plot of an escaped prisoner hunting down Harry … such a good mystery, especially if you do not know the outcome.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu: The true foundation of vampire literature, sorry Bram. A very short story that is only 100 pages, but just so so so good.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: Honestly, it gives me more February/March vibes, but I think a fall read of this haunting love story would be just as good.
Dracula by Bram Stoker: It can be a touch confusing since it is written as letters, but worth it all the less. I found it easier to get into it after watching the movie.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: Such an emotionally complex and powerful story written by such a young woman, which makes it all the more inspiring. It is emotionally consuming.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare: This reminds me of fall 2021 in my homeroom English class, horrible times but vibes were always there. I truly did enjoy Shakespeare though, despite the obviously confusing lines and my classmates opinions on the matter.

My fall reading list …

ACOTAR 6 by Sarah J. Maas: I am practically foaming at the mouth waiting for this one to come out in late October. If we get Azriel’s POV, you will hear my cheers from around the world. If not, I may crash out.
Practical Magic: I hope that the book is as good as the movie!
Carrie by Stephen King: I am assuming it’s the movie with the prom queen, but I will go in blind. I have heard it’s good.

Best fall holiday spots …

Sleepy Hollow, New York
Salem, Massachussetts
Washington Coast
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
New York City, New York
London, England
Paris, France

Should we reminisce on some previous fall trends before we go? There must be something in the air, because it seems like 2020/2021 fall is making a comeback, starting with my beloved DracoTok, but older now. Never did I think I would live to see a revival, I only had to wait 6 years. As horrible as a time that was, falling into an obsession with Harry Potter in October 2020, reading all the books, sending edits to my friends of y/n finding out her secret admirer is Draco, Harry, or Cedric, was a fun time. I was 15 at the time, the perfect age to be experiencing that. Followed by Wattpad … I am so glad my teenage years consisted of that, as ‘weirdo’ as it may sound, I got to be a kid for longer than I was supposed to.

Sadly, it is time to come to a close, I think I may have wrote way too much. With that, fall is not only lovely because of everything that it consists of, but because of all the past memories that have come with it. All the fun moments and times to look back on and enjoy thinking of. Fall really will always be that girl. Also, I believe it is the beginning of the year in a hypothetical sense, rather than New Years, since it is the start of a new cycle. It is the time for a new routine, to say goodbye to the warmth of summer, yet the end of another season. Shedding off your skin and preparing for what the ‘new year’ brings you.

I am back to my university schedule, still trying to find a routine that fits in everything I need and want to do. Not that anyone cares, but I probably will not post as much for September. But, I did plan ahead for October and started all the posts extra early so that I can pump out lots of content for my favourite month of the year. Hopefully, this was a fun one, I really enjoyed making it and all the mood boards. I hope that I brought you all to a different world momentarily, one with a perfect autumn day, filled with orange and red leaves, nostalgic vibes and the warmth of a PSL. Happy fall solstice, hoping that this season brings you all the best vibes, the best coffees, and a fun Halloween, if you celebrate. See you on the next post, a post that will be a complete 360 from this. September 27th, save the date!